What is Reggio Emilia?
Lotus Preschool & Studio is inspired by the Reggio Emilia Approach while engaging with each child. We have embraced this concept because it fosters independence, self-help skills, and creativity.
The Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education is named after the town of Reggio Emilia in the Emilia Romagna province of northern Italy. In Reggio Emilia, 54 publicly funded schools provide education for children from birth to six years. These schools have been described as among the best in the world.
The schools of Reggio Emilia began as a parent initiative. With the end of World War II, parents in Italy banded together and, with the proceeds from the sale of surplus war materials, founded the town’s first pre-schools. They had a vision for a new kind of school where children would be treated with respect and parents would be active participants in their children’s education.
The parents sought the help of educator Loris Malaguzzi to set up schools that reflected their vision. From those early schools grew the framework for a new model in education for young children.
WHY LOTUS EMBRACES REGGIO EMILIA APPROACH?
The Reggio Emilia approach offers a way for teachers to embrace each child's natural curiosity and creativity by encouraging them to work on projects that interest them. The approach also encourages children to communicate their new found knowledge and understanding in a variety of ways, often with creative results.
Parents are also encouraged to be actively involved in all aspects of the school and their child’s learning.
At the heart of this system is the powerful image of the child. Rather than seeing children as empty vessels that requires filling with facts, Reggio educators see children as full of potential, competent and capable of building their own theories.
Principles of Reggio Emilia:
Teachers incorporating aspects of this approach into their program will:
The Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education is named after the town of Reggio Emilia in the Emilia Romagna province of northern Italy. In Reggio Emilia, 54 publicly funded schools provide education for children from birth to six years. These schools have been described as among the best in the world.
The schools of Reggio Emilia began as a parent initiative. With the end of World War II, parents in Italy banded together and, with the proceeds from the sale of surplus war materials, founded the town’s first pre-schools. They had a vision for a new kind of school where children would be treated with respect and parents would be active participants in their children’s education.
The parents sought the help of educator Loris Malaguzzi to set up schools that reflected their vision. From those early schools grew the framework for a new model in education for young children.
WHY LOTUS EMBRACES REGGIO EMILIA APPROACH?
The Reggio Emilia approach offers a way for teachers to embrace each child's natural curiosity and creativity by encouraging them to work on projects that interest them. The approach also encourages children to communicate their new found knowledge and understanding in a variety of ways, often with creative results.
Parents are also encouraged to be actively involved in all aspects of the school and their child’s learning.
At the heart of this system is the powerful image of the child. Rather than seeing children as empty vessels that requires filling with facts, Reggio educators see children as full of potential, competent and capable of building their own theories.
Principles of Reggio Emilia:
- Children are strong, interested, capable and curious.
- Children learn best working with others: with other children, family, teachers, and the community.
- Children have “the hundred languages” through which they show us what they know in many ways - they move, draw, paint, build, sculpt, do collages, act, sing, play music and more.
- Children learn from the spaces they are in – they need beautiful, orderly space where everything has a purpose and can help children learn.
- Children are capable of long-term, sustained learning when the topics that interest them.
- Teachers listen to and observe the children closely, ask questions, and explore the children’s ideas.
- Teachers provide experiences that “provoke” children’s thinking and learning.
- Teachers document the children’s work so that they can talk to each other and the children. This allows for a better understanding of the children's thinking and education in general.
- Parents provide ideas and skills, which make them active partners in the children’s learning.
- Child-centered learning
- Creativity and aesthetics
- Collaboration
- Environments
- Documentation
- Working in partnership with parents
Teachers incorporating aspects of this approach into their program will:
- Build on the strengths, competencies, and curiosities of the children (the “image of the child”)
- Encourage, support, and develop collaborative learning
- Have less structured rooms, but carefully planned spaces and well-organized materials, so that children are free to spend more time on projects that interest them and are often able to move between activities at their own pace (“the environment as the third teacher”)
- Offer a wide variety of basic art media, including paints, clay construction, drawing , collage (“the hundred languages”)
- Listen to and implement children’s ideas for projects on which to work (“negotiated curriculum”)
- Display the children’s creations and photographs, showing the children at work in the classroom (“documentation”)
- Build a portfolio of children’s work at school (“documentation”)
- Make a great effort to communicate with parents and to help parents feel involved in their child’s project work (“parents as partners”)
