3 Trends for Early-Childhood Classrooms

(from EDspaces Insights) New perspectives could be reshaping the aesthetic of early-childhood classrooms beyond the bright colors, area rugs, and shelves stacked high with learning materials that have dominated for decades. With millions of young students spending many hours a day in these settings, the emerging thinking recognizes the classroom environment as "the third teacher." Three trends are emerging as a result.

1. Linking classroom to community. Place-based education is the process of using the local community and environment as a starting point for teaching academic and social-emotional concepts to young children. Traditional arts are one strategy for promoting a sense of connection to the local community — for instance, offering children the opportunity to learn from someone in the neighborhood how to make baskets, press flowers, do wood-carving, etc.
2. Providing authentic play spaces. Examples of authentic objects include real items from kitchens — actual pots and pans, not toys — as well as framed images of natural elements from the local community, from flora and fauna to topography, animals and even actual neighbors.
3. Naturalizing children's spaces. When it's hard to get outside to play in the mud or search for seashells, schools can bring the outside in. Let children gather pinecones, acorns, twigs, sea grass, pine boughs, tree bark, river rocks etc. to give them a connection to their neighborhood and a sense of belonging.