According to the Reggio Emilia Approach, we know the environment to be "the third teacher" of our children's education. As educators, we try to provide flexible learning spaces within our classroom, but also provide opportunities to learn from the environments we live in. On Tuesday, we went to the grassy areas at Washington Market Park to explore nature. Our children noticed lots of leaves that were yellow, brown, green, red, or greenish red on the grass. We decided to collect the leaves together in order to take a closer look at them. Then we wondered why the leaves were changing colors!
We also continued to observe what our children are gravitating towards. One area that the children are really enjoying is the dramatic play area. The 3A children are always dressing up as moms, dads, doctors, babies, etc. They also cook at the stove, set up the dinner table, work on the keyboard, or talk on the phone with their mommies and daddies. It truly is a joyful scene to see the children begin to imitate their grown-ups, whether they are at home, work, or stores.
Inspired by our children's imaginary play in the kitchen area, we decided to find out where we got our food from. The 3A children walked to a nearby store called the Morgan's Market. When we went inside, we saw fresh fruit displayed nicely by colors. Then we went to an aisle that had lots of cereals and granolas. As James was pointing to the top shelf, he said "There is a Lion King Cereal!" "That's my favorite!" When we went to the next aisle, Francesca shouted as she was pointing, "Ketchup!" When we got to the detergents aisle, Clare explained how we use detergents to wash our clothes. Then Alexandra said, "I have that (detergent) at home!" As we walked back to Buckle My Shoe, we wondered why flowers that were displayed outside of the market were covered by boxes. We are excited for our next learning adventure!
