One of the questions that came up during the training was, “How can new learning centers be included in my classroom when it is so small?”   As I travel and present on environments that include learning centers, I frequently hear this concern.  One of the best ways to add a new learning center in a “filled” classroom is to transform a traditional learning center. 

A Home Living Center can become a Restaurant for a short period of time, two to three weeks.  When the children lose interest in the Restaurant, you can return the space to the traditional center of Home Living.  The Block Center, a traditional and long-term center in many classrooms, can become a Garage Sale/Flea Market temporarily.  The block area has many props that can be used to display the new items that are added for sale.

Making these transitions and adding new interest centers will stimulate young children’s thinking, their socio-dramatic play, and their skills for cooperative work.

Tell us about a transition that has worked in your classroom.  What area did you add and what props were included in your new learning center? 

Al PreK Conference – Dr. Isbell with teachers who attended her full day workshop on Designing Amazing Environments for Young Children.

Learning environments are an important topic as more and more teachers try to make their classrooms into places that support and inspire learning. Using “before” and “after” pictures of real early childhood classrooms, Real Classroom Makeovers shows early childhood teachers step-by-step how small changes can transform their classrooms into wondrous environments for young children to learn and grow. With a budget-conscious focus, the book provides visual examples of dramatic changes that are possible in real preschool, Pre-K, and kindergarten classrooms. Most of the makeovers focus on a specific classroom area or learning center.

Much more than a collection of before-and-after pictures, this book introduces and describes the philosophy behind creative learning environments based on current early childhood education research. Written in simple, down-to-earth language, this book is accessible for all educators!

$138.99

Click the link below to listen:

Radio Interview on Body, Mind and Child

E.P. Torrance concluded that we are most creative when we are “4 ” years old. This might be discouraging for some of us who are older than 4, but if we work with young children, we see examples of their creative abilities every day. The child who invents a new word, or a child painting with a feather, or a child composing and singing a new song are all examples of creative children in action.

Today it seems that many people are more interested in the “right” answer, or doing things in a specific way rather than thinking in creative ways. But creative thinkers are needed to deal with our fast changing world, to create new inventions, and deal with issues never before encountered. We in early childhood must strive to build children’s confidence in their thinking and inspire their creative ideas.

Toddlers painting with watercolors

How do we spark creativity in our classrooms? There are so many different ways that we can impact the development of creativity. One powerful way is by provding children choices throughout the day – which Center to work in, the materials to use in a collage, or the way to dramatize a story. The environment can also impact creativity by including beautiful displays, unique treasures to explore, and a place to keep special projects to revisit.

It is interesting to note that creative teachers have the most creative children in their classroom—-not a surprise is it?

Let me know something you have done in your early childhood classroom to encourage your budding artists and creative thinkers. Everyday dedicated teachers are doing wonderful things that nurture creativity in their classsroom. Let’s start celebrating these ideas!

Discover the power a story can generate whether read or told.  Investigate techniques that will help community meetings promote group and individual language learning.  Identify meaning ways to builds children’s confidence in speaking.

Look inside Learning Centers to see how they can provide opportunities with oral language, print and writing.  Discover exciting new ways to ignite language learning and literacy in the early years.

Getting assistance to implement the project and help with the work. Investigate the visuals of the before, during, and after of preschool, Pre-K, and Kindergarten classrooms transformation. Discuss how these improvements changed the space and impacted children’s learning.  Listen to what the children and teachers say about their new and improved space. Leave the training with ideas, pictures, and possibilities for fabulous early childhood environments.

What are the social skills that children need to be successful?  What strategies will promote life skills?  How can we provide the opportunities to practice these skills in meaningful ways in the classroom?  This workshop will focus on helping young children feel confident, appreciating others uniqueness, communicating ideas, being dependable, persisting on difficult tasks and solving problems with others.

Developing an environment where children are partners and work with others to create a supportive classroom environment.  Discover what young children are capable of doing— and how we can help it happen?

All the basics of effective storytelling will investigated and will be demonstrated.  Participates will discover which stories are powerful enough to work without pictures?  How to prepare children for their listening? What approaches and tools can be used to draw young children to actively participate in the story?

An important benefit of using storytelling is that children will want to tell and write their own stories. Children will listen, participate, retell, and create.  Teachers will leave this workshop with many new stories to tell to young children—and enjoyed again and again.