What should a preschool classroom look like according to research? - Part 2
Welcome back to part 2 of our preschool series. If you missed part one, you can read about it in the previous post. I shared a lot about the power of play and the international body of research that makes up the importance of play. Read The Power of Play by Dr. Rachel White if you want to dig even deeper.
Now that we understand the power of open play in the preschool or “maternelle” classroom, let's examine what materials and set-ups allow for successful play in the classroom.
Ideally there should be a wide range of materials in the classroom that facilitate open play experiences. We can furnish our classrooms with a home/kitchen area for pretending, small world play sets (the farm, dollhouse, jungle scene) for telling and retelling stories, and a wide range of puzzles for children to master. To take open play a step further we have to consider open-ended materials too. These are items that invite many ways to play. For example, blocks, legos/duplo, fabrics or play silks, magna tiles, figurines, playdoh, sticks, etc. The common thread being that they do not have a predetermined use. They are open to what the children want to create with them and they leave space for possibility.
Some refer to open ended materials as "loose parts", which means that these pieces (tiles, buttons, sticks, cubes, scarves) can be used in many different ways - they can be moved, combined, redesigned, lined up, taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. Several studies have explored the benefits of outdoor loose parts play within early years settings, finding a wide range of cognitive and socio-emotional benefits, including happiness at school, social benefits and enhanced exploratory, creative and dramatic play (Spencer et al, 2019; Gibson, Cornell, Gill, 2017). The concept of loose parts is for all ages, but bear in mind safety concerns of small loose parts with the littlest learners.
In addition to open-ended materials, play-rich classrooms are also set up for process-based experiences. A process-based experience is when the experience of creating holds more learning than the final product. For example, an art experience that is process based prioritizes the experience of creating, experimenting and expressing oneself as opposed to the final product. Product based activities often look like teacher directed activities, which are many times visually appealing and can make for adorable decorations, (think little handprint turkeys or thumbprint families), however, their focus is on the final product (and not the learning itself). Look for your child to also be engaged in process-led experiences such as painting with different kinds of materials (brushes, rollers, sticks, cars, hands), playdough play enhanced with pieces like sticks, animals, or googly eyes, 'mark making' with a wide variety of utensils (pencils, markers, pens, colored pencils, paint pens, large markers, whiteboard markers, chalk). The experimentation behind these experiences is critical to your child developing the scientific sense of cause and effect, the literary sense of creating a mark that holds meaning even when they leave the space (a major concept!), and the artistic sense to try out what materials can do (McLennan, 2010).
Now we've got the concepts of open play and the materials to facilitate it, how do we set-up these experiences? Creating engaging play spaces, whether at home or at school, is a practice in being intentional with what you expect children to do with the materials.
If I set-up my classroom with a box of cars on the floor alongside long pipes or tubes, the invitation is for the children to experiment with the velocity of the cars going through the tubs. This science objective may or not be met in this instance, as it depends on what the children do with the materials, but that is my intention.
If I lay out an architecture book of tall buildings alongside the block area or construction materials, the invitation is for the children to experiment with building tall towers and thus start, or potentially continue, a conversation about stability, structures, shapes, or measurement.
If children are working towards identifying numerals or matching numerals to quantities, I can lay out numerals cards with a basket of loose parts. My intention is for the children to count out quantities and match them to the numeral cards, though depending on their age or maturity this may be an activity for a teacher to work alongside a student. If students are familiar with this task already, it can be an opportunity for teachers to observe students work independently and verify their level of understanding.
Being intentional when we create inviting spaces for children to engage with open materials in open play experiences is something that I could go on about for days. But we'll stop here for today, though we aren't done yet! We've got a third and final installment in our preschool/maternelle series to share with you in the coming weeks where we'll talk about activities and experiences to authentically engage preschool aged children and the importance of adults asking thought-provoking questions. See you there!
Resources:
I made a unicorn! Open ended play with blocks and simple materials
Citations:
Gibson JL, Cornell M, Gill T. A systematic review of research into the impact of loose parts play on children's cognitive, social and emotional development. Sch Ment Health. 2017;9:295–309.
Hamilton L. (2014). Early exposure to storybooks in the home: Validation of title/author checklist measures in a sample of children at elevated risk of reading difficulty. Assessment & development matters, 6(1), 31–34.
McLennan, Deanna. (2010). Process or Product? The Argument for Aesthetic Exploration in the Early Years. Early Childhood Education Journal. 38. 81-85. 10.1007/s10643-010-0411-3.
Spencer, R. A., Joshi, N., Branje, K., McIsaac, J. D., Cawley, J., Rehman, L., Kirk, S. F., & Stone, M. (2019). Educator perceptions on the benefits and challenges of loose parts play in the outdoor environments of childcare centres. AIMS public health, 6(4), 461–476. https://doi.org/10.3934/publichealth.2019.4.461
White, R. (2012). The Power of Play: Minnesota Children's Museum.
Jessica Lament is cofounder of School Partners, a boutique non profit organization that provides professional development, instructional coaching, and school leadership coaching for educators in and out of schools in the Paris area.