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How to Create a Quality Preschool Classroom In Your Home Daycare

After completing the college class, Introduction to early childhood in 2002, I was inspired to make changes to my preschool environment in my home.

In fact, I made majored changes to my preschool program and changed the name of my business. The former name of my daycare was, Morgan Daycare and in 2001 I decided to change the name to Learning Days.

I was also inspired to create this post, because many home providers have submitted the question, ” How do I set-up a preschool environment in my home daycare.”

Setting up centers or play areas in my home daycare was the start of a new experience for the preschoolers in my program. Moreover, after I set-up a quality preschool environment, I noticed that parents would refer to my program as a  ” school” instead of daycare.

In this post I am going to share with you the centers that I created for the children in my home, what I used to set-up the centers and the materials that was added to each area. Please do not feel as if you must go out and spend thousands of dollars to create a preschool classroom. In fact, you may already have what you need. Just keep this in mind, “It’s not what you have, it’s what you do with what you have.

The Art Center

You will need a shelf that is child height that includes the following items: construction paper, paint, crayons, scissors, markers, white paper, yarn, scraps, glue, paint smocks or old shirts, play doh and newspaper/magazines for cutting.

Science Center

The science area could be set-up on a table, a shelf or even in crate. The following items are great to add to the science center: rocks, leaves, soil, magnifying glass, feathers, tree branches, plant to water, photos of the weather, etc.

Dramatic Play

This is the most popular center among children.  You will need a shelf  or Cubby drawers for this area. Add the following items to your dramatic play area to assure an enriching  experience: Dress up clothes, dress up shoes, dolls, play food or real food boxes, canned goods, table, small chairs, telephone, cook books, aprons, used kitchen play set, etc. Many items that you add to the dramatic play area are already in your home or you can pick-up at a garage sale.

Reading Corner

Be sure to make this a cozy quiet place for kids to look at books and relax. You will need a book shelf or use crates to display books. Add puppets, an area rug, bean bags and pillows.

Math or Manipulative

This center is a must to assure that children develop fine motor and math skills. You will need a table or shelf. In this area, add a few puzzles, table toys, lacing toys, table blocks, peg boards, home-made games, board games,etc.

Block Area

The block area also is a very popular center in the preschool world. You will need a shelf to display wooden, plastic and cardboard blocks. Add a run in front of the shelf. You may want to add cars, toy people, road signs, trucks to enhance the block play.

Sensory Play

This is one of my favorite center, because it gets messy, lol!  You can go out and buy a sensory table at your local walmart or use two dish pails to fill with water or sand. After you fill the table with water or sand, be sure to add large bowls, spoons and cups to encourage the children to scoop, dig, pour and measure. If you choose to use dish pails, simply place them on a child size table and explore the water or the sand.

I recommend that you add one center at a time and introduce each center, by talking about it with the preschoolers at group time. You must encourage the children to help you to keep the centers organized by cleaning up before moving on to another center. Be sure to plan to rotate and add new materials to each center every other week to prevent the children from getting bored with the materials.

If you are concerned about space, only set-up 3-5 center choices at a time and rotate the centers that are available throughout the day.

Moreover, it is vital that you  define each center, by adding a label on the wall near the play area or on the shelf/table. Download signs, here.

I look forward to hearing your feedback about this blog post and your progress with setting-up your centers in your home daycare!

Shiketa

Category:

Family Child Care, How To, preschool, Quality Care

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Observation in Your Preschool Program

Observation is a vital part of assessing the preschoolers in your program. I first discovered the importance of observation when I was enrolled in the childcare field base program here in St.Louis through the local community college.

Observation is simply writing down the behaviors that you see in your environment.

If you happen to  be very experienced at recording observations this blog post may simply be a refresher coarse of what you may already know about child observation.

If you are not experienced at writing observations or not sure why it should be a vital part of your preschool program, this post will walk you through the process and how you can use observations to assess the children in your preschool program. Furthermore at the end of the post, I have attached links to more observation resources.

Here is an example of what an observation of two preschoolers in the Block Area:

It is 9:30am and Johnny and Karen are playing in the block area. Johnny was building in the block area alone. Karen walked over and asked, can I play? Johnny yelled…”NO!” Karen walked  away crying.

After reading the observation above, what did you discover about both children? I am going to guess that you discovered an opportunity to encourage kindness and friendship. Also, an opportunity to encourage Karen to use her words and to teach Johnny to share.

Moreover, the observation above could be used as an inspiration to read books about being kind to our friends and promoting sharing in the play areas.

You may have come to other conclusions, However, I just wanted to give a brief overview of why observation is so important in preschool and how it allows you to determine what the children in your care really needs.

When I hire new teachers, they usually ask me, how often do I expect them to record observations. I tell simply them to record as many observations as they desire, because the more that you observe young children; the more  you will discover about their developmental needs.

Just in case you are a home provider or your teachers may complain about the paper work, I would like to share with you how I make the observation process in my center easy and convenient.

  • Carry sticky notes in your pocket
  • Have observation forms copied and already labeled with each child’s name on a clip board in the classroom.
  • Record the classroom for 30 minutes a day and then go back and write down the observations on paper
  • If you have a digital camera system, use the camera system as an observation and training tool for staff

I hope that you have been inspired to use observation in your preschool program. If you are already using observation tools, keep up the good work!

Here are some child observation resources:

Forms for Observation

Guidelines for Preschool Learning Experiences Free e-book!

Learning Through Child Observation Free e-book!

Child Profile Observation Form

 

To Your Success in the Business Of Child Care,

Shiketa

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I want to help you to Succeed!! Feel free to email your childcare business questions to me at childcarenews@aol.com.

Category:

Assessment, Child Care Center, Family Child Care, Lesson Planning, preschool, Quality Care

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