At heart, the Reggio Emilia Approach to teaching centers on the belief that children are born with amazing potential and come to our learning environment with a wide range of abilities we can foster. The educational philosophy sees the potential in children to develop and sees our students as having rights of their own.

Learning Environment

Think of the classroom as the third teacher
Materials need to be easily accessible, uncluttered, and inviting
Essentially we create a nurturing home-like environment
Student centered exploration opportunities, a lot of self-guided exploration with adult scaffolding support We encourage a lot of natural environmental exploration and awareness of their impact within the community

Group work

Children are encouraged to wonder and think
Environment is not themed for a particular topic, rather, areas/activities are themed for particular learning areas, such as a Math Exploration or a Science Exploration

Adults as Co-learners

Adults listen, observe, document, reflect with children
Adults provide stimulation of discovery through dialogue

Parent Role

Parents are the child’s first teacher and we encourage parents to be active participants by donating natural reusable items that can be used in our learning environment We aim to build strong relationships with our parents and have open communication in order to intentionally support each child’s individual need

Appreciate the work

We display children’s work in our environment and provide social emotional support as children feel part of something important because they are
We make them feel appreciated by adding pictures of our students in our home environment