New Year – Updated “Us”, Same Commitment to children and families.

Over 2024, we took a dive into gaining a deeper understanding of the Reggio Emilia approach- while we are still on that journey, we were excited to take what we have learned to our environments today as we re-evaluated and adjusted.

Before we were able to set up these environments, we needed to acknowledge what we hoped the environments would provide for the littles in our care. We have adopted the Reggio Emilia philosophy of the “Environment as the Third Teacher” for a long time- our understanding was to ensure that spaces were warm, welcoming, inviting supportive of the children in the room. While we believe that children enjoyed our environments, we felt that we were lacking curiosity, wonder and creativity.

When we think about how we want to help shape little minds during these formative years, we want children to LEARN HOW TO LEARN ; this means to be curious, to wonder and hypothesize, to learn how to “research” by experimenting and investigating, to feel confident in taking risks and problem solving, to work collaboratively with others, feel safe to ask for help, to express themselves and explore their identity.

It was time for us to do some research; through workshops and study tours we were quickly reminded the value of loose parts. Through the use of open-ended materials we can nurture creativity and innovation. Open-ended materials—such as blocks, natural objects, and loose parts—encourage children to use their imaginations and think outside the box. Activities are designed to be exploratory, allowing children to approach problems in their own unique ways without predetermined outcomes. This freedom cultivates a mindset of curiosity and resilience. As one of our educators stated : once children have mastered a toy- the toy becomes boring- but the possibilities are endless with loose parts.

So today- we had a brief staff meeting and then got to work! We are so excited to see how the littles engage in their new learning environments tomorrow. Check out below for a sneak peak!