Last Day of School

On the last day of school we wanted to visualize our classroom space without anything in it, so we pushed all the furniture to the sides of the room.

The purpose was to see our space without any pre-defined areas. We wanted it to be a blank canvas, where we could visualize new areas and new ideas for spaces. We also wanted to talk about sight lines and the flow of movement in the room.

We ended up sitting at the round table (the only furniture we didn't push out of the way) and just talked about what we could visualize in the space. We had a piece of blank paper and started to map out some of our initial ideas. We also wrote down a list of the learning spaces that we felt strongly about having in our classroom for September.

Learning Spaces
-light table
-art studio
-discovery table (a place for natural objects and found objects to be brought inside)
-inquiry project area
-communication table (what would traditionally be called the writing centre)
-dramatic play
-big blocks
-quiet reading area
-meeting place
-math exploration (with access to floor area)
-sensory exploration
-water
-sand

We then started to visualize where and how these learning spaces would fit together into the classroom. We drew an initial plan that we will play around with when we come back into the classroom at the end of August to set up for September.

Next steps:
1) Meeting to plan for September
2) Trip to Ikea for new materials
3) Repainting the dramatic play furniture and making repairs
4) Reading, reading and more reading

Here are some before and after pictures of the great room purge!

Stephanie and Helen. (Also a big thank you to Catherine for helping us dismantle our room!)

View from the back before...

...and view from the back after.

View from the front doorway before...

...and view from the front doorway after.

Reading List

To help us prepare our new classroom environment we have been reading books that were suggested to us or that we have picked up ourselves.  Some of the books below are ones that we have read or are currently reading.




Natural Curiosity: Building Children's Understanding of the World through Environmental Inquiry by OISE - The Laboratory School at the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study


Natural Curiosity Website - Download Free Copy

-an excellent book that looks at inquiry through the lens of environmental education, we highly recommend it 
-we have used this book throughout the school year and have participated in a monthly professional learning community
-we like the four branches that comprise Environmental Inquiry: Inquiry-based Learning, Integrated Learning, Experiential Learning, and Stewardship

QUOTE: "When direct experience in nature falls to the wayside, the opportunity to explore the ditch gets replaced by memorizing lists of plants you might find if you actually ever went to the ditch." Natural Curiosity

Authentic Childhood by Susan Fraser
-highly recommend this book as an introduction to Reggio Emillia philosophy of education, especially since it's with a Canadian focus

QUOTE: "A number of principles, including aesthetics, active learning, collaboration, transparency, "bringing the outdoors in," flexibility, relationship, and reciprocity, need to be addressed to create an environment that acts as a third teacher." Susan Fraser






Insights and Inspirations from Reggio Emilia: Stories of Teachers and Children from North America. Edited by Lella Gandini, Susan Etheredge, and Lynn Hill
-wonderful collection of articles and stories, helpful to see Reggio Emilia represented through the eyes of others in North America

QUOTE: "...start from an explicit declaration about the very open image of the child...An image in the sense of an interpretation, strong and optimistic about the child; a child who is born with many resources and extraordinary potentialities that never fail to surprise us; a child with autonomous capacities to construct thoughts, ideas, questions and attempts to give answers." Loris Malaguzzi





Designs for Living and Learning: Transforming Early Childhood Environments by Dev Curtis and Margie Carter
-new resource recommended to us by Dr. Carol Anne Wien as a great place to start looking at the space in our classroom







We Are All Explorers: Learning and Teaching with Reggio Principles in Urban Settings. Edited by Daniel R. Scheinfeld, Karen Marie Haig, and Sandra J Scheinfeld.
-this resource is a good basic introduction to Reggio, we found the chapter on team-teaching valuable

Materials

We are very excited that we have received our first order of some of the materials that we have purchased for next year.  When we were going through the catalogues, we were mindful to choose materials that were natural, transparent and purposeful and ones that would encourage investigation and exploration.

Below are some pictures of the items that we have purchased:

Tree Blocks

Rainbow Blocks

Mirrored Shape Blocks

Wooden Playdough Set

Wooden Abacus

Wooden Scissor Holder

Glass Beads

 

We are very excited for our students to use these materials next year!

Stephanie and Helen

First Meeting

We have decided to put aside some time once week where we could get together and talk about what we are going to do next year. We started today by putting together a rough agenda of items that we want to discuss in the next few weeks.

Agenda (so far)
1) Our Values
2) Room Planning (materials, aesthetics, space)
3) Logistics (where to put indoor/outdoor shoes, cubby area, snack organization, poem books, borrow-a-books...and a lot more stuff that we haven't thought of yet)
4) Routines (clean up, entry, timetable, weekly planning, daily schedule...and again a lot more stuff that we haven't thought of yet)

To help us understand where to start from, we've been reading a variety of books, including "Authentic Childhood" By Susan Fraser. We've both read the chapter on classroom environment and decided to follow the books recommendations for identifying our shared values for our classroom. We thought this was a great idea and a good place to start.

Our Values:
-organization
-clutter-free
-calmness
-view of natural space
-sound level / acoustics
-natural materials
-aesthetics
-bringing the outdoors in
-softness
-lighting
-mirrors / reflection
-display of materials
-well chosen artifacts
-exploration of art (art studio within classroom)
-defined space for focused play (i.e., classroom as the third teacher)
-documentation
-parent contact
-natural containers / transparent containers


We want our classroom to reflect our values. As we clean up, declutter and set up our new classroom together, we will use this list as a guide.


Helen and Stephanie



"The first step, therefore, in planning the environment is to identify the values that are at the core of our work with young children and those of the families and the wider community surrounding the school." Susan Fraser, Authentic Childhood, Pg. 105

It begins...

Welcome.

This is the small beginnings of a long journey for two teachers sharing a room together next year. We are planning to transform our classroom...inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education.

As of now we are not even at the 'under-construction' part of our journey as our classroom will need to be completely dismantled. We are hoping to take everything out of our room to really see our space.

This blog will follow our journey including all of our questions, wonderings, musings and inspirations!

Stephanie and Helen.

Thought of the day: Try to think about what needs to change to reflect what is really important.

Entrance way to our classroom.