How To Set Up A Reggio Emilia Classroom

Something that I learned about during my years in college that still permeates my classroom and education is the Reggio Emilia approach to early on teaching. I am not a instructor in a Reggio school nor have I attended a study tour in Reggio Emilia, Italy (that'southward a saucepan list particular!), but I am passionate nigh the arroyo and how it can be used it in my public school classroom. I often receive questions nearly my Reggio-inspired infinite or activities that I share on Instagram, so this post will try to answer your questions about condign more than Reggio-inspired.

Where to start?

First, it's important to have a base understanding of what the Reggio Emilia arroyo is and what it isn't. According to the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance, the approach entails "a deep knowledge in theory and community-constructed values that have been and are continuously being translated into loftier quality early on babyhood practices" (NAREA, 2022). Teachers using this approach have an understanding of Vygotsky, Piaget, and Dewey, to proper name a few. Social construction of knowledge is key, allowing children to be actively involved in their education. Mod methods similar project-based learning are similar in their approach. A Reggio-inspired instructor seeks to create a infinite that supports children in all forms of development. This infinite goes far and across the physical space but includes the concepts, projects, activities, discussions, methods, and exploration that students experience.

The Reggio approach is not just a style to decorate a classroom. While the concrete environment plays a role, there is much more to being a Reggio-inspired classroom than the colors of the carpet or the types of bins used. You lot will become some tips in this post about colors and materials, but without more background and learning, it will just be decoration.

In that location are multiple means to learn about the Reggio Emilia arroyo from observing in Reggio learning centers and talking with Reggio educators to reading books and attending conferences. I was fortunate to brainstorm my learning in college during my undergraduate program. Learning about the history of Reggio Emilia and working in Reggio-inspired early on learning centers jumpstarted my journey into the Reggio earth.

To get-go your own Reggio journey, I suggest starting with your mindset . There are so many things about the approach that differ from traditional classroom blueprint, instructional materials, planning, and activities. So, ask yourself the following questions and consider your responses:

What part practice the children play in their learning?

What role do I play in children's learning and within the classroom?

What role does the classroom space play in children'southward learning?

Answer honestly and completely. Your answers will assist you either begin to shift your thinking surrounding the role of yourself and your space, or you may realize that you see those roles in a unlike manner than the Reggio arroyo. The next pace is to commencement building some background.

A swell place to start is the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance website. In that location, you can find lots of information about the Reggio approach. I do have some volume recommendations for those looking to take resources nearby to refer back to, highlight, and cite. The book that I usually suggest is below, merely you tin notice more books here .

How do I create separate areas and arrange piece of furniture?

What many people notice almost a Reggio-inspired classroom are the split, intentional areas for children to utilise. In a traditional Reggio classroom, you would detect an atelier (artistic expression area), loose parts, a sensory/sand play area, edifice area, writing center, math/numbers eye, and a meeting surface area (in the larger school setting, this is chosen a piazza).

One fashion that these areas become meaningful is the addition of provocations within each area. Provocations are instructor-planned but student-led scenarios that seek to engage, inspire, or challenge children. A beginning-of-year provocation in the atelier may be a self-portrait creation, in the building eye there may be a provocation to build your habitation, or in the writing center in that location could exist a provocation to write and decorate your name.

Although you lot may see specific things like a play kitchen, a low-cal table, or other specialized furniture, you practice non demand those things to set up upwardly areas. All you demand is space. Furniture placement is important hither. If your classroom uses tables for children, you will want to think almost how many tables you demand for student work areas. Flexible seating and allowing students to work in other areas can aid gratuitous up tables for Reggio areas. You can read this mail service to come across how I set up my play centers, which is what I call these special areas. You can do the aforementioned with desks, only exist creative in how yous accommodate them. Reggio encourages a constructivist approach, and so students should have the opportunity to sit near each other and piece of work together. Pods are best for facilitating this approach.

Shelving can exist helpful for creating these areas, but consider what your classroom already has. A traditional Reggio space isn't particularly roomy, but I adopt a more open concept. Remember, yous're creating a "Reggio-inspired" infinite, so yous tin edit the layout to fit your classroom needs. I use shelving to business firm multiple centers, and students motion the materials to a table or floor area to play. I also use shelving for customs supplies for easy access. Remember, though, work with what you have and can repurpose.

What do I prioritize when setting up my classroom for the get-go of the year?

Every bit most teachers would agree, creating a classroom environment normally involves money, shopping, and lots of stuff. It's quite the opposite when setting up a Reggio-inspired space. Children are the main focus. Their artwork, quotes, work samples, and creations are what volition "decorate" your space. A Reggio-inspired space uses the walls equally a canvass for children rather than a identify to fill with teacher-created materials. Bare walls are encouraged in the offset of the year. Message boards are left empty, ready to be covered with self portraits, name art, a written report of the school campus, or photos of children and their families.

In terms of materials, you will notice that well-nigh Reggio classrooms utilize natural elements like wooden crates or woven baskets. This may or may not exist what you currently use, but in that location is no need to throw out perfectly useful plastic bins. A Reggio-inspired space showcases the children, leaving the materials, walls, rugs neutral. If y'all are defective neutral colors or materials, what tin can you paint? Cover? Repurpose? If you have a option of which colored bins you use, could you only use bins with more natural colors like dejection and greens? Do y'all have articulate bins? All of those things work perfectly fine. Over time, you lot can make swaps with other teachers, find items at garage sales, or repurpose constitute items.

It'southward of import to state that there is nothing wrong with colour! A neutral background lets the work of the children stand out, that's all. Neutrals can also mirror the kid's natural environment, both outdoors and in their own homes.

When setting upward the Reggio areas, think in terms of simplicity. A sensory table could hands be created with an affordable plastic bin and water. An atelier (fine art center) just needs paper and drawing materials. Loose parts take quite the open-ended concept, and you lot could bring in stones, pine cones, chaplet, coins, or other items that you may already own or notice outside. This post details what my centers include. There does not need to exist an abundance of "toys" like Magna Tiles or marble runs. Employ what you take for artistic expression areas. If yous don't take blocks for a building center, use rinsed out aluminum cans from your pantry at abode. Go on to call up in terms of repurposing.

Your students volition create many things that you lot think yous need to have prepared for the beginning of the year. Await for them and create them together.

This includes things like labels for materials and centers, posters for expectations, borders for bulletin boards, alphabet cards for a discussion wall, a number line, and nametags for tables (as seen stuck in the plants). There is no demand to have these things made ahead of fourth dimension in a Reggio-inspired space.

Tin can this approach be washed exterior of pre-M or kindergarten?

Short respond, yeah! If yous've spent time learning the background and history of Reggio, you've seen that it's far beyond just setting up play areas. The arroyo itself revolves around letting immature children construct their learning. This could be done in multiple grade levels with a instructor who is prepared to deviate from the programs their school has provided or from the scope and sequence.

Letting students have the lead may involve a detour of your typical learning. Information technology may look like spending more than time on building relationships, learning from each other, and doing a lot of partner or group work. Information technology could mean that you reevaluate your concrete space and set it upward to provide areas for creative expression or passion projects. Nevertheless you want to utilize the approach in your Reggio-inspired classroom, it can benefit students across age 5. You probable already utilise many aspects of Reggio!

How does reading/math/writing look in a Reggio-inspired classroom?

Like you've read earlier in this post, y'all can be Reggio-inspired by letting your students take the lead, letting them fix the pace, and giving them a variety of materials and methods to testify their learning and express their interests. A Reggio-inspired reading time could focus on student interests with book selection and partner reading. Math fourth dimension could look like students working together to solve an open-concluded problem (the CGI method pairs well with this approach). Writing could involve lots of research projects, narratives, or fiction story writing.

In every classroom, including Reggio ones, at that place is explicit teaching using proven methods. But I see the primary shift from traditional to Reggio-inspired in how teachers allow students to proceeds more command of the topics, pace, methods, and paths that the learning takes.

There is no way that 1 mail service tin can modify your traditional arroyo to a Reggio-inspired 1. But it tin can start you on the path.

I am Reggio-inspired, but I am also influenced by other philosophies, enquiry, and methods. I am a firm laic in pattern thinking in terms of how you set up and run your classroom. I believe that research in best practices for early childhood, work spaces, and emotional development are but every bit important to study as your curriculum. Because my didactics is based on a diverseness of things, I created a course to help other educators modify their classrooms, improve student engagement, and shift their thinking around instruction. It'due south chosen The Research-Based Space, and you can pre-order it now! Course begins in early August and includes alive sessions with me. Click below to learn more than!