ECM 104 – Creating a Safe Environment for Children
Name
Mohammad Manirul Islam
Email
Imunirul71@gmail.com
Phone
008801323878640
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“Indoor and Outdoor Safety in Preschools: My Experience and Observations”
High-quality environments can help keep children safe from injury. Children need
environments that help them feel secure. Children depend on adults to meet their basic needs
for food, water, shelter, and clothing. They also depend on us to protect them from harm.
Feeling safe allows children to build cordial relationships, become confident, and meet their
potential. We cannot expect children to learn when they do not feel safe. As a Parent what I
tried to focus on some ways to preschool teachers, so that they can ensure indoor and outdoor
environments which are safe for children. Those ways are as follows:

Providing a Safe Environment Indoors and Outdoors
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Providing Safe Toys and Materials
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Maintaining Safe Adult-to-Child Ratios
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Supervision and Accountability Indoors and Outdoors
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Teaching Safety Rules
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Child Abuse Prevention, Identification, and Reporting
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Preparing for Emergencies
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Responding to Injuries
When the question of safe environments for young children, we can think it about three ways.
1. How we arrange and organize our classrooms within the facilities.
2. About the condition of the materials in the environment.
3. About the ways we organize our materials.
We must consider the condition of the materials in the environment indoors and outdoors. We
must take care or correct some issues before children are permitted to play:

Remove missing or broken parts
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Check if there any sharp edges, splinters, and rough surfaces or visible cracks and also
broken or worn electrical fixtures or cords.
Remember to check the temperature of play surfaces. Metal or plastic slides, benches, and
poured concrete surfaces can get very hot and very cold. Inspect surfaces for cracks caused by
temperature changes or water damage.
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Safety is a major priority in preschool classrooms. Unsafe toys and materials can put children
at risk for injury or illness. Here I focus on checking toys and materials for safety and
identifying unsafe toys.

Select toys and materials with safety in mind.
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Perform a daily safety check of toys and materials.
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Teach children how to use materials and toys safely.
Following standard ratios and group sizes greatly helps keep children safe. Staff-to-child ratios
apply all the time should maintaining. The standard ratios apply indoors and outdoors. Never
leave a classroom out of ratio. A maximum group size of 20 for children ages 4 and 5 (ratio
1:10). If the majority of the class is 3 years old, the maximum recommended group size drops
to 18 (ratio 1:9).
Although it is critical to provide safe materials and a safe environment, Supervision is the most
powerful tool to keep children safe. Active and positive supervision should involve:

Knowing each child’s abilities
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Establishing clear and simple safety rules
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Being aware of and scanning for potential safety hazards
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Scanning play activities and circulating around the area
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Focusing on the positive rather than the negative to teach what is safe for the child
Teaching children how to be safe is an important part of your job. Designing effective rules
can be an important step in helping keep children safe. Child abuse and neglect put children at
risk for injury and even death. A teacher’s responsibility to know the signs of abuse and neglect,
how to prevent child abuse, and report suspected cases of child abuse or neglect.
Emergencies can happen at any time. The teachers should learn how to stay calm during
stressful situations, identify types of emergencies and also able to recognize the types of
disasters. It is very important to take a course in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation
(CPR) so that easily can recognize minor injuries, serious injuries, and life-threatening injuries,
Identify the signs and symptoms and assess how to respond to an injury. Injuries can happen,
teachers must be prepared to respond quickly when a child or staff member gets hurt.
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Parents also need some basic knowledge about preschool safety environment. By organizing
an indoor and outdoor environment with efficient facilities, parents can provide great learning
to children. It becomes efficient for the parents to focus on standard facilities within an indoor
environment so that children can gain practical learning skills.
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