My learning environment is located at a school inside a classroom for children that are ages 2 to 5. It will be a very structured environment, but also a playful one as well. A classroom need to have some form of structure so that kids can learn to their highest ability. All activities must be prepared in mind of all kids in classrooms “cognitive ability, developmental level, and individual differences” (), but also using a discovery learning approaches that involves a structured system. According to Bruner (1966), “learning is optimized when children are free to explore their environments, manipulate objects, and experiment with ideas as they interact with others. Bruner called this open-ended, learner-centered mode of learning discovery learning” (Estes & Krogh, 2012). In this class room I have arranged 3 tables that are going to be label blue square, green triangle, and yellow circle. The tables are positioned to where each group of children will rotate from table to table participating in different activates to meet there educational needs. The shelves that are surrounding or near the tables are used to place different items, such as puzzles, stacking toys, toys that have sounds, shape sorters etc... The shelves along the wall will be used for children cubby or own little personal storage space for their thing. The circle time rug and chairs will be used for a whole group activities and participation. In the bottom right corner is the quiet area. There is also a sink and fridge for such things as snack and washing hands. My learning environment would support a child’s physical development, by making one of my tables (centers) be an activity where it they would have to use their fine motor skills. “Skills, which involve the small muscles of the hands, fingers, feet, toes, face, and mouth, are called fine motor skills” (Estes & Krogh, 2012). An example of that would include squirting shaving cream on the table, and have children use both of their hands to spread it out, and then use the fingers to draw pictures, write letters or numbers. If there are children that are in that certain group that are not able to draw, letters or numbers, perhaps they could practice using their fingers to go around in a circular motion or just by making lines go up and down, or just any movement that allows them to uses their hand and finger muscles. Another activity that could be used at this table is learning how to brush their teeth, it would be ideal to use the table that is closest to the sink, washing hands would pertain to a self- helps skills. “A special classification of fine motor skills is self-help skills. These skills are used to eat, dress, and complete hygiene-related tasks such as brushing teeth, combing hair, and bathing. Self-help skills provide natural opportunities for practicing specialized movements of the hands and fingers to manipulate objects” (Estes & Krogh, 2012). When it comes to incorporating the cognitive Domain into my learning environment I would probably apply this during circle time by asking the children what color is an apple assuming most kids will reply with the answer red, then I would proceed to have a display of all different color apples, the display could include actual apple or you could use technology such as an iPad to show different apples. Making the children aware that there are apples that are different color. “Serious educational games have proliferated, given funding agents’ and educators’ efforts to capitalize on the popularity of digital game play for classroom use. Specifically, the goal of these games is to promote transfer of learning and skills from game play to academic tasks” (Blumberg, Altschuler, Almonte & Mileaf, 2013, pg. 42) I could also inform the children that all apples have different names as well. We could also taste the different kind of apples and ask everyone which one they enjoyed the most. Problem solving could be used by counting how many apples were present
