Leonard and Madlyn Abramson
Early Childhood
Education Community

Learning Environment

"A good early education experience can teach children not only academic knowledge and skills, but it can shape their attitudes, dispositions, and habits regarding learning, and influence their social and emotional development."

Karen Shulman
National Institute for Early Education Research

Parents shop around for the best preschool. At what should they be looking? Certainly parents should look at the teachers and how they interact with the children. They should look at the children to see if they are happy, relaxed, engaged. They should be looking carefully at something else that is often overlooked: The room arrangement.

The environment has been called the third teacher.(1) As such, the environment should receive the same scrutiny that a teacher receives before he or she is hired. What are the values and knowledge of the people who designed the space? What messages does the environment send regarding the type of learning that takes place within it or the value that is placed on children as responsible learners? Does the room convey the message that the adults have thoughtfully arranged it to encourage children to make choices, to collaborate with each other to construct their learning, and to feel that they belong to a community?

Some of the greatest skills of the teachers are called into play before the children ever enter the room. When a room is arranged into learning centers, the arrangement encourages children to explore and to make choices. Optimal learning takes place in an environment that offers high-involvement, real-life, hands-on experiences. Learning centers provide experience with problem solving and imagination. Children get experience with symbolic representation (reading) and classification, sorting, matching and seriating (math) as they pretend and build. They develop the fine motor skills necessary for writing when they paint, play with play dough, and manipulate table toys.

A thoughtfully planned environment has materials at a child's level, so that the child does not have to depend on the teacher to make choices. The shelves are labeled with pictures and shapes, so that even the activity of cleaning up is a matching and sorting learning activity. Space is arranged to indicate the type of activity level and the number of children that can work within it. There is evidence of the room being a child's space - pictures and labels are at the child's eye level, children's contributions are evident around the room. The room is print-rich, displaying labels all around, even in different languages. Children have multiple opportunities to learn that print has a purpose - books, catalogs, journals. They are encouraged to label their creations.

A well-designed room is arranged with traffic patterns in mind. There is no open space to encourage running. Furniture should not be lining the perimeter of the room. Learning centers that have the same type of play should be near each other. Each learning center is protected by placement of furniture and shelving to prevent unnecessary interruptions. Each center can accommodate only a certain number of children at a time, so that children can focus on the activity. Most learning takes place in small groups, rather than with the whole group at once.

The schedule reflects a predictable pattern. There is a balance of quiet and active play.

In general all preschool rooms, regardless of age should have the following learning centers:

• Dramatic Play
• Blocks
• Reading Area
• Table Toys
• Art
• Science/Observation

In such an environment children can use various approaches to learning, thus stimulating multiple intelligences.

A Jewish preschool also reflects Jewish values. The environment in the Preschool at TBI helps children develop their blossoming Jewish identities. The labels around the room are in English and Hebrew. There are Jewish artifacts in the rooms: mezzuzot, candle sticks, challah covers, Kiddush cups, hanukkiot, Jewish books and evidence of holiday observances. Our culture's concern for aesthetics, comfort, and peace are reflected in the classroom environment. The importance of study, of learning together, of questioning, and sharing ideas is evident. There are comfortable spaces to curl up with a book or listen to music. The space and procedures for eating reflect that this, a most favorite activity, is treated with joy and respect.

Lyndall Miller, a master Jewish educator, writes, "The noise level is often high, but it is noise that comes from interest and thoughtful argument." She asks, "Do we set up spaces in our classrooms that strongly encourage sharing, learning and exploration? Are the voices of instruction mainly those of the adults, or do we hear children helping and working with peers as they struggle to find answers to their questions?" Lyndall goes on to emphasize that, "We want children to hear from every part of their classroom that they are valued, that there are Jewish ways of interacting with the world that can be very meaningful for them, and that they are in control of the ways that they choose to integrate these into their own identities."(2)

The Preschool environment at TBI contributes to the foundation for success in school and in the larger community. I invite you to stop by and see for yourself how the Preschool at TBI conveys these important messages to the children and their parents.

Eileen S. Kupersmith, M.Ed
Preschool Director


(1) Lella Gandini. "The Story and Foundation of the Reggio Emilia Approach."

(2) Lyndall Miller. " Outer Space, Inner Space; Possible Effects of Jewish Environments on Identity Development." (Lyndall Miller is the Coordinator of the Gratz College Online Certificate in Jewish Early Childhood Education. She is also a Program Consultant in the Early Childhood Dept. of the Jewish Community Centers Assoc. of North America.)