Monday, May 12, 2014

Town of Beaumont ELCC - Micro Environments

I love these micro habitats and could think of many of you back home that will be making these as soon as you see them. The teachers are inspired by the ideas on Pinterest and construct these to respond to the children interests and learning. These photos are taken from three of the rooms at the centre - while each room is unique, there are some threads that are evident through the spaces. Access to natural materials is being increasingly introduced and the majority of materials are natural.
 Gotta love this perspective below - seems life size and this is the view of the 4-5 year olds in this room - how inviting is this???
 Multi level apartment living for the creatures that inhabit this space
 Platforms for adventures - opportunities for social encounters


  How cool is this below? - I looked at Mary Lynne and said "I want one of these" - I am building one when I get home.
 Took lots of angle shots so you (and I) can see how it was constructed. I really really want one of these in our office. I might even be able to cope if it is not pink!!!
 These rocks below are painted with characters and features to support the play and presented to the children in this tray....the teacher called them 'Story rocks'

The props represent the various cultural experiences children encounter and provide materials to support oral story telling...camp fire, bus, grapes and many others. I love this idea of the rocks being painted to enable the children to play out their working theories and social worlds. 
 But wait....there's more!!! A teacher or teachers were responsible for making these character and props....A snowboarder....totally relevant for Canada!!! I so want my own sets of these too!!!
 Action superheroes...
 Star Wars!!!...and there were lots more too. Rocks painted as 'Rock Monsters' and 'bugs'. The bugs idea links to one of my next posts. I have to spread these cool environments out across a few posts.

1 comment:

  1. Oh yes, I always look forward to visiting this centre to get inspired by their micro environments (we call them "miniature worlds" here) and the interesting materials they provide for children.

    ReplyDelete