YOU MAY NOT CARE FOR THIS ONE, BUT:
There is a lot of information floating around about early education classroom design. There are hundreds of blogs, websites, and articles that show photos of classrooms designed like imaginary lands of enchantment with hanging strings of holiday lights and boughs of branches artistically placed to create an aura of wonder and fantasy as if the room will be inhabited by little elves and pixies working as shoemakers and giggling in whispery voices.
Two of the absolute best of these sites is Fairy Dust Teaching, which, in spite of its sort of ethereal name, is one of the most practical and best research-based sites for early learning I have found, and Stimulating Learning from Rachel. Both are outstanding in their advice on developmentally appropriate practice and suggestions for the use of natural, raw materials in preschool environments. I often share their posts with teachers I train.
BUT – While some of these environments are absolutely beautiful and I would love to live this way myself, LET’S GET REAL. We do not live or teach in the kingdom of Pinterest or in Never Never Land. The classroom environment must be inviting and attractive and provocative (in the Reggio Emilia sense of the word) to THE CHILDREN, not to our adult interpretation of the child’s interests and preferences.
In the US, we rely far too much on Walt Disney and our favorite school supply catalogue for primary colored plastic furniture and Winnie the Pooh decor. We also overdo it in the amount of ‘stuff’ we display for the children. In the UK (where I’m beginning to think the local fire codes are fairly lax) they seem to make more use of natural and raw materials and the shelves hold a quite modest amount of equipment and materials.
Either way, it is not for our own or the parents’ eye that we should be designing the physical environment. It is for the children. Look at your room from their perspective and observe how they use the space and the materials. Arrange furniture for practical use. Stop somewhere between the US and the UK (mid-Atlantic Ocean, maybe) and create spaces in which the children’s work and words cover the walls, not Walt’s; spaces that are safe and follow all your local fire codes; spaces that use natural, raw materials but aren’t staged like a production of Lord of the Rings.
An old local tv commercial in Orlando, FL, had a gangly, bald-headed man who used to come out of his store and say, ‘TIRES AIN’T PRETTY!’, but he used to sell a LOT of tires. Classrooms do not have to be princess-pretty. They need to be safe, practical, and appealing to little girls and boys who need to move freely; taste, smell, touch, hear, and see stuff; mess with stuff; build, break, and rebuild with stuff; pretend with raw stuff; and express themselves in Reggio’s 100 languages
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Teach 'Em the Way They Learn 