Well they are certainly keeping us busy here! The days at the Loris Malaguzzi International Center are full, from 8 to 6 with events planned in the evenings. Carly and Liz headed to the Recycling center at 9 this evening. The recycling center is where the families of Reggio work to sort recyclable items for the use of the children in the classrooms. I blew it off....way too tired to head back out. I hope they get some pictures.
Today they served a boxed lunch, pasta of course at the school in the International center. We were not allowed to take photos even with no children in the classrooms. It was a little disappointing as a picture is worth a thousand words in seeing how the school and classrooms are set up. It was truly beautiful and we could just picture our little guys in the multi-level, very open, wood floors, beamed ceilings full of natural light areas. Material wise, nature abounded. There were tree branches, a beautiful rock garden (I mean a room!) where the kids could work with rocks as well as sticks hanging for the kids to make music! Each area had an outdoor component with places to dig, work and explore. This particular facility has two primary classrooms in an effort to make the move to primary work more smoothly. The older kids had a garden outdoors with help from Reggio parents. The other 3 classrooms were set up for a section each for the threes, fours and fives. There are 100 students in this school. Compared to our traditional classrooms, they would appear to be stark. The contemporary look of the furnishings an design are very calm to the eye. Reggio is big on displaying their work so each classroom also had two "studio" areas to display the process of projects rather than projects themselves. One whole room of area on the upper level was part of a whole school painting project. Light tables were big here so I am sure there will be some pressure on me to add that to the list of things to make upon our return. They are really very cool and used in a multitude of ways and could probably be made rather simply. I can hear it now.....could Mr. B make these? In one room they had used vellum paper on the light table in layers so the kids could add the original art. It was very cool.
We did find out a little mystery of Reggio today in that the Commissioner of Education spoke to our group welcoming us touting the Reggio schools, but they are not recognized by the state......hum....I guess even in Reggio they have issues with being developmental.
Tomorrow is a new day with the forecast even hotter, great, I could use a 75 degree day about now.
Buona Sera!
PS-They want a logo too. Have we created a monster?