Giesell Hernandez

October 7, 2018
-Physical Environment

1. School: Early Childhood Education Lab School Telephone: (702) 651-4004

2. Teacher: Susan Age/grade level: Pre-k
3. Number of Children: 9
4. List all of the centers and the number of children each center can accommodate:
 Art center – 5
 Dramatic play area - 5
 Reading center- 5
 Building center - 3
 Science center - 4
 Music center – 5
5. On a separate page. Draw a floor plan of the classroom with each center Identified.
1) Arrangement of physical space
a. Centers were clearly defined, there were at least five centers that had been used,
including the cozy area protected from active play. The teachers could adequately
supervise all children visually.
b. Space is in good repair, there were no hazards that the children could hurt themselves
with.
c. Spaces had been cleaned as well, so that children weren’t able to trip over them while
walking.
d. Quiet and noisy areas were both separated, from one another not just by the furniture
that was used but also by the physical space.
e. No dead space

2) Learning materials, equipment and furniture

a. There was ample furniture for routine care, play and learning such as building blocks,
dramatic play, reading and art. All of these items each had their own center so that
other children wouldn’t crowd others.
b. Routine care furniture is convenient of use.
c. About half of the display is related to current interests of the children in the group,
and one can easily tell what children’s interests are, or what they are discussing.
d. There is enough equipment to interest the child and keep them involved actively.

3) Storage of materials and equipment

a. Each center had their items on shelves organized with name tags identifying what it
was.
b. Each item was put in their right place art stuff went with the art stuff, dramatic play
stuff went with the dramatic play stuff and blocks went with the blocks.
c. Each child would clean up after themselves if they didn’t want to play with that item
anymore and put it back where it was supposed to go.
d. They had their own cubby’s, it was neatly organized to where they were able to
access their personal items easily.

4) Other elements of physical environment.

a. Some direct natural lighting through windows and skylights.
b. Most indoor surfaces are durable and easy to clean and maintain.

6. Describe and evaluate how the teacher represented the issue of diversity in the
physical environment
The teacher had rules on the wall about being respectful, kind and helpful to others. She
also had different areas that displayed family photos of classmates and their family, they
had a birthday chart and different places around the world in which the child could
possibly be from.
7. Write a detailed observation of the classroom in action. Focus on how the room
arrangement influences the children’s social interactions and children’s use of the
room and its materials. If you observe k-2 grade, you must observe at a time when
the child has the greatest free use of the classroom.

Students had been sitting down in circle time waiting for instructions from the teacher,
after she was done instructing she gave the students free time to play in the centers.
Children automatically went to play with the wood blocks and they were individually
building their own stuff. There was no interaction between the children. Another group of
children were coloring, and one teacher was engaging in coloring with them.
There was also a child who wanted to be by herself in the reading area, she stayed up
there and laid down reading her book, while the rest of the other students played in each
center. Some children chose to do dramatic play and build so they would switch centers
every few minutes. They were all engaging with each other one pretending he was a dog,
and building a dog house made of big wooden blocks. The other was pretending to cook,
and one was playing dress up and putting on hats, and tutus. There was a teacher in each
center engaging with the students.
8b. write an evaluation of the room arrangement based on what you observed.
From what I observed each student liked a certain type of center and they would go to that
center, the room arrangement made it easy for them to identify which center it was. For
example, there was the Dramatic Play area which clearly identified it was the dramatic play
area, it was welcoming for the children and they were able to get to where they needed to go
in that area.
8. Write and overall evaluation of the learning environment

I think that their learning environment was very safe for them to be able to do the things
they wanted to do when it came to their free play time. They were able to get to where
they needed to go instead of it being unsafe for the child.

9a. rating: 4 out of 5 stars

9b. strengths and weaknesses: The science area was the weakness since the children
were not interested in that area, they had not touched the sand box. The strengths was the
way that the room had been arranged, to where everything else had been out for the
children to see and play with such as the block center they had been displayed in the
center of the room where children could easily play with them.
9c. improvements: I think that they could improve better in adding more to their science
area instead of just having a sandbox in one area in the room.