1. Delight Valley Classroom Storage Room Revamp
Riley Westerfield
December 3st, 2015
Family and Human Services Program, University of Oregon
Purpose of Project
Mission of EC CARES: “To provide
early intervention and early
childhood special education services
to infants toddlers and preschool
aged children in Lane County.”
Delight Valley serves two Early Childhood
Special Education classes:
•Autism Specialized Classroom
•Community Preschool Classroom
•8-10 kids in each class
•4-5 teachers and 2-3 practicum students
placed in each class
•Shares all materials between the two
classes
•Small monthly budget for new materials
•Located in the Delight Valley Head Start
and has to share space with other classes
within the building
•Limited space for storage
The Project
The purpose of my project was to create an
organization system that would allow all current and
future Early Childhood CARES classes at the Delight
Valley site to be able to use and store classroom items
efficiently and purposefully.
Rationale
ECSE promotes development in two or more
of five developmental areas:
• Toys and adaptive materials can be used in
a ECSE setting in order to promote
development and help students meet their
educational goals. (Jamison, Doswell,&
Stanton-Chapman 2012)
•Within the DV classes, toys, instruments,
art supplies, books, games, and dress ups
are used in both free play as well as lesson
planning and circulated every few weeks.
Having a diversity of materials in a
classroom in an essential component
needed in order to cultivate an
engaging preschool experience (McGee,
1991)Challenges and Limitations
•Conditions of storage space
•Originally only one part of the overall project
•Required unanticipated repair and maintenance
•Coordinating widespread collaboration with classroom
staff
•Balancing time for project with time in classroom
References
Early Childhood CARES (2014), Referrals and Services. Retrieved from
http://earlychildhoodcares.uoregon.edu/referrals-services/
Jamison, K. R., Doswell, L. C., & Stanton-Chapman, T. L. (2012). Encouraging
social skill development through play in early childhood special education
classrooms. Young Exceptional Children, 1096250611435422.
McGee, G. G. (1991). Use of Classroom Materials to Promote Preschool
Engagement. Teaching Exceptional Children, 23(4), 44-47.
Benefits and Impacts
•Easy to use and maintain
•Mobile
•Able to donate most of what was not kept
•Diversity of materials now available to classes
•All items sanitized and safe for use
Cognitive
Adaptive/Self
Care
Fine/Gross
Motor
Social
Communication