Preschool classrooms should project a safe, cheerful, and educational environment — for kids, teachers, and parents alike. You already know the importance of kid-friendly decor in your preschool spaces, and you might be seeking alternatives to the drab and clinical fluorescent lights that illuminate your classrooms.

There’s a reason fluorescent lights are popular in schools  — they’re economical, energy-efficient, and provide sufficient light for little ones to learn by. However, the harshness, glare, and flickering associated with fluorescents can detract from a carefully-designed preschool classroom. Luckily, you don’t have to replace the lighting in your classroom to improve the atmosphere. In fact, by simply incorporating printed diffuser panels into your decor, you can reap some extraordinary benefits for your preschool.

What are Printed Diffuser Panels — And How Can They Benefit your Preschool?

Decorative printed diffuser panels can be used to replace existing fluorescent light covers or placed on top of them. Available in a variety of cheerful, nature-based patterns that kids will love, these printed light diffusers provide a variety of benefits:

• Reduce harsh glare
• 32% reduction in light
• Enlivens decor
• Creates a comforting atmosphere for kids
• Can mediate health issued like migraines, headache, and eye strain

Let’s dive into the deeper details of how decorative printed diffuser panels can benefit your preschool:

Create a More Inviting Atmosphere for Parents

Parents choose preschools based on a variety of factors. When visiting a classroom, parents probably ask themselves some of the following questions:

• Do the teachers seem communicative, professional, and kind?
• Will the curriculum support their child’s learning?
• Does the space seem safe and clean?
• Are there plenty of toys and activities available?
• Does it seem like a stimulating and fun environment?
• Is it a warm and inviting atmosphere?

By incorporating printed light diffusers into your decor, you can help make a positive impression on parents. First of all, utilizing cheerful patterns like forests, sunny skies, and hot air balloons will help convey an upbeat atmosphere. Secondly, covering conventional fluorescent lights will reduce the clinical feel of the classroom; it’ll make it seem calmer and more inviting for little ones. Finally, parents will appreciate that your school goes above and beyond in creating a pleasant atmosphere for their children.

Make Lighting a Learning Opportunity

During the first years of a child’s life, they grow trillions of brain-cell connections as they learn, grow, develop, and ask questions. For little kids, everything is a learning opportunity. Therefore, every aspect of preschool classroom decor is meant to offer learning opportunities: posters, drawings, and charts provide children with needed stimulation everywhere they look.

Though lighting is often underutilized as a learning resource, Sky-Scapes printed light diffusers are made to be colorful, bright, and engaging. For example, you can choose bright blue skies with clouds, various animals, hot air balloons, nature scenes, and more. When naturally-curious preschoolers notice the lights, it’s easy to turn this into a learning opportunity:

• What colors do they see on the diffuser?
• Can they describe which animals they’re seeing?
• How do the calming nature scenes make them feel?

By using decorative printed light diffusers, you’ll be able to turn a normally uninspiring aspect of classroom decor — lighting — into an exciting learning opportunity for children.

Decrease Agitation & Anxiety in Children

It goes without saying that adequate lighting is important for schools. Children need well-lit rooms in order to see, play, draw, and interact without straining their eyes. Although fluorescent lights certainly make it possible for students to see clearly in most circumstances, they also have some unfortunate drawbacks:

1. Unnatural brightness. Fluorescent lights aren’t designed to mimic natural light, and can produce a harsh, overly-bright glare.
2. Flickering. All lights flicker a bit, caused by the alternating current within. However, as fluorescent lights age, flickering becomes more pronounced and disruptive compared to other light sources.

Although not all students will react negatively to the flickering, glare, and excessive brightness of fluorescent lights, children with special needs like autism and ADHD can be profoundly affected by this light-based stimulus. In fact, fluorescent lights have been shown to increase agitation, cause irritation, and even decrease a child’s performance in school.

Fortunately, there’s no need to replace all the lighting in your preschool to see benefits for your students. Using diffuser panels can cut down brightness by 32% in your classrooms, creating more pleasant, subdued, and natural lighting environment for kids.

Support Better Health for Teachers & Administrators

Printed diffuser panels aren’t only helpful for children: your preschool’s teachers and administrators can benefit as well. Let’s go over some of the health concerns that your school’s instructors might face from traditional fluorescent lighting.

• Migraines. Have the teachers or administrators at your preschool ever complained of headaches at the end of a long day? Though it’s not always evident, fluorescent lights have invisible pulsing lights — a known trigger for those who suffer migraines.
• Sleep. Your body depends upon changes in natural light to set a good circadian rhythm vital to sleep quality. Unfortunately, the blue light emitted by fluorescent lights can suppress melatonin, your body’s natural sleep hormone. In turn, this can wreak havoc on healthy sleep schedules and lead to tired teachers and administrators.
• Eye Strain. We’re all aware reading or working in dim conditions can put unnecessary strain on our eyes. Fluorescent lighting has actually been associated with eye strain as well. For those with eye injuries, the brightness of fluorescent lights can be even more harmful.

Printed light diffusers can help mediate these issues by cutting down the harsh, bright glare of fluorescent lights — supporting a more positive and healthful environment for teachers and kids alike.

Make an Easier Transition for Nap Time

Though preschool students need to partake in a variety of activities every day — playing, learning, socializing — it’s very important for little kids to partake in quiet time or nap time during the day. In fact, a study from the National Science Foundation has shown that naps can actually help preschoolers retain information that they’ve learned.

Whether your school offers nap time or simply incorporates quiet time into the busy schoolday, printed light diffusers can help ease the transition into a more mellow mood. In ordinary classroom settings, the drastic change from bright fluorescent lights to a dim classroom can create a jarring transition. By creating a more subdued light to begin with, printed light diffusers can help you make a smoother transiton into nap/quiet time for little kids.

Sky-Scapes Printed Light Diffusers for Preschools

At Sky-Scapes, our printed light diffusers are designed to incorporate color and natural scenes into the decor; they additionally cut down the potentially harmful effects of fluorescent lights. Want to learn more about how printed light diffusers could help benefit your preschool classroom? Feel free to get in touch with us today!