In the early years, young children learn through a wonderful mix of dynamic, hands-on learning experiences supported by highly skilled adults who have a thorough understanding of child development. The early years curriculum is delivered through the many experiences provided for children – the resources they use, the interactions that we build into their play and the moments of ‘direct teaching’ that occur throughout the day, every day. This means that the learning environment is inextricably linked to how and what children learn.
As well as encouraging children’s independence and nurturing a wide range of learning behaviours, a well-planned and carefully resourced environment supports the acquisition, development and progression of skills and competencies.
Creating spaces that are appealing, continually available and familiar to young children enables deeper learning – as children return to, repeat and extend their ideas over time. This promotes mastery behaviour as children are introduced to and supported with the use of carefully selected high-quality resources.
Each resource needs to be chosen to not only connect with children’s interests and their natural curiosity to investigate but also with its purpose in mind.
Alongside continuous provision, creating delightful corners of curiosity enables us to introduce inspiring enhancements to bring new learning to our early years classrooms – enriching language, deepening understanding and providing opportunities to embed prior learning in new and diverse contexts.
