8 Ways to Establish a Welcoming Learning Environment for All Children

August 19, 2021

How can you create a welcoming, nurturing learning environment for all young children—and ensure that the dual language learners in your classroom or program feel a sense of safety and belonging? That’s the question we’ll address in today’s blog post, excerpted and adapted from the book 45 Strategies That Support Young Dual Language Learners, by Shauna L. Tominey & Elisabeth C. O’Bryon. Use these practical ideas to help the diverse children and families you work with feel welcome inside and outside of the classroom.

Create a welcome collage, poster, or display.

Make a collage of words—reflecting the languages spoken in your school—with the heading “How we want your child to feel at school.” In addition to the word welcome, include feeling words in many languages: happy, excited, peaceful, safe, and curious. You can even create a space where families can add words in English and their home language that represent how they would like their children to feel at school. This is a simple way to put families at ease, engage parents, and show them that how they would like their child to feel at school matters to you.

Create a space where families can add words in English and their home language that represent how they would like their children to feel at school.

Set up a community bulletin board for families.

Designate this as a spot where multicultural events and resources can be displayed and shared. Point the board out to families and invite them to contribute to it if they have resources or upcoming community events to share. Keep the board current by removing signs for events that have passed and updating the items regularly.

Establish a peaceful tone through music.

Build and maintain a multicultural music library that you can use throughout the day in the classroom. During key times such as arrival and drop-off periods, play inviting and soothing music that represents a wide range of languages and cultures. You can ask parents to share their own albums or playlists with the class or recommend music that is special or meaningful to their family.

Display multicultural images and books.

Seeing familiar faces, places, and cultures reflected in your classroom literature and art displays may help reassure children and families that their home language and culture is valued in your classroom. Make the books available for parents to read with children when they visit the classroom, and let them know that they can borrow the books to read at home.

Seeing familiar faces, places, and cultures reflected in your classroom literature and art displays may help reassure children and families that their home language and culture is valued in your classroom.

Label objects around the classroom.

Label objects in English, Spanish, and other languages represented in your classroom and include a picture of the item. Use these labels throughout the day as a reminder to incorporate words in other languages. The labels will support children’s vocabulary development and help all young learners begin to associate print language with spoken language.

Create a visual classroom schedule.

Label your schedule with each of the key activities that you have planned for the class each day and include key words in English and Spanish or other languages represented in your classroom paired with pictures. Display the visual schedule in a place where children can see it and families can view it during drop-off or pick-up.

Establish a quiet space in your classroom.

Create a quiet corner, “calm corner,” or “cozy corner” where individual children or small groups of children can take a break if needed. Fill your quiet corner with soft items and post images of faces depicting different feelings to support discussions about emotions.

Having a retreat within your classroom will help every child feel safe and secure.

Remember that diversity doesn’t only refer to differences in culture and language.

Diversity also includes differences in age, gender, abilities/disabilities, learning approaches, family forms, and more. Ensure your approach embraces the many different forms diversity may take.

By making these and other strategies a part of your teaching approach, you’ll support the language development and social success of dual language learners (as well as their peers). If you liked the suggestions in today’s blog post, be sure to explore the book!

45 Strategies That Support Young Dual Language Learners

This timely book is a toolbox of today’s best strategies for supporting children and families from diverse backgrounds and ensuring the academic and social success of young dual language learners. Early childhood educators will get an invaluable collection of 45 practical, developmentally appropriate strategies for teaching dual language learners.