Beech Street Preschool
1747 Beech St B3H 4B7 Halifax, NS, Canada

Loris Malaguzzi is and will always be an inspiration, he has worked with such an amazing group of people, to bring together children, families, community and th...e world that has the perfume of the history and the future in education. Loris Malaguzzi shared with the world his vision on pedagogy. and created the Reggio Emilia Approach - enjoy this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnffkLbg1ns

ARE YOU REALLY REGGIO-INSPIRED? There are many theories, models, methods, that inspire good education: Montessori, P4C, Waldorf, Sudbury Schools.. but Reggio is... my X marks the spot as the children at Small World say. Its the middle part, for all to connect to, the place where all good theory and practice meets, the centrepoint that holds all the magic (see painting by KATELYN, age 4) There are many schools in South Africa that are in some way inspired by the Reggio Approach. Perhaps they have put in a light box, or chucked out all their plastic and replaced it with natural materials, or maybe they do Reggio on a Friday. But this is not enough. Being REGGIO-inspired means much more than this. It starts and ends with a strong image of the child, and a utopian dream to see change in the society in which they live. For this reason, every teacher who says they are REGGIO-inspired, must also be an advocate for the child, and a social entrepreneur in their schools. It is not simply about letting the children play with clay or taking photos of their work. If you say you are Reggio-inspired, you stand for the child. You stand WITH the child, who is already standing. You advocate every single day, with every parent you chat to, every teacher you encounter, for a new way of seeing the child already whole, complete, competent, resourceful, perfect as they are. You work every day, from within the system youre in, to inspire transformation, and to create change in the schools, which are microcosms of a society we wish to live in. "Reggio speaks to those of us who long for something else, another belonging. It gives comfort and hope by being different, by showing the possibility of different values, different relationships, different ways of living. Reggio offers a sense of belonging to people longing for others' values, relationships and ways of living. Reggio Emilia is a local place that is engaged in both utopian thought and action through a process that might be called a local cultural project of childhood. But this local cultural project has dispersed geographically and become a global network-it has constructed a new cultural geography. This network is opening towards the possibility of exploring new modes of human possibility. " We need more Reggios, not in the sense of Reggio clones, but of other communities which are prepared to embark on local cultural projects of childhood, to combine utopian thought and action, to dream about the future, to hope for a better world." ~Carlina Rinaldi, In Dialogue with Reggio Emilia.

Art. Play. Children. Pedagogy. Simon Nicholson on the theory of loose parts. "According to Nicholson, the cultural elite have created and maintained a social li...e. They have convinced us that the construction of any part of an environment or artwork is so complex and difficult that it can only be undertaken by a gifted few people who have university degrees and highly specialised artistic expertise. This misconception has led people to believe that creativity is for a select few geniuses and the rest of us are compelled to be mere consumers of the music, art, poems, buildings and ideas that these people create. This is particularly prevalent in the lives of young children." https://louisapenfold.com//simon-nicholson-on-the-theory-/ See more

"Aesthetic sensibility threads through every level, as a barrier to keep away all forms of violence and abuse of power" Vea Vecchi, Art and Creativity in Reggio... Emilia newest translation in Portuguese and many other publications about the Reggio Emilia Approach. Come and visit us at the 69th Frankfurter Buchmesse, Germany, from October 11th to 15th, in the collective stand of the Italian Trade Agency and Italian Publishers Association (Hall 5.0 Stand C 36) "La sensibilità estetica è trasversale e si colloca come barriera per allontanare tutte le forme di violenza e sopraffazione". Vea Vecchi, Art and Creativity in Reggio Emilia, la nuova edizione in portoghese, con tante altre pubblicazioni sul Reggio Emilia Approach alla 69 Fiera del Libro a Francoforte dall11 al 15 ottobre 2017, nello stand collettivo italiano di ICE Agenzia per la promozione allestero e linternazionalizzazione delle imprese italiane e AIE - Associazione Italiana Editori (Pad. 5.0 Stand C36)

This lays it out very clearly

Renew your teaching practice! We have a powerful line-up of educators for the Summer 2017 Online Conference. https://fairydustteaching.samcart.com//H7/3Tx0dpWcXLNrxqiO 2017 Online Summer Conference Starting July 10, 2017

This quote from Carlina Rinaldi goes to the heart of our approach at Reflections:

Our holiday story! We decorated our Christmas tree by creating Christmas chains, painting snowflakes, putting beads into some pipe cleaners, and drawing some pictures. We had a Christmas party and all of the families were invited! For the party, we made some Korean food - Yubuchobap- and some short breads. We sang Christmas songs and watched a puppet show for the party!

Preschool- November 2014 There has been some wonderful dramatic play occurring in the preschool room. The children have taken an interest in fire fighting. They have dressed up, created scenarios and completed building projects. The children have shown a knowledge of what fire fighters do on a regular basis and have done some great collaboration.

The beauty of chestnuts "Shake! Shake! Jump! Jump!"

November 13th Preschool Room "Shake! Shake! Jump! Jump!" We shook some pizza boxes! Guess what was in the pizza boxes? Some white paper was placed in the pizza boxes, then we hid some chestnuts and some paint in the boxes. Then, we closed the boxes and shook them! We jumped to make them shake louder. ... Then, we opened the pizza boxes and said "Wow! This is so cool!" See more

would love your help! Do you have any see through containers with covers that you do not need (pop/water or juice bottles). Feel free to send clean ones our way! We have been using containers and various materials to make shakers, drums and even blocks. We had discovered that the children very much enjoy the process of putting things in the containers as well as listening to the sound made as materials hit the bottom and watching as items drop in. We hope to continue with this interest by making more shakers, rain sticks and sensory bottles. You can drop off materials in the preschool classroom. Thanks!!

Listen to the sound of the chestnuts and acorns and look at the beautiful paints mixing up together!

November 4th, 5th & 6th Preschool Room Our interest in the sound of chestnuts went further and was intrigued by some paint, and bottles. We put some chestnuts in the bottle; however, we noticed that some of the chestnuts were too big for the bottle. Therefore, we decided to put some acorns in the bottle. Then, we scooped some paint and put it in the bottle. "I am making rainbow!" "It's mud!" And we shook the bottle!

What happens to the pumpkin when Halloween is over? We hammer it... The preschool group hammered designs in our pumpkins this week using golf tees. We also tried using plastic anchors but the children quickly discovered they did not work so well. We have been showing an interest in hammering and tools when building in our block corner. We have done a number of activities involving hammering over the past few weeks in the preschool room including hammering Styrofoam pieces together, hammering designs into Styrofoam and hammering the colour out of natural objects. Stay tuned for more photos.

A preschool teacher Bora presented a workshop on pedagogical documentation within children's outdoor play at The Outdoor, Outdoor Play Workshop in Amherst, NS last weekend. She shared her professional work with other early childhood educators. Pedagogical documentation is a documentation that makes children's thinking, learning, and feelings visible to others and draws others to children's learning experiences. At the workshop, pedagogical documentation was introduced as a tool to better understand the ways that children learn during outdoor play and to create innovative responses to children's outdoor learning while involving parents and families into children's outdoor play.

October 29th Preschool Room The bottles were provided with the chestnuts because it was observed that the children were interested in the sound of the chestnuts. The children figured out that some of the chestnuts didn't fit into the bottle. Therefore, they decided to put some acorns in the bottles and listened to the sound of the chestnuts and the acorns while shaking the bottles.

Listen to the sound of the chestnuts that we discovered!

October 23rd Preschool Room "Children learn through the experiences they have when they play, without being taught and while having fun." (White, 1997). Our inquiry about chestnuts went further with some tubes and metal bowls. We remembered how loud the sound of chestnuts was when they were being poured into plastic containers. Today, we dropped the chestnuts into the metal bowls and listened to the sound. We also put some chestnuts in a tube, covered both ends with our hands... and shook them! We noticed that each sound was different. In addition to the exploration of the chestnuts' sound, an imaginative play with the chestnuts was developed as well. A bridge (tube) was built to the plant "Lemon Flower" by putting "Lemon seeds" (chestnuts) into the bridge. White, R. (1997). Sometimes, you Just Gotta Make Mud Pies Children's Adcenture Pla Gardens. Retrieved from, https://www.whitehutchinson.com/leisure/articles/84.shtml

October 22nd Preschool Room We explored chestnuts that we collected from our walk. We banged them together and we used tweezers, spoons, and our fingers to sort out the chestnuts. We divided the chestnuts into a pile of chestnuts and a pile of their "spikey things", according to a child. Then, we decided to fill the bucket with the chestnuts and pour them into a bowl. We loved pouring chestnuts and listening to the sound of them while they were being poured.

October 21st Preschoolers "Nature inspires creativity in a child by demanding visualization and the full use of the senses. Given a chance, a child will bring the confusion of the world to the woods, wash it in the creek, turn it over to see what lives on the unseen side of that confusion." (Louv, 2008, p. 7). We know where to visit our nature friends such as worms and slugs! While we were exploring our nature friends' home, we found something that we had never seen before. "...It's a lizard!" said a boy. It turned out to be a salamander. We created a special home for our new salamander friend. We enjoyed watching how he moves his body. We also found some snail shells. We love outdoors! Louv, R. (2008). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. Chapel Hill, N.C: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

A preschool teacher Bora presented a workshop on pedagogical documentation within childrens outdoor play at The Outdoor, Outdoor Play Workshop in Amherst, NS last weekend. She shared her professional work with other early childhood educators. Pedagogical documentation is a documentation that makes childrens thinking, learning, and feelings visible to others and draws others to childrens learning experiences. At the workshop, pedagogical documentation was introduced as a tool to better understand the ways that children learn during outdoor play and to create innovative responses to childrens outdoor learning while involving parents and families into childrens outdoor play.

October 16th Preschool Room We were harvesting herbs from our garden! We explored herbs by smelling them, rubbing them, cutting them, and adding them to the play dough we created. Children said that the herbs smell like strawberry, potato, and something. We enjoyed cutting the herbs with knives and rolling the herbs on the play dough. We were inspired to include the play dough with the herbs by the Facebook Page Let The Children Play.