Exploring the community is a regular feature. Field trips can be quite frequent, and spontaneously arise from the needs of the class. In a Reggio-Inspired preschool, a field trip is used as another method of gathering information and exploring a topic. For example, if a class wants to know more about trains, they may take a trip to watch trains come and go at the station or take a ride if possible.
The classroom is seen as the third teacher. The schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy, are beautiful - floor to ceiling windows let the light stream in, the classrooms open to a center piazza, and each classroom also opens to the outside. Of course, unless a school is built from scratch, we are usually not lucky enough to have such ideal conditions but here at Young Explorers we have been spoilt! A Reggio-Inspired classroom should feel light, and great care should be taken to arrange objects, organise supplies, and display artwork and documentation. Also, the classroom is seen as flexible in a Reggio-Inspired preschool - throughout the year, furniture will be moved and materials will be rotated to suit the needs of the children.
In 1963, Loris Malaguzzi founded the municipal preschools in Reggio Emilia, Italy, that we now think of as Reggio preschools. Malaguzzi championed the right of children to express themselves in a multitude of ways, and stressed the need for parents and teachers to communicate and work together. These schools are a true collaboration between children, teachers, and parents.
Reggio-Inspired preschools view learning as an exciting, creative inquiry process. This is very different from the traditional view that preschool is a place to be passively filled with knowledge. The teachers in a Reggio-Inspired preschool are not there to give answers; they are there to observe, to facilitate learning, and to learn right alongside the children.