TREE TOPS PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS

TREE TOP’S PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS By: Kara Hoffman, Heather Fleig, and Sidney Sullivan

Our Rating System No improvements needed Few Minor Improvements needed Many Minor improvements needed Few Major improvements needed Many Major improvements needed The environment rating will be found in the top left hand corner in every slide

Soft Book Nook Landing Pad for Slide Soft Blocks Sleeping Bags and Cribs We offer…. • laps to the children • Non-squishy wall-to-wall carpet which lends itself well to newly walking infants • Soft pillows and mattresses • Soft bouncy balls and blocks • Grass and sand

Hard Geoclimber and Balance Beam Blocks and Legos Sidewalk and Blacktop We offer • Walks on the sidewalks and blacktop • Hard benches and stools Improvement • Bike path in the backyard so infants and toddlers can practice running or ride their trikes Bench Wooden Tunnel

Intrusion We offer • Low windows to bring the outside in • The licenser and firefighter visit yearly • Parents sometimes come in for a visit • Our room dividers are made of Plexiglass and bars which allows the infants and toddlers to look into the other rooms. This also makes for an easy transition to the Two Room. View into the Two Room Looking from the infant room into the Two and preschool room Low windows visits from firefighters parents licensers View from the top into other rooms

Seclusion crib Exersaucer Wooden tunnel Tree tunnel castle swing We offer • Many places for children who are needing time to themselves • A “castle” which is a large lofted play-yard that children can also crawl underneath. We set this up when we have many low-mobility babies. Improvements • We would like to make a lofted area that children can access by themselves

Closed Dimension Puzzles and other closed toys High storage High book shelves Radio and other materials out of children’s reach We offer • Toys that are used for a specific purpose • Storage in the basement for teachers use so we can easily rotate toys • We keep our art supplies in the laundry room • We keep snacks and dishes up in a cabinet in the infant room so we don’t have to leave the room or leave the children unattended.

Open Dimension Manipulatives on the floor for infants Open ended toys Low shelving We offer • Manipulatives that are openended • Toys that are easily accessible; on the floor and low shelves • There are no dividing walls in the infant room so all children are visible

Simple Dimension We offer • Plastic bottles with colored water and other things to shake • Buckets to dump • Cups and Plates in our kitchen area Improvements • Add more everyday objects like pots and pans • Include more varieties of textures Plates and cups • Bottles with colored water and other materials inside Balls to throw Buckets to dump

Complex Dimension Dishes and kitchen We offer- • A sandbox outside to experience scooping and dumping • A kitchen area with dishes and foods • Teacher directed complex activities such as bringing in a tub of water and a variety of scooping and pouring containers Sand, buckets, and dump trucks Improvements • Bring sand water inside more often • Offer more complex sensory experiences

Low Mobility We offer • Caregivers laps for the infants and toddlers • Teacher is always near by to make sure low mobile infants are kept safe on the floor Improvements • We can bring out the castle when necessary swings Buggy Heather keeping guard

High Mobility We offer- • An indoor slide for gross motor exercise • Pull up bar for infants and toddlers to strengthen their arms and legs • Many things to explore in a safe environment Sidewalks to run on Indoor slide Geoclimber Pull up bar

Scale Infant Book Nook We offer • The pictures on the wall are at the children height • The toys are on low shelves or the floor to make them easily accessible. Improvements • We will be getting table and chairs that the infants and toddlers can get into and out of independently. • Stairs up to the changing table so they can go up by themselves. • Low Bars • Table • Kitchen Set Pictures

Aesthetics We offer • Neutral colored walls and carpeting • Big windows that offer natural light • Wood tones • Soft muted colored valances

Acoustics Carpet Soft Things We offer • Proper group sizes • Soft mattresses, pillows, and stuffed animals to absorb the sound Improvements • A nap room • Padded ceiling to mute sound

Order • The infant room is set up so there are certain areas so the children can focus. • We have obstacles to break up the room that children can crawl through, around, and over. • We have a slide so children can practice stepping up • There are nooks cut out with interest areas • We have organized adult shelves for things that are inappropriate for children to be playing with.

Obstacles We do not have enough money or space to do all the things that we would like to incorporate into the center