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In Reggio Emilia, the assumption is that children from their very beginnings are active contributors to the life of a community.” John Nimmo, The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Approach Last fall as we studied trees in preschool, I often told the children to listen to them, hear what they want to say. They would press their ears on the tree trunks and tell me “I heard it!” or sometimes, “trees don’t talk.” One night as I was scrolling through facebook, Prompt for the Planet rolled across my newsfeed. I took one look at it, and immediately knew I wanted to engage the preschoolers with this prompt. I wanted to give our trees a voice. The project is focused on young adults, but I knew our preschoolers had something to contribute to this. I clicked “contact” and shared a few examples of our work. On the receiving end was someone who valued the children’s words and work, Dave Gould (“Your student voices are nothing short of inspiring.”--Dave). He connected me with Shannon, the U of Iowa student who initiated Prompt for the Planet as her senior project. I left school one morning, telling the preschoolers that I was leaving to have a meeting with Shannon, someone who wanted the preschoolers help (would there be hot cocoa? No, coffee at this meeting!). The next week, Shannon came out to Preucil to have a meeting with the preschoolers (yes, this was a hot cocoa meeting!). And, our collaboration with Shannon and Prompt for the Planet began. Their prompt was: "What if (insert a natural element) could talk? What would it say?” We started with trees, but as usual, the children showed me the direction they wanted to take. The children have amazed me with their wisdom and sincerity in giving voice to our Earth. But the larger take-away they constructed is that their voices are powerful, their thoughts and ideas are important, and their words matter. They know they can share their voice. We are one small part of Shannon’s larger project, but we had our own experience at Preucil of collaboration, community, and focus. For now, I will let the children tell you about the project—it is their story to tell. Shannon and Dave have invited the children to the community events celebrating the project. On April 22, Earth Day, the preschoolers will see how their work is combined with that of others’. They will see members of our community—adults young and old—consider their work and words. They will experience the sharing of their voices and see the way in which they have potential to impact the world. “Bringing children into the public sphere celebrates their potential to contribute and lets them feel the pulse of their future lives”. John Nimmo, The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Approach
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Tricia Windschitl
5 day teacher |