“There are three teachers of children: adults, other children and their physical environment.” -Loris Malaguzzi (Creator of the Reggio Emilia Approach)
Here at Whittle School & Studios we follow the Reggio Emilia Approach in our Early Learning Center. Reggio-inspired learning environments are thoughtfully designed and organized in a way that engages and develops students beyond the direction a teacher provides. The objective is to create an environment that nurtures respect for children’s work, creative exploration, communication, and relationships.
First, we design our classroom and school spaces to be places of wonder and curiosity by creating varied areas of interest and possibility for children to explore. As time goes on our classrooms adapt and change to the follow the interests of the children because we see the environment “as a living organism, a place of shared relationships among the children, the teachers, and the parents and a feeling of belonging in a world that is alive, welcoming and authentic” -Loris Malaguzzi (Creator of the Reggio Emilia Approach).
We follow some key principles when designing our classroom environments, influenced by beliefs in the Reggio Emilia Approach. Natural materials and light are highlights of our spaces. Each classroom glimpses into another vital environment to learn from, our city/community. As our students show interest in certain are- as our classroom adapts to challenge their view of the world and allow for exploration in these areas. Take a look at some of our classrooms and you will see that each is unique and highlights different areas of exploration.
In Pre-K 2 the classroom developed into a fire station and a place for students to explore the role of a firefighter and how they do their job. This developed from a project on trains that led into exploring a city and in turn led to questions about what places should we find in a city. The children said that a city should have fire station. The teachers then provided materials to allow students create a fire truck for the fire station.
Classroom developed into a ‘fire station’
In Pre-K5 the children became fascinated by wind by observing feathers floating over the air purifier in the classroom. Now the classroom has an airplane to further this exploration of how things travel through wind.
The environment is not just the classroom but all areas of our school and community. Here is a Kindergarten class exploring and researching trees in our wonder woods. When children are able to use all their senses they are more capable of engaging into a topic.
“The environment is not only the 3rd teacher but a visual repres·entation of their work and thinking. During our exploration of dinosaurs, the children were interested in creating a forest and river for their dinosaurs. They shared their ideas of how to make it and worked collaboratively to create their forest and river.” -Elaine Eastwood (Pre-K 4 Teacher)
The environment is not just the classroom but all areas of our school and community.
‘Airplane’ in Classroom
“A walk around Whittle school got the children of Prek 6 enchanted about flowers. We started our flower exploration by creating a bouquet shop where children were able make their own bouquets. Different painting activities using loose parts, pictures of painted flowers, and displays of colorful laminated petal arrangements on our win- dows. All this and much more made our third teacher play a vital part in our learning journey.” -Ms Miki Barr (Pre-K6 Chinese Teacher)
Our ELC also contains shared spaces to explore areas of shared interest. Our Light and Shadow room is an environment that creates wonder and curiosity. “The importance of light - lighting should offer an environment illuminated from a variety of sources; incandescent, fluorescent, vapour, halogen etc in order to make optimal use of the wide range of possibilities. Light should flood from underneath and through objects to create shadows on the floor and walls. This emphasis comes from a deep understanding of how light calls our attention to changes in co- lour, form, motion and personal perspective.” (100 Languages of Children)
About the Author
Joshua Barr
Teacher of ELC
Joshua has been teaching ECE (Early Childhood Education) in China since 2010 and has worked in Australian, Chinese, IB/PYP and American curriculum schools. He has obtained a BA (Honors) in English and American Studies, MA in Education Leadership and Management, MEd in Education Globalization and is currently finishing an MA in Early Childhood Education. In each school in which Josh has worked, he has taken on a number of roles alongside his teaching responsibilities, including Teacher Trainer, English Department Manager, Sports Coach, and Kindergarten Subject Advisor. These positions have helped Josh develop a number of skills, including training new teachers, curriculum design/development, and leading teams in projects, year groups, and departments.
