Visit to Förskolan Tjädern (Preschool Ptarmigan)

This week I visited several preschools together with Niki Buchan and a group of fabulous educators from Great Britain. I almost wrote last week, as I feel I have done so much this week it could not possibly have fitted it all into one week.

Over time I will be sharing some of the images and my reflections of those visits, but as I head to Palestine and Israel next week my focus after this blogpost will be on my preparations for there.

Last Monday afternoon we went to Förskolan Tjädern in Haninge.
Since I had been to the Border Crossing exhibition it was very clear that this exhibition had influenced them. The preschool was spiced with nature and technology working together for the children to explore and play with.

The other main thing that struck me as I walked around the setting was the energy of the staff working there. They seemed happy and eager to share their important work with us... it is always an absolute joy to see educators being proud of their work. And so they should be. The children were all busily engaged in an array of activities.

The photos I share below may look like the preschool was empty, but I was cleverly trying to avoid having children in the frame...

as you can see in just about every room the children had access to natural materials to explore and play with, and in different ways... you felt the hundred languages... not one way to explore nature

furniture was customised to meet the needs of the preschool and to support the play and learning. A small raised surface to build on allows the pieces to remain and the floors still to be cleaned, and at the same time makes it easy for several children to reach and interact on. And for the youngest children I wonderful platform to sit on and build, or crawl over or jump off (if no others are using it to build on) it is a suitable risk for one year olds. No danger, but the wonderful tickle of excitement if jumping off when new at jumping.

the one year olds had plenty of small spaces to climb into... all the rooms had small spaces for the children to hide away in, but it was lovely to see that in the one year old room the spaces were really small... adapting to the smallness of their bodies... creating a cozy space, but also the physical challenge of getting in and out. My own son simply adored to be squashed up in shelves like this... as have many many children I have worked with... including much older preschoolers!

space to explore nature with digital media... microscope egg to see details... using the i-pad to make films and take phtos of the close-ups

the children in the preschool had access to many of the same materials throughout the preschool, regardless of age. The difference was that in the younger years where small parts can present a hazard for some children who are in a very oral phase the small loose parts were put up high on a shelf so that they could be brought down to work with the children when an educator was sat along side to support the process and ensure nothing dangerous happened. One year olds working with toothpicks is a good risk together with a guiding adult.

I also appreciated how windows were being used, with shelves along them, so that natural light lit up the materials. It also created a well lit play-space. Of course here in Sweden we have to maximise that daylight as in winter there are not many hours of it.

the natural light also contributed towards making shadows... this made having a construction area by a window extra dynamic. There is also a lot of up-cycling and recycling materials being used.
Plastic is used too. it is not a taboo if it has a valid play and learning purpose.

getting the children involved in making learning materials.

another construction area... this time for the youngest children and with wheels and movement as a focus

instead of just a flat surface to drive vehicles on blocks had been put underneath to create a variety of heights... small hills for the vehicles... and to strengthen small hands as they drive up them, and wonder as they roll down...

here the youngest children have a small patch of living grass to play around and with

different phenomenas to explore... not just natural, but man-made too

many of the role-play areas had different themes, with natural elements and forest etc being observed mostly. This was the only "traditional" style role-play space and it was in the one year old's space. I liked the idea of creating a space that reminded them of home at a time when they are first transitioning between home and preschool. It makes sense for them to play here and to feel safe... and as they get older then their play gets more daring, as the preschool space is familiar.

a homemade light table to construct on

another version of a home-made light table... this time more like a light-bin, so all sorts of sensory materials can be used in it.

a small world area for play

art studio for the older children with lots of materials easily accessible

art studio for the youngest... less overwhelming with materials. The small parts are, as I mentioned before, kept high on a shelf and brought down to work with the children with guidance... a healthy risk and not a dangerous hazard. Children are given the time to master materials so that when they are older they can have free access to them all.

sensory play

the window sill as a work surface. I have worked with so many children who love to play in the window. My own three children loved to do this at home... and my mother reported that when I was a young child this is where I did most of my playing... on the window sill. Maybe children are like flowers and search out light to grow and evolve?

severla rooms use projectors to inspire.

the absolute joy of dry rustling leaves to play with inside... sounds, smell, touch... and to observe how the leaves with eventually crumble... This room had a board across the doorway so that the leaves did not escape and end up everywhere.

digital and analogue crossing borders...

the simplicity of the younger rooms to allow them to develop relationships with the materials at their own pace

a rich variety of loose-parts to construct with.

a mini-atelier, using the natural light to its fullest

The educators here are in a process, they tell me... this is not the final product of a preschool, but just the start of a journey to understand how to create a preschool for all children... so they all feel included, they all can express their ideas, they feel valued, and learn to value others... the third teacher is their colleague to help them with this journey.

The story of communication... part two

In the last few days since writing the first part exploring our adult role in communication I have seen an increasing number of posts about setting up the environment ready for the new academic year to begin (in the northern hemisphere that is... of course in the Southern hemisphere the school year is different, and it is winter right now!)

So I decided that this next post in the series should take a look at the classroom... the learning environment ... the third teacher..

as  Reggio Emilia inspired educator I reflect a great deal about my colleague, the third teacher, and over the years I have written quite a lot of blogposts on the topic, as well as sharing images from settings I have visited...

What I have always struggled with is that many educators focus on how the third teacher looks a little more than how it functions... imagine if that is how we educators were treated too. That how we looked, fixed our hair, the clothes we wear whether we work out over not... all of this had more importance than how we teach, communicate and interact with the children... it was more important than the knowledge and experience we have gained over the years... or more important than the relationships we create with the children, parents and colleagues...

I think we would consider people that looked at us in that way as superficial and missing the point of us as educators... not seeing or valuing what we really do.

Of course the early years does not get the value it should, but not to be valued by our own ECE peers would not be healthy for our teaching self-esteem.

So in this post I want to look at how the room communicates... with you as a teacher, with the children as learners, with the humans that spend time there...

Start with the question...
what is the intention of the room?
The intention of the room at the start of the year might be about making the children feel welcome, feel settled and feel comfortable to interact with others...

How do you with the resources that you have meet these needs?
How are you going to arrange the furniture to create space for the children to meet and talk with each other? Do you want them in just big groups or smaller groups? or able to change the size of their group throughout the day (which would mean a selection of space sizes from large to the small).

Do you want the children to feel independent and competent? How do you set up a room to do that?
If you have EVERYTHING out and visible at the beginning and the children do not like to tidy up or are not ready to cope with the amount of resources then you are setting the children up for failure and yourself for frustration and hard work picking up after them... Why not limit the resources in the beginning to see how the children manage those, allowing them to feel in control of the space by being able to play and tidy up after themselves without feeling overwhelmed? New things can be introduced bit by bit... and these introductions can allow you as an educator to enhance the play and learning you see the children engaged in and allow the classroom to meet those needs. It also allows you the time to explain some tools and how they can be safely used... rather than having everything out at the same time and a feeling of risk in the everyday is higher than what it maybe should be.

For instance I have worked in groups where scissors are a great creative tool and all the children knew how to hold, transport and use them... while in other groups the scissors have posed a problem, carried in a dangerous way, not being held properly and accidents happen (too frequently) or children use them inappropriately which switches the scissors from risk to dangerous...
Access to scissors is based on the children's ability to use them and their relationship with them... the room needs to communicate I trust you... and if you are placing materials in the room that require you to police the children then the room and you are saying you do not trust.
When I have had groups with children unable to happily and safely interact with scissors (regardless of age) then I put the scissors out of reach and in a space where they need to ask me to use them, I will bring them down and we can work together, communicating with the children how to hold them, how to carry them and how to use them so that they can get creative... with the intention that as soon as they are ready the scissors can be placed in a place where they can reach themselves.
Just as we do not let people drive cars without lessons and learning first and proving that they can drive safely, I think we need to use the same approach with tools in preschools... so they do have that competence and I avoid coming in saying no.

I want to create a room that says yes.

And more importantly that allows me to say yes rather than no.

Look around the room. Do you see anything that might make you say no to the children? Why does it have this no potential? Can you make changes so that the room clearly allows the children - permits their play - rather than requiring you to police and possibly restrict their play and learning?

Take the time to look from the child's height. It does look very different from their height. Does it look inviting or intimidating? If the latter what changes can be made?

Children have a very different sense of beauty than what adults have. Attempting to clone what others do is not always the best option. Find out what your  children need and like.  Will baskets, neutral colours and the like calm them or send them to sleep? Is that their sense of a learning environment? I am personally not an educator that likes a lot of visual clutter and lots of colours brightly challenging my eyes... but equally I don not like the opposite where there is no colour and devoid of all clutter. I like a learning space that says welcome - come play, come learn, come share your ideas with others... and also a space that celebrates this process, the children can see their value, the value of their ideas etc as this is communicated in the space too. We do not need fancy furniture and expensive materials to be able to do this. We get creative with what we have.
Not all learning spaces have the financial means to get exactly what they want from the catalogues - it is about recycling and upcycling... which is a very sustainable approach to education and also has its own beauty/aesthetic

When we look at images from other people's settings we need to always take this into consideration... we do not know what kind of budget they have, we seldom know how the space is used and what kind of children's needs and abilities they are meeting, we seldom take the time to ask about how the space communicates with the children... it is so often judged on how it looks.

This is part of the reason why Malaguzzi did not want people to take photos of the settings in Reggio Emilia... he did not want others to simply come and take photos to then replicate the space elsewhere... he wanted the educators to start a journey together with their third teacher... where they get to know each other and learn how to communicate with the children... to communicate a joy for learning. The downside is that there are many educators out there in the world saying you need to have this or that, or get rid of this or that for it to be truly "Reggio Emilia" inspired... and yet there are no images to say this is right or wrong, just word of mouth that seems to have been distorted over time - where no plastic, or natural baskets or loose parts or nature are the must do or the must have in order to be Reggio...
Start with the children.
Your relationship with the children.
How do you view childhood and what they can do, should do? How is this reflected in your learning space (indoors and outdoors). How do you communicate with children? How is this reflected in the space? What is the intention of your learning space? How does this impact the room?

What about sound, light, smell, touch - and why not taste... how do these all fit into your room? Do these elements hinder or enhance learning... what can be done to ensure that the room enhances learning rather than hinders, considering all the senses.

we also need to think about how the room communicates inclusion.
Does every child feel welcome?
Can every child feel they can identify with the room or elements of the room? ie does a child with a foreign language have access to her own language through books for example... even if you as an educator cannot read them, their very presence in the space says that her language is valued.
Does the learning space require that some children need extra help? Why do they need this support? Can the room be designed so that all children feel competent.

I have been seeing this image going round facebook the last few weeks, and it made me think of education... (in fact there are several versions that can be found if you google equality, equity and justice meme - so I included a few here)

What I feel we should be aiming for in our classrooms is the justice or liberation - the sad fact is the education is mostly set up for equality which means those that can thrive, those that struggle struggle more... there are schools and educators that strive to ensure that there is equity, that the children get what they need to be able to achieve... but really what we should be doing is designing our learning spaces so that all can be who they are and thrive and achieve and not have to conform to a school norm with standardised learning and tests that is so exclusive.
The really sad part is that reality seems to be going to some kind of extreme that there are those who have that keep getting more boosts and opportunities to achieve and thrive, while others get more taken away - not everyone is getting the chance to rise to the height of their own potential.

So designing your classroom and what it communicates is an incredible complex task. It is so much more than beauty.

How do you include the neurodiverse? Children of different colour, culture, language, religion etc? How do you include families that are not the norm... where the norm is seen as a mother father and children... not all families look like this... does your learning space make all children feel welcome, that all children can find their personal identity reflected?

is the room designed so that the children follow orders, learn obediently, or is there space for joy, laughter, care? What feeling/emotion does the room communicate... does it communicate an openness to learn and explore?

Then there is language?
Language to communicate?
Is your space set up to create a space that encourages children to communicate with each other, verbally and non-verbally?
Do you have words hanging over the room on shelves, walls and the floor, down from the ceilings? Why? Who are they for, especially for pre-readers? Does it overwhelm or enhance the children's desire to read? Or do they become invisible to the children... which in a way is devaluing the written word in the eyes of the child?
Are there other ways you can support language and communication? For instance Soledad at her preschool in Norsborg (see link below) has lists of words for the educators, they are tucked away, but visible enough to remind the educators to diversify their language - to not just rely on the same stock phrases. I like to hang question samples in the documentation room/office to remind educators that there are many many questions that can be asked... to the children, and ourselves as we make changes in the classroom and write up our observations...
Get the children involved in the documentation process so that they see that their words can be written down... this has far more power than vocabulary hanging from the ceiling or on shelves. The children's own words.
Are you communicating your expectations of the children by hanging these words... or the ideas and potential of the children by sharing their words? And this is not just an either or thing... both can work together... it is about mixing things up to create a space that works for you in your context.

Below are some links to posts that might be useful...

The story of communication part one
Open ended materials vi closed ended materials - this posts looks on the materials used and offered to children... do you avoid plastic, why? What is an open ended material? Are closed ended materials bad - always? Why?
The Political Nature of Reggio Emilia - this post is here to remind you that this is NOT a pedagogy about beautiful materials... it is a pedagogy of communication of rights, values, and respect.
The benefits of BIG play - a post to remind you that BIG play is important... how are you designing your learning space so that children can learn with their entire bodies?
Visit to Anden preschool in Haninge
The story of eating together - a post to reflect on WHY to you serve the food the way you do? Is there a more correct way? How does culture and context play a part in all of this?
Story of a word - looking at language
A visit to Aspen preschool in Norsborg - this is Soledad's preschool, as I mentioned above
Inspiration not cloning - please always be inspired by the posts that I share, the images I share... but always always always reflect and think why is this meaningful and relevant for you and your children?

Some images

Visit to Anden Preschool in Haninge

Last week I visited Anden preschool together with Darja and Petra, educators from Slovenia... Nettan was our host for the day but the preschool was also shown by some of her colleagues too - sharing their journey with us.
And Haninge, as a preschool area, has really been on a journey... a few years back it was not a desirable place to work for early years educators, but the commune has turned this around by really investing time and effort into preschools and focusing on the Reggio Emilia Approach as their way forward.

Last autumn Haninge hosted the Reggio Emilia exhibition "Border Crossing" - I wrote about and you can read here (a quick peak) and here (from analogue to digital) - the exhibition gave the local educators the opportunity to interact with atelieristas from Reggio Emilia and also to explore hands on another perspective of learning and teaching...

As we visited Anden preschool the educators were proud to share their learning from this exhibition and how it was starting to shape them as educators and also the third teacher... the space the children and educators share together.

The visit started with the children... two children showed us what they had been working on in the morning... and I felt this was such a wonderful and important start to the visit... this is the children's space and they should be involved in showing people around (if they want to... ie be given the option... and my experience there are always a few children who want to do this). We were shown their dinosaur rainforest construction with towers for protection - zebras and other animals wandered freely in this dinosaur world and interacted with the play/story the children now.

There are 12 areas to Haninges preschools... with an average of 4 settings in each area. Each area puts aside some of their funds (all preschools in sweden receive the same funds from the state, regardless of being  state, private run or a parent/teacher co-operative) - these funds are then pooled to create a resource centre called Kremima. There can be found not only something similar to ReMida where recycled materials are collected, curated and can be picked up by the educators (including suggestions/inspiration on how to use the materials), but also another space - a kind of studio - where educators can come on workshops to explore the use of technology to investigate nature... a kind of multidisciplinary approach. The space can be booked to come with a group of children too. (images will come in a separate post).

Nettan is a kind of atelierista for one of the areas... each area has their own. She supports the educators in the preschools with exploring projects from new perspectives, to experiment with new materials... so not only support in their direct work with the children, but also inspiration sessions for the educators to come and try new creative methods to explore learning. So she can work with the educators and children together, or just with the educators, depending on the needs.
The atelieristas also meet up with each other to inspire each other and also to help Kremima to stay relevant to the needs of all the areas.
Her role is one of the new roles created by Haninge to improve the quality of care and education offered to preschoolers.

now for the images of inspiration... (I will save images from Kremima for another day)
as always... you are welcome to share images, but please state where they have come from... it is not just my work... but the hard work of all the educators at this setting and Kremima, and a shout out and recognition to that is always important.

(på svenska efter bilderna)

a box covered in paper and painted... and then hung from the ceiling... thinking about different ways to presetn the children's art...

growing nature... sweet potato... so that the children can see the process.... it also offers a calming influence of green

children's world... each child took a piece of clay home to work with their parents/family to create something and then bring it back to preschool to show and share what they have made. The children have planted seeds in the space too.

more from the children's world

what is in nature? apple trees, eggs, bears, worms, worm eggs and cats.
more from the children's world

clay

space created to be able to mix digital and analogue... space for the projector to create effects.

detail from the same space above, taken from my adult height

same view... butthis time taken from a child's height... I feel this is an important thing to do, to get down and see what the room looks like from a child's perspective... taking photos this way can be very helpful in supporting your journey in developing the third teacher.

materials set up to explore

construction and small world area

a claywork display

another space created for play and mixing digital and analogue (there are 4 departments based on age)

getting right down close to the floor for a photo, many children like to lie down when playing, it is interesting to see it from their perspective

the same space

creating small spaces for children to play... both small and large spaces... for different dynamic... many platforms for building so that construction could be saved and cleaning of floors is still possible

space to work artistically together

room for the very youngest children

they had just been painting together... an image projected onto the paper to inspire painting

Förra veckan besökte jag Förskolan Anden tillsammans med Darja och Petra, pedagoger från Slovenien ... Nettan var vår värd för dagen men förskolan visades också av några av hennes kolleger också - dom delade sin resa med oss. Haninge, som förskoleområde, har verkligen varit på en resa... några år tillbaka var det inte en önskvärd plats att arbeta för pedagoger, men kommunen har verkligen satsat tid och ansträngt sig för att förbättra förskolorna - och med fokus på Reggio Emilia förhållningssätt som sin väg framåt. I höstas Haninge hade en Reggio Emilia utställningen "Border Crossings" - jag skrev om och du kan läsa här (en snabb titt) och här- utställningen gav de lokala lärarna möjlighet att interagera med atelieristas från Reggio Emilia samt att utforska "hands on" ett annat perspektiv på att lära och undervisa ... När vi besökte Förskolan Anden var pedagogerna stolta över att dela med sig av hur den här utställningen har påverkat dom och även den tredje pedagogen... det utrymme som barnen och pedagogerna delar tillsammans. Besöket började med barnen ... två barn visade oss vad de hade jobbat på innan vi kom på morgonen ... och jag tyckte att det var så underbart och viktigt att börja besöket med barnen... det här är barnens utrymme och de borde vara involverad i att visa människor runt (om de vill ... det ska ges möjlighet ... och i min erfarenhet finns det alltid några barn som vill göra det). Vi visades deras dinosaurie regnskogskonstruktion med torn för skydd - zebror och andra djur vandrade fritt i denna dinosaurivärld och interagerade med leken/berättelsen barnen utvecklade nu.
Det finns 12 områden till Haninges förskolor ... med i genomsnitt 4 förskolor i varje område. Varje område lägger bort några av sina medel (alla förskolor i Sverige får samma medel från staten, oavsett om de är statliga, privata eller en kooperativ). Dessa medel samlas sedan för att skapa ett resurscenter som heter Kremima . Det finns inte bara något som liknar ReMida där återvunnet material samlas in, kurateras och kan hämtas av pedagoger i områden (inklusive förslag/ inspiration om hur man använder materialet), men också ett annat utrymme - en typ av studio - där pedagoger kan komma på workshops för att utforska hur man kan använda teknik för att undersöka naturen ... ett slags tvärvetenskapligt tillvägagångssätt. Utrymmet kan bokas för att komma med en grupp barn också. (bilder kommer i ett separat inlägg). Nettan är ett slags atelierista för ett av områdena ... varje område har sitt eget. Hon stödjer pedagogerna i förskolorna med att utforska projekt från nya perspektiv, experimentera med nya material ... så inte bara stöd i sitt direkta arbete med barnen utan också inspirationstillfälle för lärarna att komma och prova nya kreativa metoder att utforska inlärning. Så hon kan arbeta med pedagogerna och barnen tillsammans, eller bara med pedagogerna, beroende på behoven. Ateljeristerna träffas också med varandra för att inspirera varandra och också för att hjälpa Kremima att hålla sig relevant för behoven hos alla områden. Hennes roll är en av de nya roller som Haninge skapat för att förbättra kvaliteten på omsorg och utbildning som erbjuds förskolebarn. nu för bildinspiration (ovan) ... (jag kommer att spara bilder från Kremima för en annan dag) som alltid ... ni är välkomna att dela bilder, men var vänlig ange varifrån de är ifrån ... det är inte bara mitt arbete (dvs bilder som jag har tagit, sorterat och skrivit om)... men de tillhör alla pedagogerna vid denna förskola och Kremima som har arbetat hårt och förtjäna erkännande av det - det är alltid viktigt.