Beyond the Journal • Young Children on the Web • May 2005
1
ENVIRONMENTS
M
Compiled by Susan Friedman
Environments
That Inspire
any classrooms offer fan-
tastic opportunities for
young children to explore,
learn, and grow, but in some
environments the expectations for learning
and development are especially clear. In
this piece we share photographs from a few
schools and centers across the country and
in overseas Department of Defense Depen-
dents schools (DoDDs). We asked directors
and teachers to share their thoughts on the
environments shown in the pictures. Each
setting is different, yet what they have in
common is the great care taken in creating
an environment that sets the stage for
learning and growing.
Burlington Little School, Seattle, Washington
Cindy Hayertz, Preschool teacher
Building with sticks
In our big yard we try to
re-create the feeling of
freedom children once had
when they would play
outdoors for hours on their
own. Our designated stick-
building area is very
popular. We keep our eye
on the area, but we try to
let the children work on
their own. The older
children do this well; the
four-year-olds need teacher
assistance now and then.
We installed several
bracers to make a sturdy
starting point for children’s
stick creations. The
children work together to
create incredible struc-
tures. We offer other materials they can use in their buildings—cloths,
strings of beads, boughs from fir trees with the greens still on them.
A group of girls created the structure in this photo and used it in their
dramatic play about fairies. Adding cloths and beads encourages the
girls to build with the sticks as well. It’s not just for the boys.
Sometimes people ask us if letting the children build with sticks is
safe. We have an excellent teacher-to-child ratio so we can really
supervise the area. We cut off the smaller branches from large sticks
so that children won’t get poked. We have
used these sticks for years, and the children
have never had more than a minor mishap.
Beautiful places
Children deserve beau