When we design educational environments we have to think of many different elements.  On of the first things you need to figure out is what the age group will be for your educational facility. One group that has a lot of special considerations is that of the younger child.  Specific types of spaces and certain elements in the designs have to be implemented for educational environments for children to be successful. Some of these things include flexibility in the space  to accommodate a wide range of activities, movable furniture, multiple forms of learning style implementation and elements that encourage play.

Elementary School Classroom. source:http://www.ssnsc.org/preschool/Preschool.htm

As we see in the above photo, there are multiple zones throughout the one major room of this classroom.  These zones are separated to accommodate different types of activities.  There are larger tables where the students can engage in interactive and collaborative play as well as arts and crafts project.  There are separate areas with soft flooring for a play zone.  The soft flooring allows the student to be more flexible in their activity and lets them know that it is OK to play on the floor in that zone.

Stackable Furniture. source:http://www.elementary classroomfurniture.com/

In the above photo we see an example of stack-able furniture.  This type of furniture is very necessary in spaces for younger students.  This allows reinforcement of the flexibility of the space. With these types of movable furniture pieces the classroom design is able to have the most types of activities with the least amount of space needed.

Allowing multiple types of learning. source:http://www.clearspringschool.org/wisdom_of_the_hands_program.html

The design of educational environments for young children also needs to accommodate multiple types of learning styles.  These style include tactile, visual, audio and kinetic types of learning.  People in general, but espically young students learn differently with different types of teaching methods. Allowing for adequate space to accomodate for all of these different types of learning will support your design’s success.

Encourage Play. source:https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?hl=en_US&continue=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Flh%2Flogin%3Fcontinue%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fpicasaweb.google.com% 252Flh%252Fphoto%252F4_Wmv-Dc10mlEznlITyrDA&service=lh2&ltmpl=gp&passive=true

Finally, the spaces need to incorporate areas and opportunities for play.  This is a large part of this age group’s life and needs to be implemented into the educational environment.  Studies show that we are less stressed when we play and allow ourselves to be more creative than when we don’t have play regularly.  The implimentation of play in educational environment for young students will allow them to learn more effectively and allow them to be more creative than if they were in environments that did not encourage play.

There are many things to consider when designing educational facilities for young students.  We need to consider the age group of our clients in order to best serve them through our designs.  What are they interested in at this point of their lives?  How do they naturally learn?  How can we implement the design of the space to coincide with the natural grooves of their learning patterns and styles?  These are all questions we should continually ask ourselves throughout the design process.  If we do this successfully then we will be able to design educational environments for children that not only support but also encourage their progression of learning and academic achievement.