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CHCPR510A: Design, implement and evaluate programs and care routines for children

Develop appropriate settings and environments

Contents

Introduction 3

Evaluate settings, environments and resources and modify to foster all aspects of children’s development and learning 4

Settings 4

Evaluation guidelines 6

Implement modifications within constraints of resources available and service location and to promote the organisation and aesthetics 15

Suggestions for modifications 15

2 Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCPR510A: Reader LO 9399 © NSW DET 2010

Introduction

Make sure you watch the video. Here is the transcript — what the carers are saying.

Quality child care can make an enormous difference to a child’s development. But what makes a centre one of quality? Ultimately, what distinguishes a quality centre from a sub-standard one is whether the children’s needs are being met—ie, their physical, social, psychological/emotional needs.

What are the aspects of care that will meet these needs? The key aspects would include the quality or nature of the following:

carers (warm and caring, skilful and knowledgeable) programs (eg good nutrition, preventative health care, skilful monitoring

of child development, services for children with a disability, etc) relationships (between carer and children, carer and families and carer

and community) child-staff ratio safety settings and environment.

Let’s look at setting and environments.

Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCPR510A: Reader LO 9399 3© NSW DET 2010

Evaluate settings, environments and resources and modify to foster all aspects of children’s development and learning

The importance of the environment in a children’s centre must not be under-estimated. The environment has a tremendous impact on their development. We can ask the question: Do the work spaces, play spaces, learning spaces, personal spaces meet the developmental needs and requirements of the child? Do they help the child grow and learn?

To be able to evaluate a centre’s environment and resources—to see how ell it is meeting the children’s development and learning, you will need to be equipped with the following knowledge:

child development stages (social, emotional/psychological and physical) where each child at your centre is at in their development each child’s needs and interests and family/cultural background how the environment and resources can enhance the children’s

development and meet their need. Children need the opportunity to practise and extend their skills in each area of development throughout the day.

SettingsIf you have access to a centre, have a good look around and identify the various areas that are used for the different activities or for different purposes. Then identify the resources and design of each area—and comment on how these support children’s participation in activities. Also comment on the ambiance.

The various settings within a children’s centre might include the ones below, most of which can be indoors or outdoors under the shade.

art area areas for dramatic play reading areas areas for music, movement/dance


sand pit (outdoor) science center pet area (or a number of areas for, say, a terrarium, an aquarium, etc) area for water play (outdoor) area for ‘messy’ crafts and carpentry play kitchen area blocks area play area with natural vegetation garden (eg with flowers, herbs and vegetables) outdoor play area—with play equipment

Like indoor areas, the outdoor play area needs to provide a variety of developmentally appropriate activities.

Here are some settings:

Self-exploration area Safe, quite area

Construction area 1 Construction area 2

Outdoor area 1 Outdoor area 2


Evaluation guidelinesWhat do we evaluate? Basically, we need to evaluate how well the settings, resources and environments of each area in our centre achieves these three goals:

foster the children’s development provide the children with choices relate to their interests as well as cultures and family backgrounds.

Then, if we find that these goals are not being met, we will need to modify the settings, resources and environments so they do.

Let us look at a number of the areas that we have in a children’s centre— and some questions we could ask as we make our evaluation of them.

Play area with vegetationHow did you spend your leisure time when you were a child? Did you spend a lot time in front of the television—or did you run around outside a lot? You have probably observed that children, generally, are now more sedentary—they spend much of their time indoors, often in front of a computer, television, or videogame. In metropolitan areas, what once used to be used as outdoor play spaces are being replaced by buildings.

Children spend a lot of time in children’s centres—and while they are in our care, we can, to an extent, make up for the nature deficit by making sure they spend some time outdoors—playing in a natural environment.

Outdoor area

Ideally a children’s centre should have vegetation. Not all centres will have enough land for this, especially those centres in the inner-city. The NSW Children’s Services Regulations 2004, decree how much space each service requires per child both inside and outside. This has been deemed to be the minimum amount of space necessary to provide quality care. Many services are


built only to the minimum space requirements and so need to think creatively about how to use this space the most effectively.

So the challenge is to be creative in the space that you’ve got. There are ways in which you could create some vegetation. There might be a corner where you can plant a few herbs and flowers and even shrubs. Get the older children to help you find out about different plants—and to dig the ground and place the plant in. then, get them to water the plants. In other words, rather than developing special areas ourselves, it would be more fun to be developing them with the children.

Remember, that if you work in a metropolitan centre, you would have children who live in unit blocks or in homes with very small backyards. Children love the outdoors, as rule, and when this outdoor environment has a lot of natural vegetation, there’s always something there to attract them. Imagine, discovering a ladybug on a leaf, watching butterflies as they flit from plant to plant and lizards darting about from rock to rock.Remember that respect for nature and a love for the outdoors can be developed very early in life—when children have good experiences in a natural environment.

Below are a few questions to get you started on your evaluation of your outdoor area.

SafetyIs it safe? Safety is paramount so be always carry out an inspection every day before the children arrive. You could create a checklist of hazards to look out for. Look out, for instance, for plants such as asthma weed that some children may be allergic to.

Opportunity for children to manipulate resourcesCan children manipulate things here? Children love to create and improvise, eg draw in the dirt and build things out of stones, leaves, flowers seeds and twigs. Can they gather these things in the environment?

Opportunity for children to exploreCan they explore? Children enjoy discovering things and so even if the space is not very big, they can still discover things—eg the new leaves of a plant or something new they can create with the same materials.

Special places of intimacyAre there nooks or spaces that they can squeeze into with safety? Children love the intimacy of small partly-enclosed spaces where they can ‘hide’ on their own or with a playmate or two. Children to hang sheets over shrubs or the overhanging


branches of a tree to create an intimate enclosure. You could leave a basket of sheets and other props around when the children are outside playing.

Can the children have input into a ‘special place’? A special place could be a tiny part of any area, including the outdoor area, eg behind a shrub, where children can go to feel a sense of quiet and intimacy. You, as carer, can encourage children to create a number of special places. They could plant a few flowers behind their special shrub, for example. If their special place is a tree, they could hang ornaments they have made out of natural materials.

SuggestionsEncourage children to feel a sense of belonging with nature and this can be done in a number of way, eg by allowing them free play in the outdoor area or to plant and/or water saplings in the garden.

Apart from free play, you could help them collect and handle various things from nature such as seeds, leafs and stones. Encourage them to talk about textures, shapes and colours and even compare the weight and lengths of various objects.


Art area

Art area

There are so many reasons why art is an important part of the children’s daily activities at a centre. To begin with, it allows children to create and to express themselves—and human beings derive great satisfaction and sense of achievement in this way. Art awakens the senses—children’s brains are stimulated as they explore colours and shapes—and how, for example, pressing more firmly with a crayon produces a stronger colour. Art, like music and dance, can have a very soothing effect on children, if they are angry—it allows them to express pent-up anger. It also can be a form of communication—an older child from an under=privileged background who has not developed the skills of verbal communication, for example, may be able to communicate through art (as through music or dance).

Art can improve hand=eye co-ordination. You probably can add to this list of the benefits of art.

Below are a few questions to get you thinking about how you would evaluate an art centre.

Range of resourcesIs there a range of resources? Include not just the usual tools such as crayons and paint. Consider including other tools and materials but make sure they are non-toxic, and safe for children under three, eg beetroot juice that children can make handprints with. Include items that children can use as stencils, eg round bangles and triangular pieces of cardboard. There can be other shapes aside from triangles—how about star shapes and octagons? Also include natural materials that the children can collect either at the centre or at home—eg pieces of bark, items used by their families.

Creating new things out of the oldAre children encouraged to use recycle items as part of their art? It’s never too early to imbue a sense of awareness of environmental responsibility in children. The children will love the challenge of using their imagination to create new things out of the old.


Objects from the children’s home and cultural backgroundAre there objects that the children can focus on? Include objects that the children are familiar with as well as ones they may never have seen before. Consider objects from the children’s culture.

Suggestions for modifications Display the art that children make throughout the centre. This will show

them that you value their creation and it will also give them a sense of belonging to the centre.

Encourage them to think creatively of how they might use a single material, eg the inner cylinder of a toilet roll.

Start a collection of items that made of recycled materials or materials found in mature. Invite families to add to the collection.

Areas for dramatic play

Area for dramatic play

Creative activity is not just important for children’s social and emotion development—it can also be a lot of fun. One of the types of creative activity for children is creative play—and this includes dress-ups and role-play.

Dramatic play can take place anywhere—and it can be self-directed as well as facilitated by a carer. When self-directed, It can take place at anytime during the day when there is ‘free time’. Children will be nourished emotionally when they can participate in dramatic play—that’s spontaneous and self-directed.

Remember, play is children’s work—and it is serious work. So make sure that your centre’s resources and environment encourage them to freely take part in this serious business. From infancy, derives not just joy but also serious benefits from dramatic play—physical, sensory and emotional.

Dramatic play helps children understand their world— they can freely experiment with social roles and, in the process, gain an understanding of these roles. They learn to put themselves into other people’s shoes. When children participate in dramatic play with other children, they also learn to take each other's needs into


account and to appreciate that others may have perspectives quite different from theirs.

Dress-up and dramatic play can take place in a designated area (eg a corner complete with a box of resources and perhaps even a full-length mirror) or in any area of the centre—in the garden, for example. These changes in settings can add an exciting dimension. You will, however, need one area where you keep all your resources.

Below are a few questions you could ask to evaluate the area for dramatic play.

Setting to encourage dramatic playIs the centre is set up in such a way as to encourage children to participate in creative play? For example, can they just spontaneously wander into a corner where you’ve placed a box of dress-up resources, don on a scarf or a hat and play a role?

Resources to reflect children’s cultural backgroundDo the resources for dramatic play can include items from the children’s home? If it does not, then encourage the children and families to bring items from home, eg old items of clothing, hats, scarves and so on for dress-ups.

Are some of these items associated with or used by their culture? If not, ask the families if they have any cultural items that they could part with, eg signs written in their home language, posters featuring scenes from their home country and so on. These posters can be used for backgrounds. Your centre might also consider purchasing some traditional musical instruments such as Aboriginal clapping sticks and so on.

Resources that reflect society’s diversityDo the centre’s resources reflect the diversity in the world? Remember that our world is one made up of many different people from different walks of life, different cultures, different backgrounds, different abilities, different family groupings, different opinions and values and different experiences. Not only are these differences displayed in the wider world but also within cities, towns and smaller communities and within our children’s services. Not having families from different ethnic backgrounds within our services does not mean we no longer have to worry about including diversity in our environments and settings.

Opportunities for children to manipulate resourcesDo some of the resources allow children to use familiar materials in a new or unusual ways? Remember that while store-bought props can be useful and do


have a place in creative play, they should be kept to a minimum as they tend to spell everything out to the child. A child needs to learn that not all items can ‘do something’. There are many more items that don’t actually do anything—they have to use their imagination to get it to do something or to represent something. Your resource cupboards need to be filled with such items that can be used in a number of ways—and the children need to have this array of items to give them choice and fuel their imagination.

Suggestions for modifications Make sure that there is a diverse range of resources so that the children

can dress up in a number of different roles. Try to take the children to an actual play. If that’s not possible, try to bring

the theatre to them. Try to stage a play. Get the older children to take parts (but make sure

that the dialogue is not too complicated for them). The younger ones could also take part—eg as the chorus or as dancers. You could be the narrator. Incorporate some music and dance.

Reading areas

Reading area

As carers, we can imbue young children with a love of books. When we start reading to them, we can make it seem like a great adventure—going into the various characters’ lives. We do not just read the words on a page, we can examine the pictures and talk about them and relate them to their own experiences. Once children see, with your encouragement, that a book opens up a whole magical world, their interest will be whetted and soon they will learn that the ‘marks’ on the page actually stand for words.

Remember that reading does not have to take place in one area only—like dramatic play, reading can be enjoyed in various parts of the centre, including, of course, any cosy or ‘special places’ that the children, themselves, have created.

Generally, it’s a good idea to have the majority of books in the same area as consistency is vital in the early childhood environment; children need to be able to find the book they were reading yesterday so they can continue reading. However, some unpredictability is not altogether negative—it can inject an


element of surprise, for example, to suddenly discover a small pile of ‘new’ books in, say, the area where there are blocks and other toys.

Does the reading area in your centre foster children’s love for books? Here are a few questions you could ask to evaluate your centre’s reading area.

Comfortable places for reading Are there comfortable places set aside where a carer can read to

children? If the reading is one-to-one, is there a cosy and quiet place where both the child and the carer can be comfortable?

If the carer is reading to a group of children, is everyone seated comfortably and can everyone see the pictures in the book when the carer holds the book up?

Can the children lie down comfortably or recline on a sofa or bean bag while listening?

Is there a place set aside for children who want to sit quietly on their own with a book? Is there a bookshelf nearby for when they want to get another book to read?

Many books—and incorporated in many places Are there many books? Are there books in many places around the

centre? Remember that although you might have a designated library area, it is a good idea to place some books throughout the centre—for when children want to stop whatever activity they’re doing to pick up a book.

Are books are reading incorporated into all areas of the centre? For example, are there interesting posters with words on the walls—and are these replaced regularly to maintain the children’s interest? Do the posters relate to the children’s lives? You could encourage parents to bring in posters of places or things that the children are familiar with or you could try to obtain these yourself. These posters could include places in the home country or home state and culture various children’s families.

Using people as resources (custodians of knowledge) Do resources include ‘human’ resources—in other words, does the centre

sometimes invite families and other community members in to talk to the children about something they have learnt in a book that the carer had read them? For example, after reading a story set 50 years ago, you could invite a grandmother or grandfather to talk about some aspect of their lives when they were little.


Accessibility of books Are there board books with colourful pictures stored on low shelves

within easy reach of every child, including even babies and toddlers? Are there book shelves stocked with interesting books that the older

children can easily access—whenever they want to? Are these books always the same books—or are books rotated so that children can derive excitement from discovering a book they had never seen before? You could pack away some books and then bring them out again a few months later.

Always a new book to discover Is there a display of books (particularly newly-acquired ones) to create

interest? Are these books replaced regularly with other books? Remember, that newly-acquired books do not have to be brand new (libraries, school fetes and op shops often sell good quality books).

Diversity and anti-bias in books Does the library include a range of books? Are there books to meet the

varying interests of the individual children? Does the library avoid books that reinforce bias—eg stereotypes about woman and people of other cultures? Are the books at various levels of difficulty? Are there audio books as well? Do you have books depicting various types of family structures? Do some of the characters in the books have a disability—and are they portrayed in a non=stereotypical way? Do you have books that portray people who live in Australia as well as other countries—and are from various socio-economic backgrounds?

Activity 1


Implement modifications within constraints of resources available and service location and to promote the organisation and aesthetics

Suggestions for modificationsHere are some suggestions for ensuring resources relate to children’s interests, culture and family background:

Make sure that you provide a range of books of various subject matters. Also find out what each child’s interests are—and obtain books that relate to these interests and that will expand this interest. However, also obtain books that are outside the interests you have identified to encourage them to develop their interests in other things.

Include books about children (and others) from all over the world—including, of course, people who look like the children at your centre. Books need to show cultural activities and artefacts that the children are familiar with as well as those they are not familiar with.

After reading a book about children in a particular culture, try to show an interesting film or try to extend the learning activity, for example, by obtaining some of the traditional food from that culture for the children to eat or traditional artefacts that they can handle or use.

Here a few suggestions for modifying your settings, resources and environments:

Remove any books that portray stereotypes of culture and gender or disability. Or, if you choose not to remove them, make sure there are books depicting the non-stereotypical images of the same groups of people. With the older children, talk about how people are individuals.

Always find out what other interests the children have developed and obtain books to cater for these interests. Remember that children develop new interests all the time.

Activity 2

Activity 3

Activity 4


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