Reggio Children Inspired

I am a NYC teacher inspired by the the practice of the Reggio Emilia Approach. In 2005, I attended an educator’s conference in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Over the past years, my practice has changed and the creativity is booming! . I have a new Emergent Curriculum happening in my classroom every year, and Recycled Arts is an important focus of mine. It is amazing, the inspiration that stems from this little town in Italy.

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Welcome to the Reggio Children Inspired Shop

Lynnette Arthur MSEd | Instagram, Facebook | Linktree

Early Childhood Educator | Reggio Emilia Enthusiast | Inspiring Young Minds! | Process over Product | Play Based Learning |

Quick and easy links on where to purchase! 💫

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About the Podcast

Host, Lynnette Arthur, unpacks the social-emotional impact the past few years have had in these powerful conversations. You’ll leave these fun and thought provoking interviews discovering new perspectives to bring to your classroom. 

https://wunderled.com/the-powerful-pedagogy/

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How we represent and celebrate skin color matters! These conversations help children be able to stand up in their power. We need to normalize conversations about skin color differences, uniqueness, the visible and invisible things that compose our identities. This fosters pride in young children. In our classroom one of the ways we celebrate people is by having skin color drawing utensils. We want our students to be able to represent all the skin tones of the world. It’s also important to think about when a child wants to represent themselves, how do we as teachers and parents support this? How do we celebrate and bring awareness to skin color in a positive way?

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When we received this huge donation of amazingly soft jersey excess fabric from a dress designer. One child said “It feels like a lovie,” so the idea to make “lovies” was born. So proud of these Stuffed Lovies! Here’s how they all came out. Hand sewn by 3 & 4 year-olds.  

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Today we explored with cardboard tubes circles. It was the perfect open-ended activity and the children made some amazing creations.

Open-ended art focuses on the process rather than the product. This means allowing children to explore materials as they see fit, rather than expecting children to create a certain realistic drawing, painting, or product. Open-ended art allows children to express themselves through, problem solve and come up with something that is uniquely theirs.

 Paper towel rolls, wrapping paper tubes, food-wrap tubes, poster tubes and mailing tubes are all valuable crafting commodities in our classroom.

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The FREE TO PLAY SUMMIT is almost here! A 5-day journey to clarify, deepen and confidently own your own approach to Play-Activated learning. This year Reggio Children Inspired will be talking about the importance of identity work with young children.

JULY 12 -  16, 2021 | 100% ONLINE & AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE

https://fairydustteaching.samcart.com/referral/iUCGRFZj/VxPlZUTQlLqfCwvv

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Collaboration among young children provides a great opportunity for building community, social-emotional development, and language skills. For the past two weeks we’ve been working on this beautiful caps, tops, button and bead mobile. Strung with wire, because as one child stated, “Wire is better than the string because you can make it curly and it listens to your fingers.” Made by 3 & 4 year-olds ❤️

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In a Reggio Emilia inspired classroom, most of the materials are chosen for their aesthetic qualities. What do they look like, or feel like? Can the child connect with the material in some special way?

It is important to implement nature into children's daily play and creating. There is so much potential in these materials as tools for learning and discovery. Encouraging children to explore our natural resources is a wonderful opportunity for discovery through an enriching sensory experience.

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For the past week the children have been working to design and create boats. Inspired by an idea that one student had to make one, almost the entire class loved the idea, and have jumped on board. Part of their process in selecting materials for their boats is testing to see which materials sink, and which materials float in the water table. After making their boat, the children went to the water table to test their boat and see if it would float.  As you can see in the video, there was much success!

Video Player

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A great place to be...within a tree. 

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I wanted to share this glorious curriculum that emerged this year in my classroom. The Boo-Boo Curriculum

 The theory behind Emergent Curriculum is that children can construct their own learning. Finding the threads of commonality is key. At the beginning of the year quite a few children came back to school with “Boo-Boo’s.” Ranging from mosquito bites, scrapes, bruises, and even a broken arm. We noticed that during our daily meeting the children would want to talk about what happened to them. This occurred so regularly that we began to designate a time during our morning meeting for “Boo-Boo” sharing. Thus the beginning of Boo-Boo stories was born. Every child in the classroom has told a story (or three), and they continue to delight in sharing the details.  We began to document this process. Taking photos of their Boo-Boo’s allowed the children to revisit their experiences.

As one parent stated: “For the child who is telling her boo-boo story, she is getting to tell the story of her “trauma” that precipitated the wound, whether accidental or due to something more overtly aggressive (a sibling shove, for example). This allows her to put a scary experience into words, which means labeling and containing the negative feelings that likely went along with the “trauma.”  As for the children listening, they get to practice empathy—becoming curious about how the storyteller might have felt, learning about what helped her feel better, thinking about what they might be able to do to offer support.  It also helps the listeners internalize good experiences or brave behaviors of their friends that they can then call on when needed.”

Here are a few “Boo-Boo Stories”

Devon’s Toe Boo-Boo

 Devon: Me and Catherine were at Connecticut. Catherine and Alexander were at our Connecticut house. We were chasing the boys and one of them, closed the door on my toe. There was a little opening on the bottom of the door and it got stuck on my toe.

Catherine: It was my brother Alexander. He heard Devon crying and opened the door. He felt bad for doing it.

Devon: Daddy washed it off in my Connecticut bathroom. Mom clipped my nail off because it was all wobbly. It was coming off.

Dahlia: Did it hurt?

Devon: Yes.

Juliet: Did it hurt a lot?

Devon: Of course it did!

Julia: What shoes were you wearing?

Devon: I was barefoot.

Ian: Why did Alexander slam the door on your toe?

Devon: We wanted to play with them, but they didn’t want to play with us.

James: Were you mad at him?

Devon: I don’t know…no.

Camille: Did it bleed a lot?

Devon: Some of the blood was inside my nail, and some was on top of my toe.

Ian’s Splinter

I was with my grandma, and my whole family, and some of my cousins. I was holding my hand on a fence and I didn’t even notice it. But then later someone noticed it, when we got home and looked at it, and it was hurting. So we put some cream on it. It’s called a splinter.

(A few days later)

Update #1: Soooo…Daddy said we need to dig into my skin a little, so we can get the splinter out. But I didn’t think it was a good idea because it might be bleeding.

 (a few more days later)

Update #2: The splinter came out! Well, I was at school the other day and I didn’t even look at it until I got home. When I got home I looked at it, and it was sticking out so I just took my fingers and pulled it out.

Cecily: Was it bleeding?

Ian: Splinters don’t bleed by the moment.

Dahlia: Blisters don’t bleed.

Maren: Bruises don’t bleed.

An important part of the sharing process was the Q & A time afterwards. Each child fielded questions from their peers, who showed an invested interest in their experience. The most common questions the children asked each other were:

“Did it hurt?” “Did it bleed?” “Was it dripping when it was bleeding?” “Did you cry?”

We then began to encourage the children to think about why their cuts and scraps eventually go away. “How does a Boo-Boo heal/go away?” The children had wonderful ideas on the healing process. They came up with multiple theories on the healing process.

As teachers we thought about what this work meant to the children and why it was so important to them. Here are a few excerpts from our brainstorming:

- Many forms of storytelling, Promotes rich and descriptive language. Storytelling that is personal                     

-Examples of empathy, demonstrating empathy. Forgiveness when people hurt you. Dealing with what hurts us, what makes us feel bad?  Taking the perspective of another. Cause & Effect       

-What does healing look like =change. Skin study, How does skin work?      - Social/Emotional -What did you do to make yourself feel better? Sharing ways to self-soothe?

This was a powerful journey this year. I hope it resurfaces again. This curriculum gave the children power over a powerless situation, getting hurt. I would even get emails over the weekend from parents that one of my students “fell this weekend but they are so excited to share their Boo-Boo story with the entire class.” We even made up a song about Boo-Boo’s sung to the tune of Adele’s “Hello” song.

“Hello from Boo-Boo land.. I got a lotta Boo-Boo’s and. They hurt and they’re bleeding and they change colors too. And I might need a Band-Aid for my Boo-Boo.”

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I’m so honored to be a featured presenter, along with some of ECE's greatest like Teacher Tom, Richard Cohen, Holly Elisa Bruno and Rae Pica at this summer's 2017 International Online Early Childhood Conference!

I'll be presenting "Woodworking! Using Real Tools & Experiences for Our Youngest Learners" which will inspire your woodworking practice in your own classroom.

By "attending" the conference, you will earn a certificate for 15 Clock Hours and even CEUs ...from the comfort of your own home! 😊.

Please use this link to learn more and to register for this exciting professional development opportunity:  https://fairydustteaching.samcart.com/referral/H7AwloGF/3Tx0dpWcXLNrxqiO

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Summer Conference 2017: Cultivating Curious Minds

Join over 3000 Early Childhood Educators from over 50 countries and renew your teaching practice. Access the sessions at YOUR convenience! Participate anywhere and anytime! You have lifetime access!

Thrilled to be in the 2017 Summer Early Childhood Conference! Read about it here:

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Vinyl Love #oldvinylrecords #repurpose

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Woodworking with 3 and 4 year-olds

Young children can handle real tools. Woodwork provides a unique learning experience for young children. It enriches many areas of learning and development a...

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Mobile made out of driftwood and coloured wooden beads at www.theguilletots.blogspot.ie

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Tissue Box Guitars Rock!