Learning Centers (LC’s) are the actual locations of the materials children use in learning. Learning Methods (LM’s) are the ways children have of processing and organizing information into learning.

LC’s are for storing stuff; LM’s are for documenting how learning happens.

Preschool classrooms are traditionally arranged by LC’s that are titled, labeled, and based on the “subjects to be taught”. They are thought of as specifically designated areas of a preschool classroom in which learning experiences are offered.  The LC system is helpful for the purposes of storage and display of materials, it does give teachers and children a sense of order and a way to build skills of logic, reasoning, matching, sorting, and comparing during cleanup, and it is a way of organizing the children’s movement through the day, assuring that each child will engage in a variety of experiences (part of the “whole child” philosophy of education.

The most widely used method has been to designate a Center to each of the Learning Fields: (Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Language-Literacy – which may include a Library and/or a Listening Center – Math, Science, Social Studies – which may include both Blocks/Trucks and Home – and Art).  Some teachers prefer a more specific designation to include differences in the developmental levels of their children (a Writing or Kindergarten Center for four and five-year-olds or Tummy Time Center for infants and babies).

I believe that the strength expectations (standards, milestones, objectives, whatever you call them) are so interrelated and so ingrained in the purposeful play experiences in every area of the program, that LC’s should be used just for material storage and traffic control, but not for experience (‘lesson’, if you must) planning.

Organize with LC’s, but Lesson Plan with LM’s – All of the Strengths of Body, Mind, and Spirit are gained through Purposeful Play through these Learning Methods: Movement, Sensory Exploration, Manipulation, Construction, Role Play, and Self-Expression. Rather than designing Lesson Plans that show WHERE the children will learn, I think a good plan should show WHAT specific skills will be gained and HOW the learning will happen. Lesson Plans need to tell parents what experiences will be offered to gain specific strengths through these learning methods.

But I Gotta’ Have My Centers! – OK, if you feel most comfortable with designated Learning Centers, please use common sense in their arrangement and placement (quiet v. noisy and messy next to sink) and creativity in their naming. Labelling them is a good literacy builder, but the best literacy builder of all is this:

PUT BOOKS AND WORDS IN EVERY CENTER, EVEN THE PLAYGROUND!!!!

YES!  The playground is a Learning Center – Movement is not only free play time or “recess”. Please allow freedom in free play playground time, but it must also be seen as a time of guided and supervised muscle and brain building experiences. Teachers must interact with children here just as in the classroom.  Bring blocks and books and balls to the playground.  Use other areas of your facility/campus for gross motor experiences too – yards, big indoor areas, and hallways can be used for active learn-while-you-play experiences. There is a great debate currently about the term “recess”. All reputable experts in child development, brain growth, and pediatrics agree that All children under the age of eight MUST have child-chosen free play outdoors when possible, EVERY DAY. This physical freedom of movement, unplanned by curricular aspects, is an absolute necessity for health, learning, and behavior.

Next Blog: Other LC’s