What does the Reggio Emilia approach to education mean?

by Lorie Hammond, Ph. D., Academic Director

We often say that Peregrine School is inspired by the Reggio Emilia schools of Italy, but it is hard for people to understand what that means. Here are a few concrete examples from our classrooms.

Teacher led small groups

Enter primaria on Tuesday at 10:30. Students are all engaged, each in a group of five to six students. One group is outside with Teacher Susan, planting individual garden plots. A second is with Maestra Fabi, stringing clay beads that the children made yesterday into necklaces. A third is with Teacher Cara, making butterflies from transparent plastic and hanging them on the windows, as part of an ongoing study of pollinators.

The same types of groups might be found in any of our classrooms. In escuelita, there is more emphasis on child-led play. Several children might be in the sandbox with a teacher, making play cakes and creating a bakery. Others might be at an art table making one of the many maps that escuelita is studying. Because of their needs as young children, more children would be engaged in free play that they invent on the spot rather than in organized activities.

In the first grade, as in all first grades, a lot of time is devoted to reading and math, but this too is done in small, teacher led groups solving problems together.

How are teacher led small groups special in Reggio-inspired schools?

All good preschool and early childhood schools have teachers watching small groups of children at work and play. In Reggio schools, we attempt to expose children to people who are expert at something, working along with the children to explore it. The focus is on topics that interest the children. But the key is to extend the explorations beyond what children alone would do.

What are “emergent” projects?

In Reggio schools, we talk about curriculum emerging from children’s interests and from things that happen spontaneously. Here is an example. Children were making butterflies out of transparent plastic and hanging them on the window. It was a sunny day, and the children began to realize that the butterflies were projected on the floor. This led to a discussion of light and how it works. I asked the question: “Will these butterflies stay in the same place on the floor?” To explore it, we got out a piece of butcher paper to put under the butterflies, and traced them on it. A half hour later, when we returned, they had moved. This was a mystery that could lead to more predictions and thoughts about light. Where will the butterfly images move during the day? Where would we need to place a butterfly to see it projected in a certain position? What is causing the movement? A whole student of light could emerge from this set of perceptions. Teacher Susan, our primaria scientist, suggested that children could make a sun dial, to note how the light moves over the day. These kind of projects are inherently interesting because they emerge naturally from things that happen and from children’s questions.