May 27th- Reggio Emilia

May 27th- Reggio Emilia 

Today we headed to a Reggio Emilia school. It took us a while to find the school but we made it. Out side there were two lady's waiting for us and they came up to great us. I can't recall her name but she gave us a tour of the school. I thought it was amazing. There was a lot of art creativity seen through out the entire school. The way the school is set up is in three groups. There are children of three years old, four year olds, and five year olds. In each group there are two teachers assisting the children in their learning. The children did not really follow a specific standard, they were left to discover things on their own. For instance I loved how a group of children were projecting images of towers from a projector but then they realized the light that was used to project the image. Therefore they became curious to know how light worked. Then I saw the children placing an object in front of the light. They would turn and see that nothing had projected on the screen then they would remove the item and see the light again. Meanwhile, while the children explore, the teacher is recording them, snapping pictures, and writing what the children said. In a Reggio Emilia school, there is a lot of documentation taking place. I found that very interesting. It may be a good bit of work but I honesty think it is worth it. What better way then to track their learning process.

In a Reggio Emilia school there is a lot of symbolic play and less formal play and more play with nature. I loved how the children were in groups of maybe four or five students. His allows the teacher toward more with the students individually. 

The thing I enjoyed the most was when we saw how important it was for them to demonstrate to their children that their work is important and can be used. For example, a project they had where the children designed their house! Well not only did the children's design of the house get published in a book but also the Reggio Emilia got together with a architecture to build the houses. Oh they were the most beautiful things I had seen!