What does a quality learning environment look like for three- and four-year-olds?

What the research tells us. Whether your work focuses on parent education classes or family literacy programs, tutors share a common goal: to help every child become a successful reader. This support begins with understanding the child's needs and creating an environment that fosters learning. Research reveals that powerful curriculum is child-centered (Bredekamp, 1987.) Child-centered classrooms align with social, emotional, intellectual, and physical needs. Effective work with young children supports the developing skills of the individual child. In this way, tutors can act as coaches, making the individual child feel motivated, confident, and positive about learning. High-quality preschool settings focus on the learning of literacy rather than the teaching of literacy.

Applying the research. Young children need space that supports their learning styles and recognizes their need to move around. The physical environment should allow children to work in whole groups, small groups, and individually. Children this age love to move and sing. They are intensely curious about how things work and love to conduct science experiments, care for and study living animals, cook, and learn about their fellow classmates and their families. These intrinsically motivating interests provide you with a wealth of information from which you can base your work. As a tutor, you can encourage children to choose activities they like and help them develop a range of interests.

The following additional tips can help you create lively centers and sessions for preschool children.

Provide a variety of materials. A rich learning environment enables children to work with all kinds of materials. Materials that allow for open-ended exploration include: unit blocks, hollow blocks, art materials, water, clay, play dough, and sand. These materials encourage children to create and solve problems. "If the building crashes, what can I do to make it balance?" "Why do some things float and others sink?" "How can I get the water to flow in this tube?" Materials that support and extend dramatic play include: a wide spectrum of work clothes, different types of dolls, wooden animals, and transportation toys. The outdoor environment is also a crucial part of the day. Equipment such as building blocks, climbing apparatus, and riding vehicles foster muscle coordination and large motor development.

Offer opportunities for both open-ended exploration and formal learning. Many tutors find that the more open-ended the material, the more creative children become. In one center, a parent brought in pieces of fabric for the dramatic play area that the children turned into fanciful costumes. In contrast, puzzles and geometric shapes are examples of materials that are more closed or formal. Children work more effectively when they can explore their ideas about using new materials before they are asked to use them in a formal way. (And sometimes children mix the two, using math materials to build structures or decorate their block buildings.)

Create print-rich environments. Put yourself at the child's eye level and look around the room. Can you see print, images, and information? In setting up a family literacy or preschool center, post children's names on attendance charts and cubbies and provide labels throughout the room. If you have samples, display song and poem charts as well as children's art work and dictated writings.

Read aloud to model reading. Reading aloud cannot be emphasized enough. When you read aloud in your tutoring time, you are modeling what confident and expert reading sounds like. Children learn about books and how to use them, tracking print from left to right, top to bottom, and front to back. Reading aloud also gives children opportunities to hear new words and understand their meanings. Read favorite children's books and classics, including multicultural stories and stories that reflect children's own lives and experiences. As active listeners, children observe how adults deliver stories. Try switching voices for different characters or using gestures to underscore the mood. Dramatic reading supports children's social and emotional development as well.

Share writing as a model for writing. If you encourage and accept young children's writing and drawings, you'll find that they feel encouraged to do better and learn more. Writing, including invented and beginning spellings, can be a vital part of each child's day. When children dictate their stories and experiences to you, they also develop oral language skills. Weave reading and writing into all activities. You can also engage preschoolers in writing for functional purposes such as making chore lists, book lists, and notes. Bring in interesting writing supplies for children to use during your time with them, including folders, paper in eye-catching colors, and a variety of alluring markers, crayons, and pencils.

Develop children's oral language. Children's own language, traditional rhymes, and songs provide children with a wealth of opportunities to learn how language works. Listening for words that rhyme is a good way to develop phonological awareness-the ability to understand that speech is composed of identifiable sounds. Songs and rhymes help children develop the ability to hear sounds in words and repeat them. They can use these sounds as the basis for invented or phonetic spelling.