Philosophy
Reggio Emilia
WonderWell passionately embraces emergent curriculum and the highly acclaimed Reggio Emilia philosophy of early childhood education
Reggio Emilia is a philosophy of early childhood education that originated in the city of Reggio Emilia in northern Italy. This approach values a child's natural curiosity and allows their individual interests to guide their learning.
Hallmarks of the Reggio Emilia Approach
Emergent curriculum inspires and extends learning based on student interests as opposed to a ready-made curriculum with predetermined facts and information
The Hundred Languages of Children: a child's "language" is not limited to their verbal communication; children creatively express their thinking and learning through play, drawing, speaking, dancing, writing, singing, sculpting, painting, acting
A Reggio-inspired school is relationship-driven and encircles the child with three teachers or protagonists: the parent, the teacher, and the environment; these relationships are interconnected and supported by the school
Children are viewed as competent individuals who are capable of taking an active role in their own learning
Teachers are co-constructors of knowledge and work alongside students to observe their interests and interactions in an effort to design experiences that inspire their innate curiosity
Teachers design provocations to "provoke" children's thinking, research, investigations, and hands-on exploration
Project-based learning: using their careful observations of each child's explorations, interests, and questions, teachers introduce projects accordingly
The classroom environment, the third teacher, is a beautiful, clutter-free, inviting learning space carefully planned and organized with natural, open-ended materials; the environment is flexible and responsive to student needs and interests
Teachers document student progress and development in a variety of ways on a daily basis; documentation includes teacher observations, anecdotal records, visual media, narratives, student work samples, project artifacts to make students' learning visible, revisit their interests and thoughts, reflect, and to support their next steps
Learn More
We encourage our WonderWell family to read more about the Reggio Emilia approach online by exploring the following links:
THE HUNDRED LANGUAGES OF CHILDREN
- The child is made of one hundred.
- The child has
- a hundred languages
- a hundred hands
- a hundred thoughts
- a hundred ways of thinking
- of playing, of speaking.
- A hundred.
- Always a hundred
- ways of listening
- of marveling, of loving
- a hundred joys
- for singing and understanding
- ...
Inspiring Curiosity with WonderWell
Our Studio 512 Segment!