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Woodrising Community Preschool & Child Care is a 39 place, non profit centre.
We cater for children aged 2 - 6 years in an authentic, home like environment. In 2009, children will no longer be seperated by age...instead they will have the benefit of playing with and learning from older or more competent peers and will have the opportunity to care for and support younger peers. We will have a quiet room and an active room (we are currently working on names for these rooms!) and for the most part of the day, children will have a choice to play in either room or outdoors.
Emergent Curriculum/Reggio Emilia
Many of you may have heard some of our staff talking about ‘Reggio Emilia’ or ‘emergent curriculum’ and you are probably wondering what this is all about. Hopefully we can provide you with a basic explanation. What is Reggio Emilia? Reggio Emilia is a city in Northern Italy. It’s infant/toddler centres and preschools are regarded as some of the best in the world. After World War II, the people of Reggio Emilia, inspired by a local philosopher – Loris Malaguzzi, decided that they wanted to provide high quality programs for children. The financial support from the government and dedication from the community led to the development of centres that are an inspiration to early childhood professionals around the world. Some of the key ideas from the centres of Reggio Emilia are: - Children are viewed as competent and resourceful – the environment is set up to challenge and stimulate children and cater to their interests. Children are encouraged to have access to all materials and equipment
- Collaboration between staff, children and families – everyone, including the child, is involved in planning the environment and experiences
- Children have a hundred languages – this idea comes from a Poem by Loris Malaguzzi that explains that children have more than a hundred ways of expressing their thoughts and ideas for example: drawing, painting, acting, singing, construction……
How do we implement an emergent curriculum? At Woodrising Community Preschool and Child Care Centre, we pride ourselves on using an emergent curriculum. We view all children as competent, resourceful individuals who are capable of directing their own learning. We aim to provide an environment where children can play, explore and develop their own ideas, opinions and understanding of the world. The staff at our centre spend their days interacting with, observing and listening to the children to learn about their interests and ideas. In some cases these interests may develop into long term projects. Children and staff work together to determine what experiences or provocation’s are added to our environment.
We keep a daily journal (on a laptop) where staff document the experiences that children have been involved in. Children’s drawings, conversations and photographs are often included in the journal. We encourage families to read the journals with their children and to give feedback to staff. Staff also create documentation or displays of children’s work, discussions and ideas. We encourage families and visitors to read these and learn more about the children in our centre.
Each child has their own portfolio that is maintained by their focus teacher. The portfolio contains documentation, photographs and works samples and is able to be viewed by families at any time. At the end of the year each child will receive their portfolio as a memento of their time with us.
Environmental Programs
Our centre is committed to helping children, staff and families developan appreciation and awareness of the environment. In the past this has included:
* Developing an environmental plan in 2006 to analyse our practices and plan for change
* Installing water tanks for water play and gardening
* Welcoming chickens into the centre - our chicken coop not only provides children the opportunity to connect with the natural world, but also offers us eggs which we use for cooking or sell at a very reasonable price to our families (all profits go back into our gardening fund!)
* Planting loads of vegetables, fruit trees, herbs and gardens - the children plant, care for and harvest the plants, often cooking yummy, healthy food
* Setting up a worm farm for our scraps (and selling the worm wee - it's great liquid fertiliser!
* Building a child safe trickle stream that recycles water and also provides a natural environment for frogs!
In 2008 our centre won a competition with Rattler Magazine for our environmental programs. We were also nominated in the Telstra/Channel 10 Environment Awards and featured on the Channel 10 news!
Art Studio
We have recently had an art studio built on our verandah and the children are already working hard in there. The children have paint, pencils, textas, oil pastels, collage materials and more avaiable to them to use however they please. A teacher is always in the art studio to assist children and to document the thought processes behind their work. We could go on and on about our programs and the value we place on childrens play and explorations, but the best way to fully appreciate our centre is to come in for a visit. Please phone or email the centre to arrange a suitable time for a staff member to show you around the centre! |
