The environment is the third teacher.

Early childhood is defined as the period from birth to compulsory primary school age. It is the time of remarkable growth and important milestones in brain development. During this stage, children are highly influenced by the environment and the people that surround them. (Unesco 2020)

In early childhood, children are highly influenced by the environment and the people that surround them.

That being said, it is good to assess/reassess how the learning environments are set up to support children's learning. The learning environment should take the whole child in consideration - social, emotional, cultural, linguistic, physical, and cognitive side - and provide activities in all those aspects.

To do this, you can for example include activity areas that offer opportunities for both hands-on, play-based learning and developmentally appropriate instruction of academic skills. Activity areas should invite children to inquire, explore, test, discover, and engage in play and learning.

Even if the learning areas are full of inspiring, changing, and varied materials, the basic daily schedule should remain the same from day to day. The daily schedule can be supported by routines and carefully planned transitions so that the day is a smooth and well-managed ensemble.

What is Finnish Early Childhood Education?

Examples of Activity areas in the learning environment

Presented originally in Community Playthings - Supporting high quality early learning:

• Block Center

A block area that houses a full set of wooden unit blocks arranged by size and shape in low open shelving that clearly demarcates where each block should be stored;

• Math/Manipulative Center

A math/manipulative area that offers a variety of materials including puzzles, small blocks, Legos, games, tiles, geoboards, attribute blocks, and other hands-on materials that foster children’s thinking and problem-solving skills and support the development of math (counting, operations, numbers, measurement, geometry)

• Art area

An art area that offers different types of paper and drawing materials (crayons, markers, etc.), as well as paste or glue, scissors, stamps, watercolors, pastels, and tempera paints and brushes, an easel or table available for a large painting, collage and construction materials, and other assorted materials such as playdough and clay.

• Science area

A science area that includes magnifying glass(es), sand/water table, possibly animals (guinea pigs, snails, mealworms), and other natural items (eg. plants, rocks, shells, leaves...) depending on the time of the year, current topic, or interests of the children in the classroom. Within this area, children should be given time to experiment with measuring, counting, pouring, and making predictions.

How to assess the quality of the learning environments?

Provide the best early childhood education experience with Kindiedays Preschool Apps

• Children reach their full potential with playful learning based on world-leading research from Finland.
• Educators observe, document, and assess learning goals intuitively, allowing them to pay more attention to the children.
• Parents follow their children’s progress online, appreciating their preschool’s excellent care and pedagogical standards.
• Preschools adhere to government policies that promote portfolio learning and formative assessment.
• Preschools are able to market themselves as high-quality service providers.

Don't set the bar any lower. Your children deserve it!

Kindiedays offers 3 different kinds of solutions: Starter, Portfolio, and Premium. Read more about them below:

Kindiedays Starter

Start documenting learning moments and collaborating with families

Kindiedys Starter is a compact solution to support children's learning and engage families. This is a perfect way to start using Kindiedays with your center.

With Kindiedays starter you:

• Document children's learning with notes, photos, and videos.
• Use automatically-collected portfolios to develop learning.
• Engage families and show evidence of children's learning.
• Run communication between educators and families in a secure channel.
• Record attendance and utilize versatile attendance statistics.
• Spend less time on paperwork.

You can upgrade later to Kindiedays Portfolio with all your data maintained.

Kindiedays Portfolio

Use a leading-edge tool for documenting and assessing children's learning

Kindiedays Portfolio is a highly flexible digital solution for implementing your own curriculum and a high-class learning process. Inspired by Finnish best practices and based on portfolio learning and formative assessment.

With Kindiedays Portfolio you:

A successful experience in school is not only about report cards.

- Jessica Lahey

Very young children are naturally interested in learning and exploring the world around them. They are at the very beginning of their learning journey, so everything is new and exciting! If they reach out and fall, they get up again stronger and wiser - children learn by trying, testing, and making mistakes.

According to Jessica Lahey at New York Times, when children enter kindergarten some parents and teachers begin to unbalance this learning process by devaluing and replacing it by focusing on the results of learning. This means that the children's inner motivators such as natural curiosity, competence, and self-efficacy are valued less than external motivators such as stickers, points, and grades. Unfortunately, external motivators lower children’s desire to learn over a longer period of time.

Are you spending too much time and money on non-teaching activities, manual documentation, and inefficient communication? Don't you have enough time to consider each child's needs?

Early childhood education should offer an inspiring and fun start to lifelong learning.  Your educators want to be successful and be the champions they deserve to be. Your children's families are eager to know what is going on at the childcare center. Your preschool wants to provide the best education and care in the area.

A change is required to meet the challenges. In this blog, we want to share our views from Kindiedays. And provide some advice on how to make the improvements in a pragmatic way.

So what is the secret behind a successful childcare center?

A successful early childhood education and care center has 3 guiding principles:

• Support children's learning
• Engage families
• Secure success for the preschool

The change concerns all the daily activities between teachers, children, and parents. We should reimagine how the goals can be achieved by working smarter - not harder - and with the help of new technology. 

Sounds challenging - but it is actually straightforward

Whatever your starting point is, you should take these 4 steps:

1. Set the pedagogical objectives for children's learning.

2. Plan the lessons to match the objectives, taking children's interests into account.

3. Observe and document the learning moments and engage families.

4. Assess and reflect on the learning and plan future learning.

How to set the goals and plan the lessons?

Sensory play in early childhood is important for overall health and well-being. It forms the foundation of a child’s learning and perception - a base for later learning.

Babies start discovering the world around them primarily with their senses (touching, tasting, hearing, seeing, and smelling). Babies look at bright colors or lights, grasp their carer's fingers or hair, and put everything in their mouths. Learning through the five senses is beneficial even during the preschool and elementary school years.

“Sensory play is the foundation for all higher-level learning. Every time you engage the sensory system, you’re creating neural connections, which is good for complex development.”                 - Stephanie Swinburne Occupational Therapist

Children learn about the different forms of expression by using multiple senses.

“For a small child, discussion and verbal learning have little educative power without actual experience. Learning rather happens through all the sensory channels. Children must live through, explore, and try things out to attach meaning to them”    - H. Hendrick

How to support sensory development?

The best way to support children's sensory development is through sensory play! Sensory play is anything that involves the use of one or several senses: touching, tasting, hearing, seeing, or smelling. Engaging the senses in play helps to develop motor skills, self-regulation, and sensory integration—and it is also fun!

Here are some concrete tips for sensory play activities that you can do with young children. The activities will help children to develop and fine-tune their sensory and motor skills, as well as to promote their creativity and emotional well-being.

How Kindiedays works?

Sensory play ideas!

1. DIY SNOW FOR SENSORY PLAY

Baking soda and shaving cream. Mix together 1 pound of baking soda and slowly add shaving cream until you reach the perfect snowy consistency. Let children knead the DIY snow with their hands until it is all combined.

or

Baking soda and hair conditioner. For this recipe, use white conditioner so your DIY snow looks similar to real snow. Start with 1/2 cup of conditioner, and use a fork to stir in about 3 cups of baking soda. This snow packs very well and is great for making mini snowmen!

What are Kindiedays Lesson Plans?

Psst. Bonus tips for DIY snow!

+ Add essential oils (eg. peppermint oil) to stimulate the sense of smelling.

+ Put the snow in the freezer to make it cold and stimulate the sense of touching a bit more.

+ Play with animals that live in cold conditions (polar bears, penguins...) and stimulate the sense of hearing by imitating the animal sounds.

2. ZIPLOG BAG SENSORY ACTIVITY

Make a sensory ziplog bag activity by filling a ziplog bag with liquid (water or juice) and other little but safe items of your choice. Ziplog bags are suitable for children over 12 months of age.

Once ready, you can tape the ziplog bag on the table, on the floor on the window. Make sure that the bag is fully sealed and use safe materials to fill it, as water and food coloring. Children can explore the bag by touching it and looking at it how the liquid moves inside.

More Ziplog bag sensory ideas from 'Hands on as we grow' blog here.

3. SOUND WALK

Take the children out for a walk and ask them to listen to all the sounds around them. Everyone can have their own printable and mark which sounds they have heard. The printable has pictures that help children to identify the corresponding sound. Download the free Buggy&Buddy 'What do you hear outside?' printable here. 

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