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Reggio Emilia


cerys
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I've been hearing a bit about Reggio Emilia and its nursery practices. has anybody read a good introductory book on it so I can see if we can make any changes to our setting? I'm not too sure what it's all about; I've just seen pictures of some great artwork that the children have produced!

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The sightlines-initiative within the Early Education's website has some information. They were the group responsible for bringing over the exhibition about Reggio Emilia, which, sadly, I missed! Their website is www.early-education.org.uk

I've also seen a catalogue of Reggio style equipment which I think is far too expensive, (the usual case for anything that's sold as nursery equipment!) but it's lovely stuff :) (www.reggio.co.uk)

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  • 2 weeks later...

There is quite a lot of information about Reggio Emilia (and about lots of other pedagogies) on www.ericps.crc.uiuc.edu/eece

I hope there will be another Reggio exhibition soon; I hadn't even heard about Reggio until a short time ago! :)

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Guest Louise

I'm interested in the Reggio philosophy too, and the first book I read was "Reflections on Early Education and Care", published by Early Education.

Have you come across the early years curriculum for New Zealand, "Te Whariki"? It's along similar lines, and you can get information about it from www.nzkindergarten.org.nz and www.ecdu.govt.nz/playgroups The curriculum is based on recognising and respecting the child's key interests, allowing him/her to develop these in their play, and recognising the "teachable" moment when the child is open to learning and receptive to teacher intervention. It's very interesting reading :o

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello

I'm hoping to research the Reggio Emilio topic for my education, especially how the children use drawing to communicate and express understanding...whereas in this country, it seems to me that we don't encourage this with the same ferocity. May be I'm wrong. Helen suggestedthat there may be someone out there who could help, offer opinions etc??

I would love to hear from anyone who has something to say about this or who canoffer some advice

many thanks

Kate

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Hi Kate,

Thanks for registering and posting lots :o

I hope you get some responses that will help you with your research on children's developing art skills, and providing a Reggio-style environment. Perhaps when you've spent tomorrow on narrowing down your research interests, you'll have a clearer set of questions to follow up. Good luck :D

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Hi Kate,

I'm probably being a bit dense here, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean about children drawing to express their understanding; understanding of what? Are you also interested in how children use drawing to express emotions?

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Hi Faye

Um... I think I mean , expressing an understanding of what they have been taught and how they use drawing to communicate in otjer ways too. It's all a bit woolly at the moment, but I think ther's mileage in there some where. It struck me that the Emilia Reggio children have such a developed drawing skill through the practice and the encouragement for them to draw was so great that through this they could show what they had understood or interpreted from the teaching. Cleasr as mud I think! Yes I am interested in hoe children express their emotions through Art generally, but I'm not sure whether this fits into the remit. I'll have a think. What does anyone else think ?...about the whole topic.....

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Kate,

Have you got access to the University library? I'm sure you'd find stacks of stuff there that would "limit the field" and give you a clearer question for your research. You don't have to be a library member to go in, so you could spend half a day there in the peace and tranquillity of your intellectual development :o

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Do you mean Sussex or righton Uni. 'cos I've got 3 great books (all they had ) out and Feel inspired, when I have time to read them. If it's Sussex P'raps I should give them a go????? :o

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Hi Kate,

I meant Brighton University (Falmer site); brilliant new library, I could move in for a year and be utterly fulfilled! The early years/education sections are very well resourced. I'm not sure about Sussex; I couldn't find what I was looking for there, as I don't think they're particularly concerned with early years. At Sussex, you just have to fill in a form at the entrance and ask for a day pass.

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  • 1 month later...

I've always found www.amazon.co.uk good for books on early years practice - i've bought books on Reggio/HighScope/Montessori from there. Just type in the keyword and you are away.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm interested to see discussion about the reggio emilia approach. There's a good seminar on this at the early years exhibition. I've also heard that there's a school in or near Derby that's starting to run on these lines - does anyone know anything about this??? :o

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Hi Sarah -

Welcome into the site as well - this being your first post :D

 

We should try to get some Reggio experts to join us in these discussions - so many members seem to be interested (where are you Kate?), but so few seem to know lots about it.

 

Welcome again - please make yourself at home!

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Hello

Steve I am here, just busy with boring houseworky school things. But what exhibition is this, 'cos I want to go if Reggio is being discusssed. More details please anyone????

 

It could make a great birthday outing!!! (well it is in September and I don't get out much anymore)

Look forward to hearing more info.

:o

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  • 1 month later...

Hello I am new to this site but am excited to have found it! I am currently studying for a Degree in early Years Education with the open University and during my first assignment read up on Reggio Emilia and think that some of the ideas are fantastic and others not so practical when your resources are limited, however there is a lovely book called 'The Hundred Languages of Children - The Reggio Emilia Approach- Advanced Reflections.' Hope this helps with your research! :) Teri

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Hi Teri -

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for posting! :D

You're in good company here, with quite a few who are doing an Early Years degree - some with the Open University. In fact you've spurred me on to create a forum specifically for Early Years degree students - might make it easier to make direct contact with them!

 

I love your signature pic by the way!

 

Best wishes,

 

Steve.

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  • 1 year later...

WOW!

 

I just went to the Reggio Emilia exhibition in Folkestone today, had a couple of videos but mostly it was the chance to look around the exhibition and see what they can achieve with the children.

 

You really must go if you get the chance. My head's buzzing with ideas of how to manage some small steps towards changing my classroom - but they have so much space, so many great resources! I have a big sized class for around here, but to allow the children to get the most from their pre-schools, all the places we saw on the video seemed about the size of a school hall!!

 

Anyway, must go, I need to find out how much a light box costs!!

 

Dianne xxx

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Guest alisonjayne

hi Dianne

I too would love to hear about any ideas you have taken from the exhibition and implemented into the classroom. I have been reading a great deal about this approach and have tried to implement one idea of theirs by using mirrors we got the children to really look at themselves in mirrors and then with the support of an adult choose colours for their eyes, hair and talk about the shape of their faces,eyes &eyelashes the detailed pastel drawings they achieved were absolutely amazing one of the children became very interested in his ears and proceeded to draw the inside of each ears. I would love to make our room more Reggio based if possible and I am hoping to get to the Hundred languages of children exhibition later in Birmingham

:D:D:D:D

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Hi there Alison & Magenta

 

Firstly, I have to say that the exhibition really blew me away, but I'm trying to be cautious in what I hope to achieve in the classroom; there are things that many of you are already doing that I'm going to try! One thing we were asked to do on the day was to try & think about an 'action plan' (not the most exciting aspect of the day!!). Here's some of what I would like to do straight away:

 

1) Rearrange the classroom. I'm luck to have a big room, so I can do this. I'm going to double the size of my creative area, at the expense of a set of tables which are little used anyway, elsewhere in the room. I shall now have 2 blocks of tables which can be used for creative activities (e.g. playdough, paint, collage, builders tray activities), a large storage area with as much as possible accessible to the children (I do anticipate some input will be required to prevent children from taking lots out at once, but the idea is that all the stuff is there for them & they will only get out things they are going to use), and a largish floor space which will be used to house creative projects.

 

2) Introduce a creative project linked to our 'autunm' topic. This isn't really in the spirit of Reggio teaching as the projects, and the direction they take, should arise out of the children's interests and ideas. But I hope to give them a flavour with the 'autumn' work so that they have a clearer idea of how to progress next time.

 

I'm going to use a large sheet of paper, maybe 2m x2m and we're going to have a go at doing some washes using some autumnal colours, if they're interested. At the same time we're going to do some observational drawings of the things we collected on last week's autumn walk. We can then have a go at painting/drawing these on top of the 'washed' paper once it's dried. I thought that we could then get out the bags of scrap fabric & stuff, select some items which are autumn colours and discuss ways to stick them onto our painting without spoiling the artwork. Other directions may be indicated by the children e.g. sticking on leaves or something!!

 

It's really not that revolutionary, & probably most of you will say that you're doing stuff like that already. What inspired me was the quality of the work I saw on Thursday; these young children have really been encouraged to look closely at things & reflect on what they see. Also the very large scale of work gives opportunities for real collaborative work & a sense of group achievement - often children produce their own little piece which is nice, but they don't have to talk it over, argue their case, listen to others or compromise!

 

So this is my first attempt & I'll let you know how it goes, if it goes to plan etc! I'm also going to buy a light box asap for looking at 'stuff', and for the children to paint on - I really wanted to have a go at it, so I'm sure they will too!

 

I know I've gone on a lot so I'll stop now. Hope this is of some interest to someone out there! I'll think some more about changes to the environment & get back to you another time!!!

 

Dianne

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Guest alisonjayne

Thanks for that Dianne

I have not seen the exhibition yet but have read several books and as you say the quality of work is just amazing the eye to detail as well as the rich language being used. I have been thinking of making the creative area bigger and we do have shelving for the children to be able to choose their own materials, but it is not really up to the standard I would like to see being used. So maybe this is an area that could easily be worked on in the Reggio style.

Keep me informed of how things go.

Alison

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Guest alisonjayne

I forgot to say have you thought of looking at rain as you are looking at Autumn. They did a project with the starting point being puddles,exploring reflections inside and outside again the work was of exceptional standard they used mirrors to look at reflections.

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Good luck Dianne, sounds really exciting.

I was impresssed when I saw the exhibition 4 yrs ago. Its all attainable in my view, even within our rigid guidelines, but you need energy and resources to get it going successfully. Why is it so much easier to be rather more formal?

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