As we listen and observe, document and reflect, search and brainstorm, we’ve come to realize that some children are more naturally drawn to the written word.
Others have found their voices as authors, artists and storytellers through different means, incorporating it into their everyday play, drawings and narrations.
Working within a Reggio inspired school, our pedagogical responsibility is to help all children discover their unique ways of learning, understanding and expressing their thoughts about the world around them. It is to essentially provide an environment in which we hear the children’s voices, one that encourages them to speak using their “Hundred Languages.”
Our woodland animals have always been a great source of enjoyment and interest to our children. We read tales of their adventures in books and watch as children craft block homes for our stuffed animals. Alongside our bird viewing window, we’ve now introduced small plastic animals within their own miniature habitats of dirt, trees and other woodland creatures. We are listening as children give voices to these animals, bringing them to life.
Clay, a material new to some of our children, is a blank slate, a process, one that must be squeezed, pinched, rolled, and molded, but one that can transform into an endless array of ideas along the way.
A simple marker and paper is a wonderfully non-threatening way for a story to unfold. Often the ongoing narration allows for a great fluidity of ideas. Other times we witness as children silently create an entire drawing. Once completed, their enthusiasm in sharing the story behind it is palpable.
It’s a Loop de Loop game.
They’re balls that I call rock balls. This makes the rocks go all around and this little one doesn’t move and this big one does move.
The guys go loop de loop around.
Those are the rules that say stop at the stop sign.
When these light flash, they make noise and they say stop.
