Our physical environment isn’t just a backdrop for our experiences; the qualities of the space around us innately engage with some of our deepest senses, emotions, and intuitions, shaping the way we feel and experience the world.
– Lisa Phillips, Associate Professor of Interior Design, Thomas Jefferson University

In their popular book, Complementary Curriculum Approach, Lisa Porter Kuh and Iris Chin Ponte write, “It is important to reconsider some well-ingrained norms about what early childhood classrooms should look like and how they should be set up for learning. With guidance from legacy thinkers in early education, teachers can design classrooms that reflect their values about childhood and the teaching and learning experience.”

Porter and Kuh offer helpful points of reflection about early childhood classrooms: “What is the first thing you see? How do you feel in your room? What do you need from your surroundings to[…]