The Academy for Early Learners at the School District of Pickens County began with a shared goal: creating the best possible early learning experiences for a growing district.
Through extensive collaboration, school tours, and curriculum-focused conversations, we worked alongside teachers and curriculum developers to plan an immersive learning environment where the physical space and curriculum work together to support student growth.
Our education practice has extensive experience designing immersive early learning environments. Typically, these facilities feature multiple experiential classrooms where students rotate through spaces to gain new, hands-on learning experiences. The School District of Pickens County (SDPC) sought to convert four existing campuses into early learning facilities serving 4K students, with each campus featuring four classrooms.
However, the available square footage was more limited than usual for an early learning center of this kind. To maximize learning opportunities within the existing footprint, interchangeable themes became the solution. Each of the four classrooms at every campus transforms into four distinct learning experiences throughout the year, maximizing opportunities for hands-on learning without requiring additional square footage.
Through flexible design choices, interchangeable graphics and adaptable furniture, each classroom transforms every 12 weeks to introduce a new theme. For example, the Exploration room may begin with a Tropics theme, where students interact with the wildlife of a tropical climate, before transitioning to an Ocean theme focused on marine life. Removable graphics, furniture adjustments and carefully selected details bring each new environment to life. The room later transforms again to explore the Savanna and Polar regions. Across all four classrooms, students experience 16 unique environments throughout the school year, keeping learning fresh and engaging while building vocabulary, literacy, numeracy, and background knowledge through exploration and play.
Our experts supported the district every step of the way.
That support included in-person campus visits to help teachers transition between classroom themes and connect each immersive environment to meaningful curriculum implementation.
Jennifer Foster, our firm’s Early Childhood Specialist, worked directly with SDPC teachers to help them understand how to use each environment as an active teaching tool. As classrooms transitioned to new themes, Jennifer continued mentoring educators in person on how to adapt curriculum, develop learning activities and connect the environment to specific educational goals. Her involvement helped ensure the spaces would be more than immersive experiences. They would become purposeful extensions of learning, supporting the way teachers and students interact.
This commitment to educator development began with the planning process.
SDPC teachers and principals participated in a professional development tour of Jandrucko Academy for Early Learners and Forney ISD’s The OC, gaining firsthand insight into immersive learning environments and how thoughtful curriculum integration maximizes their value. Originally planned as a one-day experience, the tour was extended to two days at the district’s request. SDPC educators had an enthusiastic desire to build new skills and bring new strategies back to their schools in South Carolina.
Jennifer’s continued support as the new experiences were introduced reinforced the connection between the physical learning space and the curriculum that brings it to life. With only two students engaging in an interactive activity at a time, teachers can also provide more individualized learning experiences. By the spring of the first year with full access to the rotating environments, teachers were already noticing significant academic advancement in their students, placing them above the curve particularly in vocabulary and background knowledge.
The Academy for Early Learners demonstrates our Education Practice’s collaborative approach to early childhood education, working alongside districts not only to plan innovative learning environments, but also to equip educators with the knowledge and confidence to use them successfully.
By investing in both the spaces and the people who bring them to life, SDPC is creating more meaningful learning experiences for its students and lasting value for its district.
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