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The role of environment on early childhood development
The role of environment on early childhood development
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A developmentally appropriate environment is very important in a Kindergarten classroom. To begin with, developmentally, there needs to be things in a classroom that will improve the skills the children have and teach them new ones. For example, books. There needs to be easy books, like from preschool books for the children to read then some book that are a bit harder. Something that would not be developmentally appropriate would be a chapter book. Another thing that is developmentally appropriate is the size of the furniture in the classroom. Children need the right height for their desks and toilets that they don’t need help to use. Another thing to think about is centers for center time. “Play” time is important in a kindergarten day and
The Child Development Center of College of San Mateo provides early care and educational programs for children between the ages of 3 to 5 years old. Children are divided into classrooms with a “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two or three “associate” teachers. Klara attended Classroom, “A,” a stimulating and well-resourced classroom. Klara was observed for two hours on Monday from 9 am to 11 am and for two hours on Wednesday from 9 am to 11 am. During these two hours, classroom activities consisted of “free time,” “story time,” and an outside “play time.” A “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two “associate” teachers were present during observations. Additionally, a total of eighteen children were in attendance during the observed days.
In kindergarten, there has been a significant decrease in the amount of playtime and an increase in time spent learning mathematics and reading. Activities previously common in kindergarten, such as story time and arts and crafts are being replaced with worksheets and reading groups. The number of tests administered to children in preschool has increased as well. Children are tested as often as every 10 days to track their progress.
get along with other kids, and to share, and color in the lines. In Kindergarten
Having a safe and healthy childcare setting is one of the most important duties in a daycare. Educators practising good healthy procedures is a good way for children to learn about healthy choices as educators are, good role models.
Preschool isn't just a place for parents to drop off their children while they are at work for the day. It is in preschool where children learn the necessary skills needed to succeed in school and in life. With high-quality preschools and qualified teachers the possibilities are endless. It's not only the children who reap the benefits of Early Childhood Education; their parents, fellow peers, and even society feel the positive effects of quality preschool programs. Children enrolled in quality preschool programs are more likely to succeed academically and socially when they are older.
Overall my time in this preschool classroom met all of my expectations based on best practices. I feel that on a typical day when it is the primary teacher or teachers, the room meets the expectations of best practice, NAEYC, ECERS and state standards. Once meeting the teacher, you are able to tell that she is up to date on her research and theories about children and early childhood education. The teacher truly cares about the children, their education and their future.
As a teacher in early childhood development, I believe that the teacher skills and personality influence how children understand, observe and react to the classroom environment and the world around them. Even though part of teacher responsibilities are academic, daily interactions that encourage social, emotional and physical development are important. One of a quality effective early childhood educators’ characteristic is that they should have patience.
The early childhood program environment should look and feel welcoming for all children and should reflect the diverse world in which we live. As an educator I can contribute to promote culturally safe and respectful environment by
At preschool, they become exposed to numbers, letters, and shapes. And, more important, they learn how to socialize -- get along with other children, share, contribute to circle time."
The environment of the classroom is important because is a social place where children have to feel secure so they can become part of the lesson and for the lesson to succeed. The classroom is organized and the students are in their individual desks respectfully listening to the teachers lecture and following along. The students look
There are many different areas that one must focus on as they are attempting to create a developmentally appropriate curriculum for young children. All of these aspects are equally important to the learning process. Therefore, it is imperative that we as teachers take the process of planning this curriculum very seriously. Not only is it important that we understand the basic guidelines for a lesson plan, we also need to be knowledgeable of the developmental and learning theories as well. These theories will help us to understand the way a child learns mentally and physically. Once we fully understand the concepts of early education we can then take them to the classroom and apply them to our students.
All children should enter school ready to learn. In order for children to be ready for school at Kindergarten, the critical building blocks of Healthy Development, Strong Families, and Early Learning need be put in place during early childhood.
Entering my kindergarten teaching experience in the last quarter of school year I had to quickly become familiar with kindergarten content standards and the school’s curriculum. To do this I observed my mentor teachers instructional time with the children and gained as much information as I could about the children’s educational standing by developing a professional relationship with the my mentor teacher and the children. I learned that the majority of my kindergarten children had not previously attended preschool and that this was their first year of school. I found that interacting with the children in social activities provided me with great insight to their literacy, math, science, and social studies development. In reviewing the children’s class projects, school displays, and an array of their work sample along with my mentor teachers year-long assessments I was able to recognize challenging, emerging and advanced content areas of the children’s core curriculum. These emerging and challenging content areas is what I centered my curriculum planning around. “Information about each child’s learning and development is used to evaluate teaching effectiveness. This may lead to changes in schedule, curriculum and teaching strategies, room set up, resources, and so on.” (Bredekamp and Copple, p. 249)
The distinction between nature versus nurture or even environment versus heredity leads to the question of: does the direct environment or the nature surrounding an adolescent directly influence acts of delinquency, later progressing further into more radical crimes such as murder or psychotic manifestation, or is it directly linked to the hereditary traits and genes passed down from that individual adolescent’s biological parents? To answer this question one must first understand the difference between nature, nurture, environment, and heredity. Nurture, broken down further into environment, is defined as various external or environmental factors one is exposed to which can be more specifically broken down into social and physical aspects. Nature, itself broken down into heredity, is defined as the genetics and the individual characteristics in one’s personality or even human nature.
In the study of child development, nature and nurture are two essential concepts that immensely influence future abilities and characteristics of developing children. Nature refers to the genetically obtained characteristics and abilities that influence development while nurture refers to the surrounding environmental conditions that influence development. Without one or the other, a child may not develop some important skills, such as communication and walking. The roles of physiological and psychological needs in a person’s life are also crucial for developing children. Humanistic psychologist, Abraham Maslow, suggested that humans don’t only aim towards survival, but also aim towards self-actualization (Rathus, P. 94).