Reggio Rocks! Peregrine teachers shine at California Association for the Education of the Young Child (CAEYC) conference in San José

Coffee cups in hand, a crowd of teachers from all over California gathered around Carl Mack’s sticky board, writing their opinions on the qualities that define leadership.  By 8:00 AM, the room was jumping with one hundred and ten people.  Peregrine teachers Megan Forcum (head teacher of the school’s Escuelita program), Gabriela Valenzuela and Emma Clancy (head daycare teacher), guided by Carl Mack. Ph. D., our research partner, and introduced by Lorie Hammond, Ph. D, our academic director, began to speak.  An hour and a half later, the audience did not want to leave. 

What topic was riveting enough to engage its audience so early on a Saturday morning?  Two enmeshed themes emerged:  how Peregrine School inspires leadership in preschool children, teachers, and parents, and how this is done through a Reggio-Emilia inspired approach.

The journey to San José goes back at least a year, when Lorie asked our colleague and mentor, Dr. Carl Mack, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at Alliant University, former Superintendent of Del Paso schools, and a former Peregrine grandpa, to work with our teachers on developing leadership.  Since Carl believes that leadership begins from the bottom up, he began by watching the Escuelita class.  Soon he reported that leadership was already well-developed among that teaching team – in fact, that it was so well-developed, that rather than helping the teachers out, he preferred to do a research project on how they work.  That project, which was done cooperatively with Escuelita teachers, developed into a proposal to the state-wide preschool conference, CAEYC, and will soon be a published article.

After Carl introduced his research team and the project, and Lorie introduced Peregrine School, Megan, Gaby and Emma began.  Megan presented the many ways in which leadership is built at Peregrine School- among parents, children, and teachers.  Family projects such as the making and sharing of family posters, families sharing cultural artifacts and performances, and the incorporation of family themes into classroom fantasy play were developed.  Our families and staff are the world, since they come from many countries and speak many languages;  their presentations embodied the world theme which Escuelita embraces.  This theme has led to a study of the Brazilian rainforest, among other things, as exemplified by El Gran Capoquero, or The Great Kapok Tree (by Lynn Cherry), a book which has inspired a 3-D rainforest mural in Escuelita and will provide the theme for this year’s school play in May.  This tree is capped by a 15-foot long boa constrictor, made of nothing more than pantyhose, cotton fluff, and paint!  Hence a theme initiated by Brazilian families (preservation of the rainforest) is expanded by the genius of Escuelita teachers into a mural, a play, and months of meaningful engagement by the children. 

Megan then explained how another Reggio-inspired project, the light table, has resulted in a collaboration with the children involving various things that can be viewed and explored on the light table, such as clear plastic objects, jars and bags of water, clear mosaic glass, glass balls in water, and much more.  Eventually this theme of light resulted in studying light through the windows and the creation of tissue paper stained glass frames to cover the windows.  Along the way, art, shapes, geometry, math, color and of course light were studied.  Most importantly, social interactions were initiated in meaningful ways among the two- to four-year-olds eagerly clustered around the light table to view each new surprise set out there.  Gaby joined in at this point to discuss how leadership and organization occur in Escuelita, supporting the children and the structure of the day and making exploration possible. 

In many schools, teachers and children are tired during when the after school daycare hours roll around, and the program often declines into babysitting.  But Teacher Emma explained how Peregrine’s daycare program is a great time not only to expand themes from the morning program, but also to freely explore children’s interests which may not fit standards that teachers are pursuing.  One example of this is her study of cars, which emerged completely from the children, and has persisted for four months.  “The children wanted to play with the cars every day,” Emma noted, “but we noticed that they always did the same things.  With them, we began to explore new possibilities.”  These possibilities ended up including the creation of two and three dimensional models of cars, explorations of wheels and how they move, cars on ramps of different heights and slopes, the creation of various maps on paper of Davis, upon which the cars could drive, and finally, the creation of giant cars made of soft blocks, which several children could enter and “drive”.  Along the way, trains and airplanes were explored, but never with the passion the children feel for cars.  Some children even sleep with their homemade cars at nap time!  Four months later, the study is far from over.  Every day, the children ask for the cars.

The presentation ended with Carl’s summary of all the kinds of leadership he sees in the Escuelita classroom, and with a testimonial to how this setting gives a voice to children, teachers, and parents alike.  “It is like a big soup,” he said, “with lots of ingredients, yet they all mix together.”  The audience seemed to agree that the result is delicious, and were still asking questions when the next group came in to use the conference room. 

Families who want to see Megan, Gaby, and Emma’s part of this presentation, which shares how Reggio-Emilia inspired activities operate at Peregrine School, should come to the parent meeting at the Peregrine’s Early Childhood Center on Portage Bay West tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.  Dinner and childcare will be provided.  Please call Kathy for a reservation, at (530) 758-8845.  You don’t want to miss it.