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About Early Childhood Programs at |
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| KDES
Home Page Admissions CDC Early Childhood Programs Team 1/2/3 Team 4/5 Team 6/7/8 Gallery School Philosophy Student/Parent Handbook |
The Reggio system is "a collection of schools for young children in which each child's intellectual, emotional, social, and moral potentials are carefully cultivated and guided. The principal educational vehicle involves youngsters in long-term engrossing projects, which are carried out in a beautiful, healthy, love-filled setting" (The Hundred Languages of Children, Edwards, Gandini, & Forman, 1996). One of the key aspects of the success of the Reggio system is the collaboration between school, parents, and community to provide quality educational experiences for the children, their families, and the school.
With Reggio Emilia, the child is viewed as an active learner. Each child is considered to be a capable, intelligent, and powerful individual who is an active participant in the development of knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Other key principles include: the environment as the 'third teacher'; learning through child-driven projects; curriculum that emerges from the collaboration of the children and the teachers; symbolic representation, especially through the visual arts; documentation of the learning process; and teachers as learners and researchers. Because of the emergent nature of curricular focus within the Reggio approach, the topics and projects for each year are not pre-chosen. instead, they emerge from the interests of the children. Examples of projects for the 1998-99 school year included Western African family fife, bugs and insects, animal life-cycles, and rabbits. Developmentally appropriate concepts and skills are fostered within these child-based areas of focus. Deaf and hard of hearing children are accepted into the Parent-Infant Program (PIP) as soon as a hearing loss is identified. This part of the program offers home visits, parent support groups, and classes at KDES. Emphasis in PIP is on the importance of play to encourage positive parent-child interactions and to foster growth in all areas, including language and cognition.
Children in the preschool and kindergarten classrooms spend much time on conflict resolution skills, emergent literacy, and developing projects. Children work in their journals by drawing pictures and using inventive spelling. The children use manipulatives and real objects to learn number concepts. They explore the world around them, connecting science, social studies, and literacy subjects. Parents are always encouraged to be involved and are informed about school through newsletters, daily logs, and parent gatherings. Children who complete the Early Childhood Programs leave with the following:
In addition, for those children for whom it is appropriate, auditory skills and sound/letter correspondence (phonics) are also acquired. Visual phonics is offered for families and students who are interested. | |||||
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The
Early Childhood Programs include deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing children
and their families from birth through kindergarten. Deaf and hearing teachers
and staff work together to provide a developmentally appropriate learning
environment which fosters the growth of the whole child. Learning through
play and exploration is encouraged within the framework of the 
The
nursery program serves toddlers and young children and also follows the
Reggio Emilia philosophy. These children are learning how to become independent
in many of their self-help skills as well as beginning to learn social
skills allowing them to work, learn, and play with their peers. They are
busy building their language and knowledge of their immediate world.