Dear Purple Room Families,

This week we want to give you a virtual tour of our learning space. In the Reggio Emilia philosophy, the learning environment is considered the “third teacher.” Loris Malaguzzi, one of the founders of the Reggio Emilia approach, describes the school “as a living organism, a place of shared relationships among the children, the teachers, and the parents and a feeling of belonging in a world that is alive, welcoming and authentic.” As teachers, we constantly assess how students are interacting with the space, and adjust our learning environment to encourage more authentic learning. The space has changed a great deal since you first toured in August. We were looking forward to showing you around our classroom during parent teacher conferences; since that couldn’t happen please enjoy this newsletter tour!

Outdoor Classroom

The Kindergarten class began planning a teva (ark) during Parshat Noach. Mr. Mike Hensdell is helping them turn these plans into reality, building a real teva out of wood for the children to play on. The Purple Room has been able to participate in some of the building sessions, learning about tools, safety, and construction!

 

Dramatic Play

There is so much interest in cooking in the Purple Room! We have added another play kitchen, dishes, and a real toaster oven (unplugged!) for children to explore this interest. There was discussion in the dramatic play area of shopping for food, so the morahs brought in grocery circulars and showed the children how to cut out foods to make “shopping lists.” The children began to pretend that they are going to the store, and are talking about what we need to add to make our dramatic play corner a grocery store. A student worked with a morah to compose a note to the Peach Room, asking if we “can please borrow your shopping cart.” The children are participating in and planning changes to their learning space.

Blocks

Seeing that the towers were getting taller and the buildings more complex, we added more blocks to our block area. Now whole cities appear, sometimes extending across the classroom!

Safe Space

The Safe Space is a cozy spot where a child can go for some alone time. A classroom is a very social place; it’s important to have a place that’s only for one person! The children requested more pillows, so we added them to make it even more cozy. On the wall outside you can see images of some prompts we use to help children identify emotions and calm down when needed. These are from Conscious Discipline; if you want to learn about these tools in more detail please join the CJP Parenting Book Club!

Writing Center

There is a lot of interest in writing in the Purple Room! We added a Writing Center to the library, stocked with notebooks, interesting papers, post its, and writing tools. Children visit this center to compose notes, create written material for dramatic play, and explore the different writing materials.

 

Science

Our science center has so much happening! There are many different materials for exploring our current interest: insects. We are also fish-sitting the Yellow Room’s fish, Rainbow. We are learning how to care for a class pet in preparation of getting our own.

 

Art

We have expanded the space and materials available in our art center, with materials for 3D collage, different types of paint, colored tape, and many types of drawing tools. This is a favorite space in the classroom.

 

Music

We have a new music center! Children can explore sounds and songs in this space.

Jewish Learning

 

Jewish Learning isn’t a space in our classroom, it’s something that permeates our whole day. This week we learned about how Eisav sold his birthright for a pot of red lentil soup, and then made our own lentil soup! The story of Eisav and Yaakov led to many discussions of choices. These two brothers were so similar in some ways, but made such different choices about how to live their lives. We talked about how every person has the ability to make choices that can be either kind or unhelpful.

We hope you have wonderful weekend!

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Shoshi and Morah Shaina