OUR PROGRAMS
Reggio Emilia Approach
The purpose of DBCC is to provide for the social, physical, creative and emotional needs of children. This is achieved in three ways:
1. PLAY:
At the heart of children’s learning is PLAY. It is through play that children explore developmental themes and stages leading to physical, cognitive, social and emotional development. Children are active, sensory learners and need to be given many opportunities to make
choices, explore, investigate, problem solve and interact socially. We are much more interested in the process than in any products they may come up with.
2. The ENVIRONMENT is the foundation of our curriculum.
This means that it is child-centered with attractive and interesting materials provided in an organized and thoughtful fashion. Materials are included to foster all the key experiences and developmental themes of early childhood. A supply of backup materials is kept in storage and used on a rotating basis or to supplement and extend an investigation emerging in children’s play. Some materials are introduced to the class with guidelines outlined on their use. Most are undefined and as open-ended as possible.
3. THE CHILD: It is the children’s interests, not the adult’s that we use as the basis of our planning. The teacher’s plans are a
thoughtful introduction of materials to stimulate the emergence of an investigation. Teachers anticipate avenues the children may pursue from experience, and they pre-plan and prepare for this with enrichment materials and activity options to add. Occasionally, there may be a teacher-directed plan, but the majority of time children spend with us is child-centered .
What is Reggio Emilia?
The Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education is named after the town of Reggio Emilia in the Emilia Romagna province of northern Italy. In Reggio Emilia, 54 publicly funded schools provide education for children from birth to six years. These schools have been described as among the best in the world. The schools of Reggio Emilia began as a parent initiative. With the end of World War II, parents in Italy banded together and, with the proceeds from the sale of surplus war materials, founded the town’s first
pre-schools. They had a vision for a new kind of school where children would be treated with respect and parents would be active participants in their children’s education.
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