Reggio Emilia approach

• The Reggio Emilia approach is an early childhood education method originating in Italy that is gaining worldwide recognition.

• We understand that mothers in the small town of Reggio Emilia after World War II built a school in hopes of a future without war.

• In addition to children and teachers, the participation of parents is also an important factor.

• A teacher's job is considered to be "to support children so that they can climb mountains as high as possible on their own", and the primary purpose is to foster the ability to think and act for themselves.

• We think it's important to listen to children as "very capable being" and understand the great ideas they have.

• Teachers will support the development of projects based on what is born from this listening process.

• The "documentation" that records the flow of children's behavior and works is also an important element of this method. We will share this with parents in a timely manner and ask parents to participate in the development of their children through this process.

• This method continues to develop in various regions of the world, according to the characteristics of each region. We would like to further develop our own approach together with the children and parents based on our own situation..

How do we proceed? What is a project like?

It is also true that it is difficult to get a concrete image of how to proceed ​ because it is a method that respects the autonomy of children.

LesSydney Gurewitz Clemens, who is familiar with Ggio Emilia, will give an overview of the examples introduced at the lecture.

• ​Five-year-old children returned from summer vacation and had a discussion.

• In the conversation, the teacher noticed that the crowd was the most interesting for the children.

• a picture of a crowdI decided to draw. The first crowd painting was all facing the same direction

• The teacher asked, "Is the crowd we saw just like this picture?"

• No, it wasn't like this. The reaction was that not everyone was walking in the same direction, so the project was further advanced.

• Children's Conversation: "I have to draw the view from the back" "I have to draw the view from the side and the front properly" "I don't know how to create the view from the back"

• We will continue to work with children. When one child drew a picture, some people had no eyes drawn. It meant that it was moving towards the other side.

• Other children tried making clay. I thought I would make 100, but I got tired after about 50. I put a mirror behind and made it 100 bodies.

• Another child made something like a speech bubble out of paper and made it stand. I tried to show that the crowd was having a conversation.

​It captures the wonderful imagination of children. I am excited to see how the children will grow if we continue these activities every day.. ​We would like to bring out the power of children with this approach at our school.

​​In addition, the detail of these activities will be communicated to parents on a daily basis in the form of photos, videos, documents, works, etc.