Page 17 - School Planning & Management, April 2017

5 Building Blocks of Early Childhood Design
Creating a Student-Centered Environment.
by Charles Tyler, AIA, LEED-AP, and Carla Remenschneider, RID, IIDA
exclusively sensory learners,” says Gabri- ella Rowe, head of school at The Village School in Houston, Texas. “They learn through experiences like taste, smell and touch. The simple act of tasting the differ- ence between sweet and sour food creates new pathways in the brain.”
According to Rowe, designing for sensory learning means focusing on the student experience. “Build some nooks,” she says. “Maybe it’s a little garden. Maybe it’s a science corner. Maybe it’s a simple window with a view to the outside world. Teachers will take advantage of these spaces and students will love them.” Creativity is key when it comes to designing for the student experience. At the new West Point Elementary School, lo- cated on the West Point Military Academy in New York, early childhood spaces are designed with kitchen hubs in each neigh- borhood. These cozy areas are perfect for snack time, while allowing children to observe food as it is being cooked. Hard counter tops and durable flooring let students participate in food preparation, without fear of making a mess.
Sensory development in young children also has significant implica- tions for the scale of learning environ- ments. “Don’t put a small child in a large space,” says Rowe. “From a sensory standpoint, it is impossible for a small child to tell where the walls are in a big space. They need smaller spaces to truly understand their environment.”
Creating smaller spaces often flies in the face of limited budgets. In school construction, straight lines are less expensive; angles and curves cost more. If you are on a tight budget, consider breaking down the space through a variety of seating options or through floor patterns that create visual nooks and gathering spaces. Even these small investments make a big impact.
2MOVEMENT —Movementisthesecond building block of a great early childhood environment. The energy shown by young students is incredible to behold. But accord- ing to research, young children aren’t just moving to move; they’re moving to learn.
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FOR HUMAN BEINGS, learning is
as fundamental as life itself. From the moment we are born up through age three, our brains create 700 new neural connections each second. A quality edu- cation during early childhood is proven to have life-long benefits, academic achievement being chief among these.
But while early childhood education im- pacts life-long learning, the ways we learn change dramatically over time. The fact is, early childhood students are in a very differ- ent stage of development compared to their elementary school peers. And the different ways young students learn demand a very different type of learning environment — one built on the foundational elements of: Sensory Learning, Movement, Imagination, Nature and Empathy.
1 SENSORY LEARNING — In the rush to prepare children for success in kindergar- ten, we too often turn our preschools and early learning centers into mini elemen- tary schools. However, simply providing smaller tables and chairs meets only a few of our youngest learners’ needs.
“From ages zero to three, children are
Active Learning. High-quality outdoor learning spaces are exceptionally important to early childhood education.
Placemaking. Scale is important, even outdoors. Create spaces to give every student a sense of place.
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PHOTOS BY G. LYON PHOTOGRAPHY