I'm so excited to be moving to a Reggio inspired school in August! For those of you unfamiliar with Reggio Emilia approach, it's based on approaching young children in a developmentally appropriate way through natural materials. My principal gave me a hand out of Reggio-Emilia values. In the hand-out, I learned that Reggio values the child as a protagonist, a collaborator and a communicator. Reggio requires that the teacher is a partner, guide, nurturer, researcher and that the environment is a third teacher. Most importantly, Reggio requires that parents are partners.
I found a great source that goes into more detail at:Reggio Kids.
My co-teachers are more versed in the Reggio approach, so I look forward to collaborating and learning more as time goes on. However, my first year I was told that I need to have an Identity Panel and a planned Birthday Tradition. I learned that an Identity Panel contains a child's picture along with their self portrait. I love this idea and can't wait to implement this! (Reggio Identity Panel)
A birthday tradition is something a child creates in the classroom to celebrate the day of their birth. I toured many classrooms and each room varied in their tradition. Some classes had letters that students decorated with a friend, some classes created globes and so many more. I will update with pictures soon! I think my class will have a caterpillar portion to decorate. I can just picture this little caterpillar inching along our classroom and with each month another little friend will add to it. I did notice that teachers didn't add to the birthday tradition (or I didn't see it), but I will have my own caterpillar link too!
This year I'm planning to jump right into letter recognition with one of my favorite letter books Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!
I also have a ton of ideas pinned on Pinterest to go along with this favorite!
Another great one that I use EVERY year, no matter what grade I teach is The Crayon Box That Talked.This is just such a beautiful book about acceptance and appreciation for every gift each student or "crayon" brings to the classroom.
Can you believe that the google reader on blogger is retiring? Well, it was pretty surprising to me too. If you follow google reader it's the newsfeed that pops up when you sign into blogger. I like to keep up with all my favorite bloggies out there. If you're like me, follow me on over to bloglovin.com. I have a link just to the right over there.
Well, I'm told my brand new spanking classroom will be open in early August, so I cannot wait to start implementing all the Reggio ideas and reading those back to school books. I know from the linky party that I will be adding some to my collection this year!
~Christina
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