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Head Start Program Performance Standard 1302.31 Teaching and the learning environment.
(c) Learning environment. A program must ensure teachers implement well-organized learning environments with developmentally appropriate schedules, lesson plans, and indoor and outdoor learning experiences that provide adequate opportunities for choice, play, exploration, and experimentation among a variety of learning, sensory, and motor experiences and:
(2) For preschool-age children, include teacher-directed and child-initiated activities, active and quiet learning activities, and opportunities for individual, small group, and large group learning activities.
The Classroom Environment will be measured by the Region 7 ESC Head Start Education Services team using the CIRCLE Classroom Environment Checklist
Classroom Environmental Checklist.pdfCLASSROOM MATERIALS AND INVENTORY
Head Start Program Performance Standard 1302.31 Teaching and the learning environment.
(d) Materials and space for learning. To support implementation of the curriculum and the requirements described in paragraphs (a), (b), (c), and (e) of this section a program must provide age-appropriate equipment, materials, supplies and physical space for indoor and outdoor learning environments, including functional space. The equipment, materials and supplies must include any necessary accommodations and the space must be accessible to children with disabilities. Programs must change materials intentionally and periodically to support children’s interests, development, and learning.
Each classroom has been provided with developmentally appropriate materials that provide ethnic, cultural, and gender diversity.
Manipulatives are also provided for concrete experiences and need to be rotated on a regular basis to reflect the interest of the children.
Materials should also be changed regularly as children progress in order to scaffold them to a higher level of learning.
Head Start staff will complete an annual inventory of furniture, technology, and teacher resource/curriculum materials provided by Region 7 Head Start.
Head Start Program Performance Standard 1302.31 Teaching and the learning environment.
(e) Promoting learning through approaches to rest, meals, routines, and physical activity. (1) A program must implement an intentional, age-appropriate approach to accommodate children’s need to nap or rest, and that, for preschool-age children in a program that operates for 6 hours or longer per day provides a regular time every day at which preschool-age children are encouraged but not forced to rest or nap. A program must provide alternative quiet learning activities for children who do not need or want to rest or nap.
(2) A program must implement snack and meal times in ways that support development and learning. For bottle-fed infants, this approach must include holding infants during feeding to support socialization. Snack and meal times must be structured and used as learning opportunities that support teaching staff-child interactions and foster communication and conversations that contribute to a child’s learning, development, and socialization. Programs are encouraged to meet this requirement with family-style meals when developmentally appropriate. A program must also provide sufficient time for children to eat, not use food as a reward or punishment, and not force children to finish their food.
(3) A program must approach routines, such as hand washing and diapering, and transitions between activities, as opportunities for strengthening development, learning, and skill growth.
(4) A program must recognize physical activity as important to learning and integrate intentional movement and physical activity into curricular activities and daily routines in ways that support health and learning.
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