Mark all permanent fixtures on a blueprint or drawing of your preschool. This includes built-in shelves, tables, sinks, cabinets and other areas that cannot be moved or relocated.
List the items that you require to operate your preschool. Include nap areas, cribs, highchairs, learning centers, gathering areas and eating sections. Make sure to include information related to all aspects of how you run your preschool. For example, if you require naps for younger children, make sure to note on your list that you will need cot or sleeping mat space every day. If you serve meals, make a note that you require eating areas and all associated food serving items.
Shade in your drawing of your facility by using colored pencils to represent the colors of the walls and floors. Choose soothing colors that are neutral and can be paired easily with an assortment of colors. Opt for white, beige or cream colored walls. Use darker, neutral tones of brown for carpeting.
Create a list of extra items to accentuate floors and walls. Consider throw rugs or play mats that can be easily swapped out if they become soiled or unusable. Versions of throw rugs suitable for a preschool include rugs with shapes, colors, the alphabet or animals imprinted on the rug to give children something to look at.
Decorate the walls of the preschool using both educational and interesting pieces of wall art. Options include chalkboards, calendars, alphabet charts, animal pictures and mirrors. Include items to represent the major learning subject areas of reading, writing, science and art.
Designate an area for teaching and learning about art. Preschool children will require floor coverings, easels and an assortment of tools to work on art projects. Include the art-inspired wall hangings in the art area of the preschool.
Section off and decorate an area of the preschool to support music learning and education. Have available in this area music players, headphones, toy instruments and sheet music to help illustrate the basics of music. Include age-appropriate books about famous musicians and types of music.
Decorate the nap and rest area of the preschool with pictures of sleeping animals. Place a bookcase with bedtime stories close to the napping station so those in charge of nap time have easy access to all materials. Consider mounting speakers near the nap area to pipe in soothing lullabies or other relaxing music to encourage sleep.
Decorate the social gathering area with lots of color and inspirational items. The gathering area is where children congregate to listen to stories, talk in group sessions and learn about new topics. Decorate this space with throw pillows to sit on in various colors, colorful bins to store supplies such as books and have multi-colored containers of paper and crayons in this area to facilitate learning concepts expressed through drawing.
Keep seasonal bins to use throughout the year. Make bins for each major holiday and season. Include additional decorating items in each bin and use as needed. For example, in the Thanksgiving bin have decorations such as stuffed turkeys, plastic cornucopias, books about Thanksgiving and dried Indian corn. In the springtime bin, house items such as egg decorating kits, plastic flower pots, posters on flowers and pictures about springtime showers.