Creating Child Friendly Classrooms

The term school comes from the French “escole”, which means the playground. It means a school is a very comfortable and enjoyable place for learning and playing or playing and learning.

Creating a comfortable school may start from child-friendly classrooms, which are classrooms that support the learning process in which children actively develop their potentials in an enjoyable manner.

This is what has been happening in SDN 007 Teluk Paman, Kecamatan Kampar Kiri, Kabupaten Kampar, Riau. This Tanoto Foundation’s partner school is striving to create a comfortable school, by among others creating classroom gardens, utilizing used materials as learning aids, up to improving the quality of classroom management.

In the first grade for example, there are various paintings and displays that adorn the walls of the classroom. Not only that, the classroom is also painted with bright colors, in accordance with children themes. Various works of the children are also on display to foster the pride and confidence of the children.

“We make this classroom child friendly so that the students may feel at home and their confidence grows through the rewards we give, such as awarding stars to students that will be posted on the wall and can be seen by all students. This will make the students compete more creatively and be more daring in coming forward in order to get the stars, “said Mrs. Isneini, S. Pd, grade 1 teacher of SDN 007 Teluk Paman.

Mrs. Isneini gets this idea of creating a child-friendly classroom from the training provided by Tanoto Foundation. The results of the training on classroom management are also shared with the other teachers of SDN 007 Teluk Paman, so that they are able to mentor the students to be creative in their respective classrooms.

As a result, all the classrooms of SDN 007 Teluk Paman are not only places for learning, but also for showcasing the students’ works or portfolios. “My hope is that the students feel more comfortable in the learning process so that they dare to come forward and be more creative than before,” said Mrs. Isneini.

This article is written by Leo Fariddian Sunarya, Tanoto Foundation Riau.