Kindergarten is the first step toward education. Yet you cannot spark an infant’s interest in learning just by organizing furniture in an empty room. To maximize the learning experience of young children, the classroom environment matters, and that’s where kindergarten comes in!
It is a building for young children. Thus, the space must follow some fundamental design principles to motivate children to learn. It helps create a classroom that invites, intrigues, and stimulates young children’s senses. So, if you plan to open a kindergarten or renovate it, you must first understand the basic classroom design principles and how they impact learning in infants. To help you with that, here are the five most impactful kindergarten classroom design principles to create an optimal learning environment.
1) Color Generates Interest
In kindergarten design layout, colors play a major role. It is a powerful design principle but only if done right. For instance, using contrasts or colors can define a space, create a mood and reflect children’s communities or homes.
Colors are also used to foster learning in children. If used correctly, colors can affect attention, feeling, and behavior while learning. In other words, different colors define different moods and meanings.
For instance, bright colors provide a fun and welcoming ambiance in the classroom, whereas dark colors convey uncertainty or fear. Since colors have both positive and negative impacts, it is important to be careful when choosing color matches for your kindergarten design plan.
2) Open Structure Room Design
In the design layout process of the kindergarten, space planning is a must. For example, Treehouse Learning offers private Kindergarten in Louisville, Colorado, with various areas in the building like art, music, games, dramatic play, and more. Similarly, you should also go with an open structure layout rather than fencing children in a closed-structured building. For this, the “fewer walls principle” works the best.
So, before building walls, define the spaces and all the activities that will be carried out in each zone. For instance, don’t overfill the area and think about space in terms of volume. Similarly, furnishings are used to identify different classroom areas like blocks, dramatic play, science, music, or play. When you go with authentic, properly-sized, and well-placed furnishings, children’s play enhances both in-depth and quality.
3) Make the Most of Displays
One of the best ways to outstand your kindergarten design is to highlight children’s works. Appreciating children’s creativity is not only motivating for them but also works as the best display for your kindergarten walls.
Undoubtedly, colorful and creative displays lift the overall classroom environment, let alone the children’s mood. However, if you really want them to continue learning happily, make sure their space is not cluttered or filled with irrelevant material or decorations. By arranging storage materials, highlighting children’s work, and eliminating clutter, the classroom becomes an aesthetic backdrop for honoring everyone who occupies the space. In addition, it makes the space visually attractive and helps children actively participate and engage in the environment.
4) Safety with Sustainability
Before opting for a kindergarten, every parent wants to know how safe it is. Also, it is by far the most crucial kindergarten design principle. A classroom should be designed in a way that is safe, explorable, and without risks.
For instance, your choice of furniture can significantly influence safety as children spend their time on chairs/desks to learn, play or draw. Thus, you should go with materials like boards, solid wood, or plastic that are formaldehyde-free and durable. Similarly, go with toys and furnishings, keeping children’s safety in mind, like soft edge tables, foam mats, and door fingers protection.
5) Inspire Nature with Beauty
While it may not be the chief principle in kindergarten classroom design principles, who doesn’t want children to explore nature and have fun in an eco-friendly environment? Just like we like to immerse in a natural world of sounds, sights, smells, textures, and tastes, classrooms should also reflect the wonders of nature surrounding you.
At an early age, exposure to nature helps in brain development. For instance, you can use the jungle as the theme for your kindergarten design layout with some plants and animals as decoration. When children interact with nature, it helps deepen their understanding. It allows them to appreciate nature and take up their roles as caretakers of mother earth.
Moreover, this design layout enhances the children’s health and comfort and minimizes the strain on local utility infrastructure. In other words, it positively impacts our overall environment while creating a safe and playful environment for children to learn and play.
Final Words
Kindergarten is an essential base of education for pre-schoolers. Therefore, the kindergarten design layout must create an optimal environment for kindergartens to learn playfully and safely. With these easy-to-implement design ideas that fully incorporate the effective use of natural elements, colors, lighting, and everyday classroom materials, you can easily create a safe, authentic, and beautiful learning space.
