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.

The story of a tower...

This is just a quick post in response to a question asked in the group The Reggio Emilia Approach that I am admin for on Facebook..
what started out as a way to help a person discover that there were years of inspiration and experience available in the group if the search function was used has turned into an interest in towers of my own... this is probably due to the fact that since I was a very young child I have loved castles and ruins and history in general...

So looking at everyone elses experiences, provocations and inspiration I started getting more curious about what IS a tower... and started to look at the history of the tower - and discovered that a tower has many purposes... for visibility (clock towers), for protection (watch towers) for hunting (observation towers) for support (bridges) to transmit (electricity, satellite) to access (climate, air) to expel (chimneys) to cool (cooling towers at power plants) for play (climbing towers) for art (yep, some are built for this purpose too) to store (water towers etc)... and there are more

Some places like San Gimignano in Italy towers were about status (I have wonderful memories being here and eating the most amazing meal just outside the walls... but no I digress)

So when we want to create a project or a provocation to explore towers we, as educators, need to think about what it is the children are exploring... is it design, is it the start of play (I worked with a  group of children that were very clear with me that when they were building towers and castles they were not playing (even if it looked like play to me) but that they were preparing the scene for play) - or maybe it is about status... about how high that tower can get?

Maybe it is about exploring how to knock down the towers, rather than building the towers...
about creating towers big enough and stable enough to put things on... a toy, or maybe even a child...
how are the towers going to be built?
Does the teacher allow them to build towers in order to reach the top of the original tower? or introduce a step ladder? Does the teacher offer advice, or wait for them to work it out for themselves... is it about team work or individual effort? How are other play opportunities linking to the interest in towers... do you read books about towers, or where towers are featured - like Rapunzel... how do the children feel about this tower... is it a place of safety or a prison...
would they like to live in a tower?
Are there any towers in the town/village where they live - have they been up this tower... is it even possible to go up that tower? why is that tower there?

Do towers look different depending on their function? Are there good towers, or evil towers? If a evil person built a tower how would it look, if a good person built a tower how would it look... why do the children think there are these differences...

There are free standing towers, towers that are a part of a wall or a building...
Do all castles have towers? Do all walls have towers?
What shape are towers?
Ziqqurats were the first towers... and even inspired the pyramids... does this mean that a pyramid is a kind of tower?

some inspiration...
plusplus and blocks

stop motion filing to observe how towers are built...

slow motion to observe how towers fall - and here too

using a tower to gain height... helping each other on to it...
there are many towers of different kinds in playspaces

snow tower

lighting them up

step ladder as a tower... to jump from... a different purpose for the tower - not to build but to fly

designing towers on paper in various materials - with various kinds of images to support ideas

using paper and tape to create towers

towers of air to explore

more paper towers

various materials in various sizes... and then the lighting can also change how you build

creating towers to make shadows

exploring light and shows on towers... so the tower is a source of exploration...

mini tower... exploring light down the tower, behind and in front etc etc

using bowls to build towers... what else can you build towers with

thinking about mixing transparent and solid in towers to explore light... exploring balance

ice as a building material... naturally occurring in freezing winters... otherwise a great way to cool down in hot summers

using natural materials

trying to get towers to be the same height

colourful towers... using light materials outside, the risk of them being blown over... the children will need some problem solving skills

stone building, can you stack to a certain height EXACTLY?

how to check if you have got it the right height....

playdough towers with other materials...

magnetic towers

a city of towers... we actually had to stop using old CDs as we had children who started playing with CDs and DVDs etc at home and destroying them accidentally... this is NOT always the case, but we have to respond to the needs of the children and families we work with...

stacking cans... is it easier with or without filling them with water...  should they be full of half full... lots of strategies to try out

stone stacking on a mini scale

towers of wood

young children building big with empty moving boxes

and the joy to knock them over... time and time and time again... turn taking, collaboration

testing how tall it will go...

using a window as support

a wall with towers...

visiting real towers... this is a Roman tower in the City of York, UK

visiting castles and palaces... to discover not all DO have towers... and drawing observations - so still cannot move away from the idea that castle needs towers, even when the reality in front of them has none.

more paper towers... sometimes we built them with just tape

can you re-construct a tower you built before based on a photograph? and later build a tower you have not built before based on a photograph... the idea being with only one perspective it is hard... a focus on team work and interpretation

visiting towers...

a tower of light... using photography to create light towers...

children documenting their own tower builds... in normal time filming, and also in stop motion.

This is far from everything that can be done with tower building... but hopefully triggers some ideas of your own...

do you want to see how high? - why not look into different forms of measuring (look into how mountains used to be measured)
Do you want to explore the use of towers, or the design, or the stories that can be created using towers?
Are the children interested in competing about how high they can build... where does the need for competition come from, will they be able to get higher if they work together...
How many different materials can they build with... can they draw a design, then build the design and then draw a version of their construction? Does the final drawing look like their first design? Why, why not, what changes did they need to make, and why?

use film or light (technology) to explore towers and their properties

work with gravity... water, air...

I will leave you there with your thoughts...