Glen Education Bentleigh

Building a Learning Rich Environment 

Jo Peterson, Early Childhood Teacher 

At Glen Bentleigh kindergarten, we see our kindergarten environment as the third teacher. We view our indoor and outdoor environment as a place that is welcoming, calming, creative and culturally representative of our community.

Our kindergarten environment supports children to become independent and active learners by providing opportunities for children to explore, experiment and test their ideas. The experiences offered in our program are intentionally designed to encourage the children to engage in collaboration and communication, exploration and discovery and to foster learning relationships.

Educators provide materials to support the children and their learning journey. The materials in the learning environment are selected to promote creativity, thinking and problem-solving skills, questions, experimentation and open-ended play.  The indoor and outdoor environment is set up to reflect the children’s interests and developmental stages. The educators adapt the environment to fit the needs and interests of the children, this means we change and modify our environment to cater for the children’s emerging interest and changing needs.

Our environment also encourages the children to be respectful and responsible to the kindergarten environment. We embed sustainable practices in our daily program. The children participate in recycling and are involved in the care and maintenance of our kindergarten environment.