Kindergarten is usually considered a home away from home. However, it is not as simple as it used to be and now the planning that goes into factors like curriculum, resources, exposures and training for teachers is much more complex and well thought out. Among other areas that are given great importance, the classroom layout is also becoming increasingly important. Along with planning and following the school curriculum, teachers also have to be adept at planning the classroom layout.
In a Kindergarten classroom, there are certain must haves like proper furniture to work on, height appropriate storage, safety features, enough resources, good books and interesting and dynamic material to work with. A well prepared classroom can be a boost to learning, whereas an unorganized classroom can hinder a childҀs learning.
Every class has average learners, learners who require extra help and learned who require extra challenges. These children, those who need to be provided with extra challenges, are gifted learners and they often get lost in the drudgery of doing the same things as everyone else. This leads to disinterest, distraction and sometimes misbehavior.
To help enhance their learning, a teacher needs to set up the classroom such that the gifted learners can move ahead with interesting work, at times independently, and achieve his or her full potential.
Creating learning centers specific to subjects or skills like an рArt CornerҀ, рMath CenterҀ, рReading CornerҀ and such will allow the child to take up independent work while the others are completing group activities like coloring, etc. At the Art Corner, gifted children can represent their learning in through Art and internalize what they have seen and hear during a lesson. Academic specific centers like for Math, Language, Science, etc., one or more gifted children can work individually or play board games, have discussions and share information.
While arranging classroom furniture, gifted children can also be made to sit sometime with other children of similar learning abilities and sometimes with children who are average learners as this encourages peer learning and helps children cross small learning hurdles. This also results in social interactions and developing friendships within the classroom.
Children who thrive well under extra challenges may be seated in a quiet corner in the classroom for independent activities while the rest of the class sits with the teacher away from that part for group time. This way, if the teacher keeps an eye on that child, the class does not distract that child and neither does the child feel like he/she is not part of something interesting going on in the class.
Along with the layout of the room, availability of challenging hands on material is very important to help the child progress while also understanding and assessing the childҀs growth. For example, if the class is learning to name numbers and count pegs up till 20, then the teacher must have higher numbers along with more pegs ready and available for the gifted learners to work with.
Above all, encouragement and appreciation of what the child does, whether or not he is a gifted learner can be the best motivation for all learners to overcome their learning difficulties and explore challenges.
About the author: Rebecca is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on environment and technology. Beside this she is fond of books. She recently bought a book on Supplements in food. These days she is busy in writing an article on Tablet Computers.
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