Aussie Childcare Network Forum

Hey everyone,
I am the group leader in a toddler room and I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas about what I could use in terms of furniture, fabric etc. that I could use to reduce noise in the room.

A little context, it’s quite a large room and at the moment we have around 26-31 (18m-3y) toddlers a day. As you can imagine it can get quite noisy because toddlers are generally loud lol. We have the doors open for most of the day but at certain points throughout the day, the children are just more interested in being inside and it can get quite loud. It also tends to get louder at pick ups and drop offs and I am just looking at ways that the ambient noise can be reduced.

Thanks in advance for the help

Wow that's a lot of kids!
I'm not sure but I think having the door open creates more noise? Is there anyway to have it closed or have set outdoor play times (e.g. twice a day) where it's left open for kids who don't want to go then closed after? If most prefer to stay indoors it could work.

I think the main way to reduce noise is with purpose built materials like insulation, speciality glass etc. You can also buy window film, foam sheets, curtains and blinds to reduce/absorb noise

Hard to say without knowing if your looking to purchase stuff like that but there's no reason why you can't work with what you've got on hand
You can try:
- use rugs and carpets on the floor
- designing seperate areas and utilize furniture to create walls within the room
- create quiet and calming areas to help the children relax

Noise gets through cracks in walls, gaps under doors, heating and cooling systems etc so that's something to look into.

If possible reducing time spent with noisey toys, instruments etc could be good. For example noisey toys are offered for x amount of time then packed up and a quieter alternative offered
Daily storytime, quiet games or gentle music could work too.

In childcare we often get use to a lot of noise and think it's normal but exposure to excess sound can damage hearing, especially with little ones. Sometimes it's not even the kids, it's noise from outside that's out of our control.

There's apps you can download onto your phone to check decibels so you can find out if the noise is dangerously loud and look at your options from there. It would also be interesting to measure the sound over the course of a day and compare

Hope that's of some use