The Drama of Sound

 - exploring musicality as an expressive language in early childhood education.

In this set of projects the focus has been around musicality.  We explore how we can better offer the concept of music, of listening, of aural capacities, in the early years learning environment.

We work together to support an educational practice which maximises the potential for children to explore, to make enquiries, to exchange their ideas with one another and to express them.

This DVD presents a year-round experience of collaborative work between musicians and educators in two early years settings and an infant school. It is constructed around themes to illustrate the growing strands of learning of both the adults and the children.

'Musicality is an intrinsic part of the possible languages of expression that we as human beings have as a potential to understand the world.'

The Fountains

Story of a project carried out when children at Villetta Preschool decided the birds visiting the schol gardens needed an amusement park

The idea of 'what to do' begins to take shape during the class assembly. What this idea will turn out to be, if and when the children decide on it,.... In this project the initial idea was to create a freshwater lake for the thirsty birds that inhabit the school grounds.

An account of a creative investigation into water cycles - a scientific & geographic learning experience.

Published by Reggio Children (1995)

The Future is a Lovely Day

From a project carried out in the Fiastri and Rodari Municipal Preschools of Sant Ilario d'Enza (Province of Reggio Emilia), a book that collects thoughts and predictions on the future by five- and six- year-old children.

"The future can only be seen in the witch's glass ball. We can't see it: I don't know if I'm going to be good tomorrow! To know that you have to study, to think with your head. The future is tomorrow 'cause the glass ball shows you what there'll be tomorrow or what there was before."

Published by Reggio Children (2001)

An inventive and profound presentation of the depth of children's learning, imagination, undertanding as philosophers and thinkers. Once you read this you will be unable to regard children as 'infantile thinkers.'

The Little Ones of Silent Movies

An extraordinary adventure between one and two year old children and little fish at Reggio's Rodari Infant-toddler Centre.

The children are so young that they have not yet acquired speech, nor a very sure stride, taking steps made clumsy by cumbersome nappies and tottering on account of the tugs of gravity.

Nonetheless, these children are quick of eye and hand, quick to make friends, and great communicators.

They are full of ideas and invention in their interactions, which are organised and reorganised.

Published by Reggio Children (1996)

A subtle yet powerful account of working intelligently with 1.5 and 2 year children's intelligences and complex sociable, interpersonal  curiosity

The Many Faces of the Assembly

A study on the human figure in drawing, clay and photography.

The human figure is explored in the context of the morning assembly that brings together all 26 children of the class. The investigation interweaves drawing, clay, and photography, seeking in the connections between the three languages the expressive and cognitive elements for understanding and evolving.

This is a masterful presentation of a learning journey amongst children and educators, with creative and professional employment of video and editing techniques to engage many audiences - parents, other educators, any adult interested in children's learning and engagement.

The Mouse House

A Woodland Children booklet: it tracks the development of one of the many ideas that the children conceived, and is an interplay between staff and children, the environment and the imagination.

The narrative focusses on the growth of one boy's imagination, and the developing relationship, through it, between him and the group.  Included also is a book of his stories, written two years after his 'mouse house' project.

The Rights of Children

Everything in this document belongs to the thoughts, discussions, and interpretations of five and six-year-old children, on themes that deal with their desires and expectations, and especially with their requests made to the adult world.

It was a trial of faith and hope, a desire to learn more about the children's maturity and inner logic. We were fully prepared to discover the black holes in our knowledge of children.

A book created by the Diana Preschool

Published by Reggio Children (1995)

Children and adults make the time and focus to talk about rights and what children's rights might be. 

The Wonder of Learning

The catalogue of an important exhibition (2007) which is already travelling around the world; it speaks about the developments and the innovative flair of the educational experience in Reggio Emilia.

Recent projects carried out in the municipal Infant-toddler Centres and Preschools of Reggio Emilia are presented in five different sections: a wide interdisciplinary kaleidoscope crossing different languages and media. The metaphor well representing the whole cultural project is the one of the democratic piazza, a place open to the exchange of opinions so as to build up a new idea and a new experience of citizenship.
Edited by Ilaria Cavallini, Tiziana Filippini, Vea Vecchi and Lorella Trancossi
Graphic design by Rolando Baldini and Vania Vecchi
2011, 216 pages