Research as learning and a story of emergent curriculum.

The Reggio inspiration is often most apparent in the studio environment of our school.  

As the studio teacher, I am often asked by parents and other educators, how curriculum emerges without concrete lesson plans or the Montessori lessons and materials to direct learning.  

The answer is that after many years of operating in this way, we trust the children.  

We see the studio as a laboratory and everything that is added to that environment is intentional and often reflects larger questions we might have about development and learning.  

The beans pictured here provide a perfect example:

As a Montessori teacher, I know well how much children gravitate toward dry exploration activities.  As a young girl I remember walking into bulk grocery stores and making a fast track for the bean barrels, into which I would thrust my eager arms up to my shoulders (shudder...the health department obviously noted this activity and removed all such tempting bins from eager, unwashed children).  The sensation was soothing in a deep way.  With these two memories in mind and my interest in natural materials, I set up a large dry exploration table in the studio and spent some time observing how the children used it.  In response to their discussion of beans.  I furthered the provocation by collecting a wide variety of beans from my local market (resisting the desire to thrust my arms into the sanitary beans) and putting them out as loose parts to explore.

I added these beans to the wonder shelves.

Over the next few days children began exploring the beans in greater depth and lively conversations followed.

Then a leap took place when a child made the connection that beans are seeds  and SEEDS can potentially grow into plants.  How cool is that?  I mean really!  We forget to be amazed and astonished by the mysteries of life but it is truly AMAZING. This led to a lot of enthusiastic seed gathering and conjecture.

Together several of us began work on a seed chart that we shared with the other members of our community.  There is a palpable interest in seeds.  What will they will grow into?  Which ones can you eat?  How do they grow? and more.  All of this is being supported in classrooms as well: 440 is exploring biomes and Ward-Hobbs is looking for signs of fall and examining gorgeous sunflowers.  

The children have already expressed interest in a bean party (we will be cooking and sampling a variety of beans) and we will no doubt be adding some water to a few beans to see what might happen.

Stay tuned as we continue to wonder together and our wondering continues to evolve and a curriculum continues to emerge.  It is a wonderful adventure!