How to built a perfect Kindergarten (Play school)
Design the best kids pre-school involves recognition their rights to play as well as learning.
“If you go to some kindergartens, their playgrounds are covered in plastic, everything’s flat, and there’s no challenge in their life. Maybe the children feel safe there when they’re small, but they’ve lost the chance to learn as they grow up.”
The best-designed pre-school for children would comprise three inter-locking elements: intergenerational spaces, life-long learning (linking early years education with the world of work), and putting special educational needs at the heart of learning, to create whole communities of learners.
The first idea is perhaps best captured in the work of Seattle’s, where a preschool for under-fives is located in an elder care facility. Five days a week, come together for a variety of planned activities such as music, dancing, art, lunch, storytelling or just visiting. Most interestingly, the parents of the students have said they don’t send their children primarily for the experience with older people, but because they appreciate the quality of the learning that is fostered by this unusual environment.
The second element is the lack of boundary between outside and inside. “Of course in the cold weather between end of November and end of feb/march the windows should be closed, but most of the time the space is kept open.
“If you go to some kindergartens, their playgrounds are covered in plastic, everything’s flat, and there’s no challenge in their life. Maybe the children feel safe there when they’re small, but they’ve lost the chance to learn as they grow up.”
The best-designed pre-school for children would comprise three inter-locking elements: intergenerational spaces, life-long learning (linking early years education with the world of work), and putting special educational needs at the heart of learning, to create whole communities of learners.
The first idea is perhaps best captured in the work of Seattle’s, where a preschool for under-fives is located in an elder care facility. Five days a week, come together for a variety of planned activities such as music, dancing, art, lunch, storytelling or just visiting. Most interestingly, the parents of the students have said they don’t send their children primarily for the experience with older people, but because they appreciate the quality of the learning that is fostered by this unusual environment.
The second element is the lack of boundary between outside and inside. “Of course in the cold weather between end of November and end of feb/march the windows should be closed, but most of the time the space is kept open.
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