More about the Playschool...

In the previous post I shared about the classroom ambience for the age group of six months to three years. Many playschools do not have toddler classes but have a mixed age group classroom for one year to two years and two to three years. For example when we say one year and above, we could have one year and six months children, one year and two months children and so on. The grasping power varies even with these small differences in the months. The teachers must acknowledge this difference and should expect the same level of performance and must not pressurise the child in any way. For this class, the focus must be readiness activities or Alphabet, Numbers, shapes, colours, fruits recognition, paper tearing, colouring, paper sticking, joining the dots etc. These activities are for the development of motor development such as finger and hand control. Some games and outdoor play for physical development could be incorporated too. This is the phase when the child's development is very rapid and children's' retention ability for information is at its best.
The teaching aids become very important. For numbers and alphabets flashcards and charts could be used. Visual aids are an important part of the teaching here. For example, if a teacher is talking about a lion in complete detail but without a picture of a lion, the child might find it difficult to follow. This applies to all new topics such as the number charts, alphabets- both capitals and small etc.
The charts can be put up on the display boards on the wall. Some charts such as the number charts, alphabets charts can be put up permanently in the classroom as a staple. When the child sees the charts everyday in the class, it helps in repetitive learning.

The next age group class is with children of two to three years. This class can be a preparatory class as most of the formal schools begin admissions from three years onwards and have a fixed cut out date to specify age groups. This is to maintain uniformity in the ages of the children in the class. The formal schools begin with the Nursery class at the age of three years. Then, they move on to the Junior KG at four years and at five to Senior KG. Thus, the child spends up to three years in the playschool. Here the teachers who teach could focus on Vocabulary, information about the environment, general awareness, social skills through group activities such as dance, music, drama, sports. This helps the child at the time of the interview before joining the formal schools.

In Nursery class, there must not be any written work. But, writing readiness activities such as using crayons, coloring within the lines, pattern writing etc. and for reading readiness activities such as reading from flash cards, matching, join the dots, colouring the right objects, follow up worksheets etc. can be utilised. A small reader for reading exercise aimed at increasing vocabulary could be done. Now the next classroom is for the Nursery, Junior and Senior KG. Here the set up is formal and the number of children could be 35-40 in each class. The children will require individual tables and chairs and space for oral and floor activities. More details about this classroom ambience will be put up in my following post.

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The Toddler class ambience

After taking the first step by entering the playschool past the entrance, the next step a child takes is into the classroom. Except for the Toddler class all other classes like Nursery, Junior Kindergarten and Senior Kindergarten, have to leave the mother's company at the entrance and then onwards be on their own.

Toddler class room:
The Ambience of the Toddler class should be suitable for the age group. Most of the play schools run in shifts and also share the classroom. Now let us talk about the Toddler class where the age group is 6 months to a year. These kids do not need a formal décor like chairs and tables. Here all the activities are done by involving the mother with the child. Activities for motor control, eye-hand coordination, physical development, listening skills etc. are the focus. Small children need more space to manoeuvre around the class. That is why the "Toddler Class" should be carpeted with only a few equipment.  Here the child is accompanied by the mother and hence they can sit with the Toddler in a circle or a semi-circle, facing the teacher. Therefore, a part of the classroom should be devoid of furniture for the floor activities, oral activities such as poem recitation, story-telling even though the stories may not interest them much due to shorter attention span.

Indoor carpeted floor area

The physical movements are a must between two activities like simply moving in circles or changing their places. The other side of the classroom must be used for physical activities. Slides, Indoor Jungle gyms, light foam shapes with various colored leather cover could be kept in different ways for climbing activities, balancing and other motor and physical activities. Now a days we have plenty of options available for play materials that can help make the classroom look vibrant and attractive. The duration of the class for this age group should be about one hour only as younger children lose concentration and tire easily as well. Therefore, the timing for the play school and activities must be planned keeping in mind the child's feeding and sleeping time.

Foam material play area

Play area created out of light foam blocks

This classroom ambience can be shared with the next age group of one year to 2 years. The same ambience with the same furnitures can be used with few additions such as a table and chair for advanced activities like coloring, sorting, paper tearing and sticking. The toys and play material also should be upgraded as by now the child would have acquired some skills and better coordination and thus can perform on their own. There should not be more than twenty children in one classroom with two teachers. The larger group can be divided into smaller groups of ten children. While one group engages in floor play, the other group could be kept busy with activities such as coloring etc. The duration of this class can be one to one and a half hour.

Some suggested activities for this age group are thumb printing, palm printing, paper tearing, paper crimping, vegetable printing using Ladies finger for example, leaf printing and so forth. These activities along with many others can be found in the Activity set book "You can do".