Imagine

The Reggio approach to education believes that the environment is the third teacher. In a recent staff enrichment meeting we discussed the topic of how children learn in depth. Where and how does learning happen? At Imagine we believe the environment should be rich with opportunities for children to discover and explore, with many possibilities for children to become inspired. The environment should be one that gives the children the freedom to form their own ideas about the world, and test their theories out. There should be plenty of time given for children to interact with each other, giving them many opportunities to share discovered knowledge with each other and the adults that share the space. The teacher, who is the second teacher (the parent being the first), is responsible for creating this environment. The environment reflects a classroom culture of kindness and respect. This space we  create places a strong emphasis on valuing the ideas, feelings, and creations of the ch...

We work  for weeks getting ready for graduation. There are invitations to make.... Caps and crowns to decorate.... There are many conversations to have......what does it mean to graduate?, who is graduating? Who will be seniors next year? Teachers have speeches to write and many details to consider and execute.... Congratulations to our amazing and beautiful seniors! Good luck on your next big adventure....

Sometimes the things that happen that were unplanned turn out to be the coolest of the things.  We set out a large piece of butcher block paper, oil pastels and various items to trace and out of nothing grew a beautiful mural.  Children would work hard for a bit and run off to do something else for a awhile only to return to add more colors, lines and shapes to our growing masterpieces. We thought about painting on it the next day to see how that might look but the next day the general feeling was that it was pretty cool the way it was. We all agreed it felt finished. It is being displayed on a wall in our red room and it looks pretty cool. 

It started with a question as it so often does...what is a pattern?  We wondered if there were ways we could show our knowledge of patterns on the playground.  The children found ways in our block area as well. We took photographs of all the ways the children made different types of patterns in their environment and printed them out to use as a provocation in a loose parts activity.