Karina Gaud
December 3, 2018
Classroom Comparison Paper
The classroom comparison assignment helped me understand difference and similarities
between two different centers. The first facility that I observed was a NAEYC center which I will
refer to a center A. In the classroom, there were eighteen children between the ages of four
and five. The second facility I observed was a licensed childcare center with a preschool/
kindergarten room, which I will refer to as center B. There were thirteen children between the
ages of two and a half and five. Both centers had a warm welcoming when I walked through the
doors.
During my observation at both centers, the classroom environment seemed to stimulate
learning from all the activities that were available to the children. In the morning both centers
allow morning play, which is when children can explore different activities in the classroom
whether it is working on puzzles or pretending to be animals. Children could be free after they
hung up their coats and got settled into the class. Throughout the day children were always
occupied because of all the activities they were able to have access to.
The physical environment of the classrooms was different. In center A, the room was
much bigger giving the teacher the ability to spread out each activity center through the entire
classroom. During my visit with center B, the setup of the room was a little different especially
because the room was smaller, but there were two separate rooms. One room was used for
dramatic play and reading books in the loft as well, while the second room was used for circle
time, projects and eating.
Another difference I realized throughout my observation was with center A, I notice
there was a lot of the children’s drawing and projects on the walls. Each wall had different
drawings or projects, for example, one wall had an all about me chart of each child with their
picture next to their chart. Unlike center A, center B kept the wall decorations to a minimum,
they had very little of the child’s drawing/ projects on the walls.
I believe center A functioned better than center B because I feel like the flow of the
classroom was easy for the children. The activity centers were easily accessible for the children
unlike center B. In center B the activity centers were in different rooms which meant the
