Create an Inclusive Classroom: Child-Centered Strategies that Support a Sense of Belonging
Anisha Grossett • November 30, 2023
The classroom setup: an exciting endeavor met by nearly every educator. Classroom setup should always be intentional, whether it's the start of the school year, a move to a new classroom, or you just want to break up the monotony with a makeover. How a classroom looks, sounds, and functions is essential for children's learning. In fact, Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Emilia approach to education, coined the phrase "Third Teacher" (after parents and educators) when referring to the classroom environment.
There are many things to consider when you set up a classroom, such as furniture placement, learning centre offerings, and materials placement. What’s even more essential is the feel of your classroom. Children enter early learning programs with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and needs. When you create a classroom where every child feels seen and heard by caregivers, you foster a sense of belonging and well-being for all the children in your care.
How can we ensure children feel valued, celebrated, and have a sense of belonging in their classroom? Let's examine six essential components that help children feel safe and secure in their learning environment.
Create a Classroom Where...
Children Feel Seen
- Offer diverse materials and books that display different families, skin colours, and cultures to help children feel represented. For example, ensure you offer crayons and paints include a full spectrum of skin tones, dolls of different races, and storybooks with alternative family units.
- Display children's pictures around the room to show they are a valuable part of your classroom.
>> Access to a diverse library of books is essential for children. Visit The ECC’s Amazon storefront
for an epic list of inclusive books!
Children Feel Heard
- Consider who is doing the talking. Are you speaking the most at group times while the children are quiet? Get them to open up and participate in fun ways. Choose a child to lead a song or game each day!
- Invite children to co-construct the learning environment with you (in age-appropriate ways). These fun questions might get them started:
- How could we change the dramatic play centre?
- What materials do you think we will need?
- I have a new train set to put out; where would you like to play with it?
- Provide a quiet space in your classroom where children can go when they feel overwhelmed or stressed. Cozy pillows or a bean bag chair with fidget toys or books can help calm a child quickly.
Creativity Is Encouraged
- Allow lots of time for creative expression. Art is one of the many ways children share their thoughts, feelings, and growing sense of self and interpretations of their world.
- Offer a variety of materials for visual arts, including different types of scissors, thicknesses of drawing and painting tools, and different colours, sizes, and textures of paper.
- Offer scarves, music, pieces of fabric, puppets, and props for children to act out their thoughts and feelings.
- Provide open-ended materials, such as loose parts, for children to express their ideas.
Achievements Are Celebrated
- Hang children's artwork at eye level to share with the class.
- Ensure children see their names around the classroom in various contexts, i.e., on name cards, photos, and in class books.
- Highlight big and small wins with the class, such as a structure someone worked hard on in the block centre or a student's newest drawing.
- Share successes with parents and families through daily discussions, parent boards/newsletters, or digital tools.
Children Feel Valued
- Consider children in all decision-making first and foremost.
- Build connections with children by asking questions about their learning, making eye contact, playing alongside them, sharing excitement, and respecting their ideas and feelings.
- Build relationships with families by getting to know them, celebrating successes, supporting needs, and openly communicating.
>> It’s vital for educators to feel seen and valued too! The ECC offers many workshops on diversity, ECE appreciation, and much more.
Download our full list to see how we can help!
Curiosity Is Cultivated
- Honour children's questions about the world around them. Instead of giving them the answer, offer tools to help them identify solutions on their own!
- Develop their sense of place. Provide natural elements in their day, such as helping them care for child-safe plants. Maintain connections to the outdoors with bird watching or cloud gazing.
- Ask about their interests and help them investigate!
When you consider these child-centric components during classroom setup, you can be confident that you are fostering a sense of belonging and community in your classroom. Below you will find additional resources for even more ideas that encourage inclusion. When children feel included in the classroom process, and their identities are at the forefront of our planning, they recognize themselves as an essential part of their classroom community.
Resources
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