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One of the first steps to opening a daycare is to design the layout of your center. In this guide, you&#;ll learn about daycare and preschool floor plan ideas you should use based on your program&#;s specific needs. We&#;ll also share helpful resources to help make the process of creating a floor plan as easy and cost-effective as possible.
How does the physical space improve learning?
Research indicates that physical space impacts how children engage in learning. When children learn in an environment that supports their needs and learning outcomes, they become more productive and engaged. Some questions to consider when designing your pre-k classroom space include:
- Am I creating a learning environment that sparks the children&#;s interests and invites them to engage in their physical space?
- Does the classroom space invite children to engage in cognitive play?
- Does the space support the children&#;s daily routines?
- Do I have all the supplies and materials the children need?
- Is the room well organized with clear systems?
Good classroom design improves learning by helping children develop executive functioning skills, like task initiation, organization, sustained attention, working memory, and emotional control. For example, one way your physical space can help your children develop working memory is by creating a visual schedule with pictures so the children know how to complete a specific activity and what happens next.
Fresh and relevant visual displays on the classroom walls relay information, reinforce lessons, and capture the children&#;s attention, sparking their interest in learning. These visuals can include the children&#;s pictures, their work, and stories involving them. You can achieve this with creative bulletin board designs. For example, a mitten match bulletin board can feature numbers, letters, or shapes (on colorful paper mittens) hanging on yarn &#;clotheslines&#; with clothespins. This fun design is an interactive way to reinforce lessons about matching and letter and number identification.
The Reggio Emilia approach considers the learning environment the &#;third teacher&#; after teachers and parents. This approach fosters a sense of curiosity and wonder in each child by offering a self-directed learning method to build individuality. It encourages teachers to listen to the children and allows them space for self-expression and engagement in various projects. Teachers organize the space to accommodate blended play with individual and group activities, child-directed exploration, and teacher-initiated activities.
How do I start designing my daycare floor plan?
The first step to providing high-quality childcare services is to create a daycare environment where your students, staff, and families can thrive.
Before deciding on the floor plan you want to use for your daycare business, carefully consider your program&#;s needs in the following areas:
- The total number of children you will serve
- The total number of people who will come into your center regularly
- Number of classrooms and offices
- Space for staff needs
- Adequate room for indoor activities
- Storage space
- Kitchen and food preparation
- Safe and accessible entry and reception areas
Once you have a clear understanding of your center&#;s space requirements, you&#;re ready to start designing a pre-k floor plan that will best suit your needs and support the goals you have for your childcare business.
As you start designing your program's layout, consider what other tools you will need to manage your center. Brightwheel's center management software reduces manual work and streamlines your check-in, scheduling, and reporting. This all-in-one software centralizes your daily operations and can easily scale as your program grows.
How do I start designing my preschool classroom layout?
If you&#;re designing a learning space for children in the preschool age range, you should consider many of the same needs listed above. However, you may also want to think about additional developmentally-appropriate details for your space, such as:
- Setting up furniture and other materials to scale so children can access what they need independently
- Adequate space for behavior management
- Distinct stations for various types of learning and development, such as art, reading, math, sensory play, and dramatic play
- Temperature and environment for classroom pets
If your program follows a specific teaching pedagogy or learning philosophy, you&#;ll also want to make sure you design your space accordingly.
What are sample daycare floor plans I can follow?
The best layout for your daycare business will vary depending on your program&#;s specific requirements, such as how many children your center will serve or how many classrooms you&#;ll need. Here are some ideas for daycare floor plans categorized by program size.
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Small daycare floor plans (1-20 children)
Source: Kaplan Early Learning Company
This childcare center floor plan is ideal for an infants program and includes designated spaces for diaper changing, sleeping, and various activities.
Source: Pinterest
This childcare center layout is suitable for programs with 8 children or less. The design includes space for active play, a discovery area, and sleeping cots.
Medium daycare floor plans (20-50 children)
Source: Wilkins Builders
This childcare center floor plan accommodates around 30 children. The design features distinct classrooms for different age groups and an ADA-accessible bathroom.
Source: Andrea Balarezo Bachmann
This childcare center layout is ideal for 20-25 children. The design includes designated storage areas for toys and books and spaces for group time, guided reading, and dramatic play.
Large daycare floor plans (more than 50 children)
Source: Silver Point Development
This childcare center floor plan is suitable for up to about 90 children. It features separate classrooms for different age groups, a staff lounge, and multiple storage areas.
Source: Manufactured Homes
This building plan features 5 classrooms and separate office space for staff and administrators.
What are some plans I can follow to design my preschool classroom layout?
The best layout for your preschool classroom will depend on your teaching goals and the learning environment you want to create for your children. Remember that you can also update your classroom design as your program needs change&#;even a simple refresh can make a big difference for your teachers, children, and families! Here are some sample layouts categorized by program size to inspire you.
Small preschool classroom layout ideas (1-20 children)
Source: Pinterest
This daycare floor plan accommodates up to 12 children. It includes space for activities such as dramatic play, art, and sand and water play.
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Source: The Inclusion Lab
With competitive price and timely delivery, Okler sincerely hope to be your supplier and partner.
In this daycare floor plan, shelving helps to divide the space into an entryway, play area, soft area, and eating area.
Medium preschool classroom layout ideas (20-50 children)
Source: Montessori School Design
This Montessori environment is designed to encourage concentration, community, and collaborating with teachers and other children.
Source: Pinterest
This preschool classroom design includes learning centers for art, listening, reading, computers, and more.
Large preschool classroom layout ideas (more than 50 children)
Source: Pinterest
This preschool center incorporates a Reggio Emilia approach and accommodates more than 50 children.
Source: Modulars USA
This floor plan is ideal for serving multiple age groups and includes six classrooms. It also contains a spacious lobby and reception area that&#;s suitable for receiving multiple families at once.
What are daycare room setup ideas I can follow?
Once you&#;ve decided on a floor plan to follow for your childcare or preschool program, it&#;s time to start thinking about how to set up your room(s) and what furniture and other equipment you&#;ll need. The more daycare center interior design ideas you can gather for inspiration, the more creative you can get with your classroom design!
In general, you&#;ll want to consider including the following elements in your pre-k classroom setup:
- Cubby storage
- Classroom storage
- Station for changing diapers
- Crib area
- Nap area
- Feeding area
- Adequate room for developmental play
- Open, unrestricted area for activities and lessons
How many square feet does each child need in a daycare floor plan?
To ensure you&#;re meeting state guidelines, check in with your state licensing agency to find out how many square feet of classroom space you&#;re required to have per child. As a general rule of thumb, you should always plan for your center to be larger than the minimum requirement to make room for hallways, storage areas, and other needs your program may have.
Research shows that it&#;s best to have 45-55 square feet of activity space for each child, and most experts agree that at least 50 square feet per child is best. Consider allotting even more additional space for infant and toddler classrooms to ensure adequate space for cribs and other pieces of large equipment.
What free daycare floor plan creators can I use?
There are a handful of free online tools you can use to help you create a floor plan for your childcare center:
Please note that these tools might work best for in-home or smaller daycare programs. If you need to create building plans for larger facilities, you should consider hiring a draftsman or an architect.
Final thoughts
Designing your preschool classroom layout and daycare floor plan requires careful planning and creativity. Remember to follow your state licensing rules and consider your program and the needs of your children. A practical layout and floor plan will ease instruction and improve children&#;s learning outcomes.
Brightwheel is the complete solution for early education providers, enabling you to streamline your center&#;s operations and build a stand-out reputation. Brightwheel connects the most critical aspects of running your center&#;including sign in and out, parent communications, tuition billing, and licensing and compliance&#;in one easy-to-use tool, along with providing best-in-class customer support and coaching. Brightwheel is trusted by thousands of early education centers and millions of parents. Learn more at mybrightwheel.com.
When it comes to setting up your daycare classroom, figuring out the floor plan can be a big struggle. You might be asking yourself:
- Where should I put the blocks?
- If my room is too small, how am I supposed to have learning centers?
- Where can I put my dramatic play area?
- What learning materials should I have?
All of these are great questions, and we will discuss what learning centers to have, where they should go, and what should be in them all without losing your own aesthetic as an educator.
Why should I have learning centers?
Learning centers are important to the early childhood classroom because they allow children to safely and freely explore at their own pace. Engagement increases when children have choices in how they learn and play. This allows for small group interaction as well as individual exploration. It also allows for varying levels of learning, depending on what you have in each center. Learning centers help educators stay organized as well as keep learning fun! If you operate with themes and units, it can be easy to organize with learning centers. Ultimately, learning centers foster play and creativity, which is what every early childhood classroom should do.
What learning centers should I have?
It is up to each individual educator as to what learning centers you should have, but according to ECERS (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale) &#; an assessment tool used in most daycares in the U.S. &#; it is important to have the following learning centers in each classroom:
- Language/Reasoning
- Blocks
- Dramatic play
- Art and music
- Science and nature
- Math and manipulatives
- Sand and water
What should be in each learning center?
There are exhaustive lists to refer to where you can see what items should be included in each of the learning centers mentioned above. To see an example of a checklist, check out this link used in New Jersey education.
The most important thing to know when figuring out your inventory is to make sure that each learning center is diverse, clean, safe, and stocked. Each center should have books, toys, and materials that are diverse in cultures represented. There should also be diversity in ability so that different levels of learning can occur.
All materials should be clean and have no missing or broken parts. Materials should be developmentally appropriate, and if they require supervision, make sure this occurs.
All materials should also be well-stocked. If you have 20 children in your classroom and only one doll in the dramatic play area, that is a problem. For example, the ECERS assessment tool shows that in your blocks center, there should be three types of blocks and all sorts of accessories within the block area to foster a rich and creative learning environment. You cannot simply achieve all of these materials overnight, but be sure to build it over time to offer best practices.
Where should I put each learning center?
When it comes to figuring out placement, there are many free websites that you can play around with to figure out your floor plan. Sites like RoomSketcher, myKaplan Floor Planner, and ConceptDraw are just a few examples of free resources where you can design 2D and 3D floor plans. This can help you give a birds-eye view so that you aren&#;t overwhelmed when standing in your classroom.
Where you place your learning centers is important. There are centers that are considered quiet, centers that are considered noisy, and centers that are somewhere in the middle that we refer to as &#;buffers.&#; Centers like math, reading, and art can be considered quiet centers. Centers like blocks, music, and dramatic play can be considered noisy. Then, centers like science, and sand/water can be considered &#;buffers.&#; It&#;s important to not place quiet centers directly next to noisy centers. It is understandable that some classrooms are small and therefore do not have the luxury of being spaced out, but if you can help it, keep those away from each other. You can also consider having some noisy centers only open when the quiet centers are not being used if needed.
It is also important to place centers not only against walls. You will need to create boundaries using rugs and shelving so that it is obvious where centers end and where another begin. It will also allow for children to not have so much open space that it invites them to run. When creating the boundaries, just be careful of blindspots that shelves and different furniture can create.
What about desks and tables?
Small group structure is the most important and prominent part of early childhood education. Best practices would be that children would be eating, playing and learning all in small groups. There will be times for whole group instruction, but for the most part, children should be working in small groups. There shouldn&#;t be 20 desks facing the front in a preschool classroom. There also doesn&#;t need to be seating for 20 children all at one time. Each child should have their own cubby and place for personal belongings, but since children should be doing most things in small groups, it isn&#;t necessary to have seating for all 20 children at tables and chairs.
There should be small tables throughout the classroom in centers for puzzles, math, writing, etc. There should also be rugs or mats so that children can play nicely on the floor if needed. Large pillows or beanbags in the reading area are necessary. Chairs should be size appropriate and in good condition. If it is possible for you to have separate tables for eating, that is great.
Sample floor plan designs
There are tons of floor plans out there if you do a simple web search. But not all floor plans will be good examples. Look for spacing, organization, and small group setups. Here are a few that are great.
When it comes to daycare floor plans, keep it simple, organized, clean, safe, and fun. Make sure materials are accessible to children in learning centers, and make sure that you store away what you don&#;t use on a daily basis. Children thrive in clean and organized spaces. When there is clutter, it does not promote a good learning environment. Even if your budget is small, there are inexpensive ways to declutter and organize your space that you can be proud of. This is your second home, so have pride in it and help your children feel welcomed and loved!
Are you interested in learning more about Kindergarten Flooring? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!
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