Visual Workplace in a Pre-K Classroom

Dropping my 5 year old off at school today, I remarked at how many visual workplace elements were implemented in her pre-K classroom.  Yes you read that correctly.  These teachers have implemented a bunch of concepts without even explicitly knowing it.  Here are a few examples of visual workplace in the classroom.

1. The floor in the block area is marked with tape to indicate where the children can build with the blocks.  These structures are often left up for several days so it is important to keep this contained.  The children easily understand the concept and follow it.  Unfortunately in attentive parents occasionally stray inside the lines and accidentally knock over a structure.
2. The block shelves are marked with shadows of the block shapes to indicate where each block goes.  There are also photos of properly loaded shelves right there for guidance as well.
3. The daily schedule is displayed clearly for everyone to see.  It is reviewed in a morning meeting with the students.  Student jobs for the week are also clearly displayed and discussed in morning meeting at the beginning of the week.
4. A choice chart allows student to pick an activity during choice time.  Some activities are limited in capacity (e.g. two painting stations).  The capacity is clearly indicated and student must pick a different activity if the station is full.
5. The painting supplies area has photos of supplies put away to help guide cleanup.
6. Children’s cubbies are marked with names and photos.  This is especially helpful in earlier nursery classes where the students are not yet reading.

There are actually many more, but these are the ones I remember most vividly.  I think that making process easily understood for small children leads to these really solid visual workplace practices.  It seems that far too many corporations are full of people who are constantly making things more complicated.  Herein lies the need for continuous improvement to press in on this tendency.

PS. I did a quick Google search on visual management in pre-K classrooms.  It is amazing how many resources are out there to support teachers in this regard.  Honestly, these resources are more robust than the ones directed at corporate visual workplace.  Interesting.

Related posts:

1. Visual Workplace Definition – How You See Performance in the Plant and in the Office
2. Visual Workplace Definition – Have Not Found Any Good Ones
3. Lean Office Practices for Repetitive Work