Moana Study: Learning Environment

One thing that makes a study feel more immersive is to fit the learning environment to the theme. For us, this involves decorating our space accordingly and stocking our book shelf and toy shelf with items relating to our theme.

Here are several ways we prepped our environment:

• We decorated some of our door frames with tropical garlands like these.

• ·We stocked our living room bookshelf with stories about the beach, ocean, boats, strong women, how being yourself is good, and books about the sun/moon/stars.

• We used a bin on our toy shelf to hold anything that we made as a costume or craft.

• I purchased a few items for dramatic play such as these flowers for our hair. We also used our play silk scarves to make hula dancing skirts some days.

• We have a magnetic chalkboard where we put visual resources after we talk about them and paper art after we make them.

• If you do toy rotations, you could also include world map puzzles, boat toys, ocean creatures, etc. to fit the theme.

If you are doing a Pacific Island or Moana theme, I hope these play environment ideas help give you some ideas to get you started and feel excited about the topic.