At Blue Leaf, curriculum is emergent in nature, meaning it arises organically from the interests and experiences of the children. The “product” of the learning goals set by the teachers is directly guided and influenced by the children’s actions, quotes, and processes. The toddlers in our class co-construct knowledge through subjective, hands-on, often communal experiences that build upon each other.
As teachers utilizing emergent curriculum, our hope is to stack and stretch these building blocks of experiences. “Extensions of learning” is a term that can be used to describe this method of shaping curriculum. To extend learning, teachers take threads of interest first hand from the children, and then use that data to reflect on the deeper meanings the children are contextualizing during play.
From our explorations of “up high” as an investigation of relativity, we have extended this concept to encompass airplanes. Born from an interest in the travel photos from a teacher’s trip abroad, airplanes have become a major protagonist and curiosity generator in our classroom. Our task now is to delve deeper to understand what about airplanes catches interest, and how it is related to the notion of “up high.”
“What children learn does not follow as an automatic result from what is taught, rather, it is in large part due to the children’s own doing, as a consequence of their activities and our resources.” —Loris Malaguzzi, The Hundred Languages of Children
In the Reggio Approach to teaching and learning, it is said that all learning happens naturally within relationship. We hope to utilize the gift of relationship by inspiring curiosity and invention through the symbolic languages children use to express their own knowledge and desires: artwork, conversation, early writing, dramatic play, music, dance, and other outlets (Biermeier, 2015).
In this extension of learning, the teachers offered the children the opportunity to engage with airplane projections, model airplanes, and photos from the trip abroad that inspired this invitation. We intended to spark conversation and actions that would aid us in understanding the unique learning goals each child developed during the “up high” investigation as it relates to airplanes.
“[The Reggio Emilia] philosophy is reflected in an environment that encircles the child with three “teachers,” or protagonists….It is the child’s relationship with parent, teacher, and environment that ignites learning.”—NAEYC
The children said,
“Airplane fly!”
“Window”
“Airplane wing!”
“Allie fly airplane”
“Mountains….Alps!”
From these quotes and these photos, what meaning-making or co-construction of knowledge can you guess is happening?
