The Language of Open-Ended Materials Teaching Guide

In our classrooms and on the playground you find spaces carefully designed to bring large and small groups together. Spaces designed for collaboration and construction.

We believe that in our desire to connect to others we use many languages. Ironically, most languages we use are not spoken. This is particularly true for young children. So as teachers we are diligent about listening to the many languages of children. Materials and engaging activities help us to listen to children, help us to know them well. It is through the artistry, the song and dance, the imaginary play and construction that we hear and see children.

ABOUT THIS LEARNING GUIDE

The environment you create in your own classroom is reflective of your image of the child. Holding fast to our strong image of a capable learner, Reggio Emilia inspired schools create environments that are flexible and responsive to the need for teachers and children to create learning together.

We have found the best environments foster creativity through the work of young hands manipulating objects or applying artist materials. Moreover, we have found the best environments are designed around small group engagements. It is a classroom environment that shapes a child’s identity as a powerful player within their own lives and the lives of others. It is a way of teaching that views the child as a protagonist in their own learning. It is a belief we share. We use open-ended materials as a beautiful way of drawing out what the child already knows, already wonders.

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Please download the framework for this course, The Language of Open-Ended Materials Teaching Guide.

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Please download the course overview.

The Reggio Emilia Inspired Framework is based upon the writings of Loris Malaguzzi and many of the core educators in Reggio Emilia schools. We have their own words about how they developed a school system for all children in the city of Reggio Emilia.

In your download dashboard, please find this overview entitled, The Reggio Emilia Inspired Framework. Each one of these objectives could be a course unto themselves. As such, one paragraph description does not cover it. My hope is you will find in our courses, and in your readings, the understanding that all of these objectives are interrelated.

For example, you cannot have emergent curriculum without understanding how to document children’s learning. You cannot transform the teacher’s role as an active researcher, without creating a collaborative work environment.  All of the objectives presented here are interrelated, complimenting the development of the whole.

Like all things alive, the Reggio Emilia approach integrates all of the objectives, each informing the other. It is an educational system that is never stagnate, always responsive to the children in the room, the desires of their families and their teachers are held high regard. It is a pedagogy of listening, it is a relationship driven education.

HIGH SENSORY EXPERIENCES

High sensory, multi-sensory learning experiences provide the best opportunity to teach across the curriculum.  Sensory play plays an important role in child development from birth to early childhood. It helps build nerve connections in their brain’s pathways, developing the child's ability to stay on task, manipulate objects with their hands, and control their own body movements.

MULTI-SENORY EXPERIENCES

Multisensory instruction is a way of teaching that engages more than one sense at a time.  For example, say a class is studying apples. Kids might have the chance to visually examine, touch, smell, and taste apples — instead of just reading and listening to their teacher speak about how apples grow. Then they might hold a halved apple and count the number of seeds inside, one by one.  Making it real is how we learn deeply.

SENSORY PLAY ENVIRONMENTS

Sensory play activities stimulate the child’s senses which supports their brain and language development, gross motor skills, social interaction and problem-solving skills.

With sensory play, there’s always much more going on than meets the eye.

Sensory activities, in addition to being fun and interesting, encourage children to explore and investigate. Furthermore, these activities support children to use the ‘scientific method’ of observing, forming a hypothesis, experimenting and making conclusions.

Sensory activities also allow children to refine their thresholds for different sensory information, helping their brain to create stronger connections to sensory information and learn which are useful and which can be filtered out.

For example, a child may find it difficult to play with other children when there is too much going on in their environment with conflicting noises or sights.

Through sensory play, the child can learn to block out the noise which is not important and focus on the play which is occurring with their peer.

Another example is a child who is particularly fussy with eating foods with a wet texture such as spaghetti.

The use of sensory play can assist the child with touching, smelling and playing with the texture in an environment with little expectation. As the child develops trust and understanding of this texture it helps build positive pathways in the brain to say it is safe to engage with this food.

Other reasons sensory play is beneficial for children include:

• It helps to build nerve connections in the brain

• It encourages the development of motor skills

• It supports language development

• It encourages ‘scientific thinking’ and problem solving

• It can involve mindful activities which are beneficial for all children

The desire to engage with sensory play comes naturally for children and should be encouraged and supported both at home and in early learning environments.

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Please download the PDF overview of PLAY LEARNING SCHEMAS to further your understanding of how play helps children build connections and understanding of the learning environment.

In this lecture we look at ways to bring natural and found materials - from your environment - into the classroom. High sensory and unique, natural materials are easy to add to your sensory table, light table and science center.

Moreover, if the children have collected these found materials at home, or on the playground, they have a relationship with the materials.  They found those pebbles, they picked those flowers, those leaves.  Children should be given the opportunity to share with the class where they found these natural materials and describe their observations and wonderings.

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Please find two articles related to the use of Natural Materials in your classroom:

Promoting Creativity for Life Using Open-Ended Materials, Young Children Magazine. National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Exploring Nature Indoors with Observational Drawing and Scientific Thinking, Young Children Magazine. National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Children love the touch and feel of clay in their hands.  High sensory, cool to the touch and malleable, clay is a staple in our classrooms.

Of all the materials we introduced, it is clay that holds this universal response.  It is a kindred spirit drawing us back to the earth.

Clay sculpting comes naturally with children.  With a little guidance they can produce increasingly sophisticated clay creations. 

Building on The Project Approach, we extended clay to our entire community.  We asked for parent and teacher volunteers to help us tile the walkways of our school, creating a beautiful pathway for the children.  In this way, clay has bridged all of our communities - from the Atelier to the classrooms, to our family community.

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Please download the article Bridging Our Communities with Clay, Teaching Young Children. National Association for the Education of Young Children.

We started with clay in the Atelier and figured out how to store, work the tools, and glaze.  With confidence we added clay and tools to each classroom, offering clay every day to our students.

Please download this clay tips guide to help get started with clay in your classroom!

 A guide in introducing clay to children, first steps in working with clay and clay tools.

Once children have had a chance to experiment with the clay - perhaps a week of using only their hands to manipulate the clay - teachers model creating balls and coils.

Paper can be a high sensory experience!  Try out these invitations in your classroom.

We take a deeper dive into the way we set up a table provocation.  A review of the three levels to a provocation and then a closer look at table invitations.

Once children start drawing pictures, it is easy to encourage book making.  In this lecture we look at the outcome of just one year at our school, drawing pictures and sharing stories.

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Please download the article Why Children Should Be Given the Opportunity to Tell Stories.  This is a resource guide for parents and teachers.

LITERACY RICH LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Literacy rich environments naturally lend themselves to drawing.  Children often redraw illustrations, draw as they observe an object or natural life.

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Please download a CHECKLIST for Literacy Rich Classrooms, Center for Early Literacy Learning (CELL), funded by the U.S. Department of Education.   We found this checklist to be really important and conveyed across the entire school the importance of writing, drawing and books in all of our learning space - inside and outside.

DRAWING and ARTISTIC CREATION DRIVES STORIES

The schools of Reggio Emilia use drawing as a tool to bring forth children's stories.  In this lecture we take a look at a school-wide project, The Art of Eric Carle.  In this provocation, children are making their own open-ended materials!  Like Eric Carle, we start with painting the papers and creating textures with random objects.  Once the papers are dry, the children them into small pieces.   Children use these pieces of paper to create pictures - like a collage - and the stories follow.

Notice that glue is not introduced until the child is satisfied with their collage picture.  We have found that often the picture changes dramatically as children re-invent their stories.   It is an remarkably open-ended provocation.

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Please download the educator guide: The Art of Eric Carle.  This extensive guide documents the process we used to create children's stories using painted papers.   We lend this guide to your attention if you are considering ways to implement a school-wide project, appropriate for all ages.

TURN OFF THE SCREENS!

It is shocking how many apps are now available to "help" children draw.  Just stop already.   Hard stop!

In this lecture we share a discussion about these many kinds of drawing tools available, many like the Sharpie marker are central to our practice.

The use of Sharpie markers is provocative to be sure!  In this lecture we discuss how children are introduced to this tool, evidence that the practice of using sharpies with water colors and paints, crayons and watercolor markers drives students desire to draw and to write.

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Please download Writing Tip for Parents.   In this two page guide we provide insight into the right tools for drawing and emergent writing.

Our classrooms have mini-ateliers that contain many open-ended materials, lending themselves to creative outcomes.  In this video a young man creates a robot using plastic bottles, bottle tops and tape.

Our focus is no longer on buying commercial supplies from catalogs.  Instead we buy things that help children put things together like tapes, wire and adhesives. 

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Please download these articles and tip sheets:

Using Open-Ended Materials, The National Council for Curriculum and Instruction. Department of Children and Young Affairs.

Beautiful Stuff List.  Use this letter as a template to ask parents and caregivers to donate recycled materials.

Asking Open-Ended Questions.  Use this guide help modify your speech.  As a teaching team we found it helpful to post open-ended questions within each learning center.  It helped us to remember not to impose our own ideas on children, helped to broaden the conversations.

Consider reading Powerful Interactions: How to Connect with Children to Extend the Learning (2011) by Amy Laura Dombro.  We found this book to be a powerful tool within our teaching teams.

In this film we describe how materials are presented to children and offer several examples of provocations using recycled materials.

A deeper dive into the art of the provocation.  Can you find the three levels of the provocation?

Before your school collects recycled materials, ask yourselves:

1. How will you accepts these materials into your school?

2. Where will they be stored?

3. How will you ask for donations?

4. How will teachers engage students in the use of these materials?

A strong look at classroom design and differences from typical early childhood spaces.

INSPIRING SPACES FOR YOUNG CHILDREN

An interview with Dr. Sandra Duncan about re-thinking the design of classrooms.   

Early Learning Nation. (2019, November 21). Dr. Sandra Duncan: How to Design Inspiring Early Learning Spaces.

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Please download Improving the Educational Environment with the Reggio Emilia Approach Written by

Audrey Migliani Translated by José Tomás Francis.  Published by ArchDaily.

RETHINKING SCHOOL DESIGN

A slideshow of innovative spaces designed to bring communities together.

BEAUTIFUL STUFF!

These books changed everything we thought we knew about open-ended materials.  Join us as we review Beautiful Stuff with Cathy Weisman Topal.

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Please download our chapter from the book, Beautiful Stuff: More Learning with Found Materials from Davis Publications.

These are extraordinary publications that will help your team implement open-ended materials.

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Please download MUST HAVE BOOKS! from your dashboard.

A review of this course

Catalog of INSPIRED BY REGGIO EMILIA professional development series.  DOWNLOAD PDF and coupon.