I’ve always been intrigued by the concept of the atelier in the Reggio Emilia philosophy so when I came across In the Spirit of the Studio, I quickly knew that it was a resource I wanted to dive right into! In the Spirit of the Studio presents a dialogue with some of the most inspiring educators at the […]
Play Based Learning – What’s the big deal?
Last week I had a really interesting discussion with two teacher friends about ‘play’, and in specific, the different kinds of play found at any given time in a kindergarten classroom. While at first glance, all play may look or sound the same (children engaged in meaningful and authentic activities, laughter, smiles, shared dialogue between […]
Three Ways to Create Meaningful Documentation
With fall transitioning into winter, and colder weather arriving in a few short weeks, we decided to create a documentation panel to frame our autumn inquiry. Naturally, we began the process by collecting evidence of student learning such as photographs, artwork, observational drawings, records of conversations and anecdotal notes to help us communicate student learning […]
Changing Seasons: Reggio Emilia Inspired Fall Explorations
The young children in our classroom have began to notice hints of fall in the changing colours of leaves, the temperature outside and activities at home such as baking pies and apple picking. As we begin to explore the season and document our observations, wonderings and understandings about fall, I thought I would share some […]
What does it mean to ‘be’ Reggio Inspired?
Last night, while I was playing with our puppy Apollo in our front yard, I finally had the chance to meet our neighbour. As he explored our flowers, shrubs and grass, our neighbour came over and began gushing at how adorable he was. I was curious to observe how he reacted to meeting someone new, […]
Expectations vs. Goals – Is it just a question of semantics?
As I continue to write my dissertation, I find myself increasingly interested in words, and in particular, their meanings, definitions, and the possible underlying messages they may or may not imply. Last week, as I explored assessment in the Full Day Early Learning Kindergarten curriculum document and Te Whariki, New Zealand’s Early Childhood Education curriculum, I […]
Can a curriculum be neutral?
Year after year as a kindergarten teacher, my curriculum document was (and to some extent, still is) the foundation of my teaching practice. I would use it to think about what I needed to teach students, how I was going to teach (grouping specific expectations together), when I was going to teach a given subject area. Grundy (1994) […]
Explorers of the Diana School
Many of the resources I have been exploring about the Reggio Emilia approach are written by adults, so you can imagine my delight when I came across ADVISORIES, a book authored by five- and six- year old children from the Diana School in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Advisories is a visit to the Diana School from the […]
The Hundred Languages of Children
The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation is an inspiring resource that combines history and early childhood education theory while addressing three important themes of the Reggio Emilia philosophy in detail – teaching and learning through relationships; the hundred languages of children, and integrating documentation into the learning process. The resource is collaboration between European and […]
