A Room With a View

"In the Reggio Emilia approach the environment is viewed as a place that is welcoming, authentic aesthetically pleasing, culturally representative of community, embraces nature and filled with purposeful materials. The layout of the environment promotes relationships, communication, collaboration, and exploration through play. Materials are thoughtfully added to the environment to promote creativity, thinking and problem solving skills, questions, experimentation and open-ended play. " Lella Gandini

In our weekly Nest teacher meeting, the team were challenged to take a closer look at our classroom environment. We asked:
How does the environment inspire thinking and learning?
What engages the children in each space?

Where are the areas where children may make choices?

Where are the areas where children express creativity?

From this time of reflection, the Rivers teaching team began to make changes in the classroom. We raised one table to be a standing table. We switched the activities available at the center tables. We added new materials to the discovery table. But one of the simplest changes we made was to bring a small step stool into the room. Our classroom has big, beautiful windows with lots of natural light. We keep the windowsills clear of clutter and nurture plants. But, from their viewpoint, the children could only see sky out of the window.

The appearance of the step stool created lots of interest. Everyone wanted to take a turn. The children discovered two people could fit on the stool. After our walking trip to Holy Innocents church, the children climbed the step stool and exclaimed, "I can see it, OUR castle-church!"

For more information about the role of the school environment:
https://reggioemilia2015.weebly.com/environment-as-a-third-teacher.html
https://earlylearning.prn.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/Environment-as-the-3rd-teacher.pdf