Principles of Reggio Emilia:

  • Children are strong, interested, capable and curious.
  • Children learn best working with others: with other children, family, teachers, and the community.
  • Children have “the hundred languages” through which show us what they know in many ways – they move, draw, paint, build, sculpt, do collages, act, sing, play music and more
  • Children learn from the spaces they are in – they need beautiful, orderly space where everything has a purpose and can help children learn.
  • Children are capable of long-term, sustained learning when the topic is of interest to them.
  • Teachers listen to and observe the children closely, ask questions, and explore the children’s ideas.
  • Teachers provide experiences that “provoke” children’s thinking and learning.
  • Teachers document the children’s work so that they can talk to each other and the children and better understand the children’s thinking and education in general.
  • Parents provide ideas and skills, which make them active partners in the children’s learning.

The Reggio Emilia Approach to early learning is based on:

  • Child-centered learning
  • Creativity and aesthetics
  • Collaboration
  • Environments
  • Documentation
  • Working in partnership with parents

Teachers incorporating aspects of this approach into their program will:

  • Build on the strengths, competencies, and curiosities of the children (*Image of the Child*)
  • Encourage, support, and develop collaborative learning
  • Have organically-structured rooms & carefully planned spaces. There are well-organized materials, so children are free to spend more time on projects that interest them – often able to move between activities at their own pace (*The Environment as the Third Teacher*)
  • Offer a wide variety of basic art media, including paints, clay construction, drawing , collage with found objects or nature items, dance/yoga/movement (*The Hundred Languages*)
  • Listen to and implement children’s ideas for projects on which to work (*Negotiated Curriculum and Project Approach*)
  • Collect and display the children’s creations and photographs, showing the children at work in the classroom (*Documentation*)
  • Build a portfolio of children’s work at school (*Documentation*)
  • Make a great effort to communicate with parents and to help parents feel involved in their child’s project work (*Parents as Partners*)