Learning environments in Physical Education and motivation in early childhood

Learning environments are understood as a prepared organization of spaces and materials. Teachers have a secondary role, so this tendency promotes free and active participation of students. This is understood as a way for promoting creativity and autonomous work, avoiding repetitive work. The proposed objective sought to determine students' level of enjoyment in sessions carried out via the proposal of learning environments. The sample was composed of 420 children from an educational center. The instruments used were the Smile-meter, by means of which students' enjoyment was recorded, and an observation log in which aspects of students' behavior related to the carried-out activities were written down. The data showed students' enjoyment was high based on both the results from the smile-meter and on the recorded behaviors.