Rachel Miliacca

Category E: Developmentally Appropriate Environment

My sample for the Developmentally Appropriate Environment category are pictures and
descriptions showing how the environment promotes physical development, social development,
approaches to learning and cognitive development.
It fits the category because it shows the environmental areas and how it best fits the needs of the
children in promoting physical development, social development, approaches to learning and
cognitive development.
I chose it as the best example of my work because it shows how I have set up the classroom to
best meet the needs of the children, and how I use my space to encourage the children to learn
through play in any of these areas.
It demonstrates the knowledge I gained in the Infant and Toddler Group Care course of the Infant
and Toddler Credential. It also shows the knowledge I gained taking the Wisconsin Model Early
Learning Standards course, and the information I have gathered from my experience with
YoungStar and the ITERS rating system. I learned how to best set up my classroom environment
to meet the needs of the children, adding centers for the blocks, a special center for musical
instruments, a felt board center for story time, a common area for social development, and a
quiet area for the children to look at books or play alone.
It shows a culturally sensitive, anti-bias perspective because the environment includes
multicultural books, multicultural baby dolls, and non-gender push toys for both the girls and the
boys. The environment also includes tools, play workbenches, and non-gender hats for the
children to play with.

Rachel Miliacca
Category E: Developmentally Appropriate Environment

This environment meets the physical, cognitive and social development of the children. I have
story time on the felt board where I can hold individual activities or small group with the
children that are interested. Also in this center is our musical instruments which the children can
play with at any time during the day. The felt board story time also meets the approaches to
learning standards set forth by Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards.

The visual environment I have set up allows me to display the art work of the children which
meets the needs of physical development by exposing them to sensory art work.

This block environment meets the needs of physical development, social development, and also
exposes the children to different textures, colors, and is an ideal way to incorporate math into our
curriculum.

This common area meets the needs of physical development, social development, and cognitive
skills. There are material block sorters, cars, various manipulative toys, baby dolls, and other
small push toys. There are plenty of anti-bias and multicultural toys included in this area. A child
can play alone or with a group of children in this area.

This is my library area. I have included a chair for the children to sit at and a small quiet area for
individual play. This environment includes child directed books and a wide variety of teacher
directed books that meet the cognitive needs of the children.

Pictured above is our stroller for our walks both indoors and outdoors, and push toys to meet the
physical developmental needs of the children. The stroller rides also encourage social
development through exposure to the older children in our center.