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Welcome

Dear Families of KLA West Kendall,

It is with love, satisfaction and delight that I would like to share this marvelous recollection of memories and experiences that we will hold dear to our hearts and growth as a family and as a school community.

Our focus is to create a warm and inviting environment for parents, teachers, and especially children. Our school community focuses on facilitating each child’s needs by allowing opportunities for them to explore, create, and to actively participate in their learning processes. The individual child expresses themselves in a multitude of ways and we are here to support their social, emotional, and academics needs.

Here at KLA Schools of West Kendall you will find nurturing anddedicated teachers who will meet your child’s needs and foster your children’s learning by encouraging them to think deeply, ask questions, and reflect on their experiences. Our educators re constantly collaborating, documenting, observing, and developing new ways to create meaningful experiences and relationships with your children.

Thank you for the patience, trust and continued support during this year. We made it through the 2022 – 2023 school year.

Yanet Ortiz School Director.

The Hundred Languages Of Children

No way. The hundred is there. The child is made of one hundred. The child has a hundred languages a hundred hands a hundred thoughts a hundred ways of thinking of playing, of speaking. a hundred, always a hundred ways of listening of marveling, of loving a hundred joys for singing and understanding a hundred worlds to discover a hundred worlds to invent a hundred worlds to dream. The child has a hundred languages (and a hundred hundred hundred more) but they steal ninety-nine. The school and the culture separate the head from the body. They tell the child to think without hands

to do without head to listen and not to speak to understand without joy to love and to marvel only at Easter and Christmas. They tell the child to discover the world already there and of the hundred they steal ninety-nine. They tell the child that work and play reality and fantasy science and imagination sky and earth reason and dream are things that do not belong together. And thus they tell the child that the hundred is not there. The child says “No way- The hundred is there.”

Loris Malaguzzi Founder of the The Reggio Emilia Approach (Translated by Lella Gandini)

Why do we study the Reggio Emila approach?

• In today’s world, we believe in the importance of nding innovation in education.

• An education that evolves and offers quality for children, teachers and parents, where children are recognized as individuals and as constructors of their own knowledge.

• We believe in the importance of investing in professional development as a school.

• Creating a dialogue with the community and other educators from the United States and the world, is essential to the goals of our school and to the research of quality in early childhood education.

“Reggio Emilia is a small city in northern Italy that shines with a bright light for what it has accomplished and what it stands for in the eld of education. For the past 30 years, educators, working together with parents and citizens, have built a public system of child care and education long recognized as a center of innovation in Europe, and now increasingly recognized as a point of reference and a resource and inspiration to educators in the United States and throughout the world.” 1 ( .... )

ReggioEmilia

“The city-run educational system for young children originated here in schools started by parents; literally groups of parents built them with their own hands at the end of World War II. The rst school was built with proceeds from the sale of a tank, some trucks and a few horses left behind by the retreating German army. Such participation by parents has along remained an essential part of the way of working on education in the city. Right from the start Loris Malaguzzi, then a young teacher, guided and directed the energies of those parents, later preparing teachers and becoming an educational leader not just in his hometown but also on the national scene. “ 2

“Young children are encouraged to explore their environment and express themselves through all of their available “expressive, communicative, and cognitive languages,” whether they be words, movement, drawing, painting, building, sculpture, shadow play, collage, dramatic play, or music, to name a few.” 3

“ ... the schools of Reggio Emilia themselves: schools in which the minds, bodies, and spirits of young children are treated with outmost seriousness and respect. At the same time these young persons experience pleasure, fun, beauty, and extensive learning.” 4

“ a small city in Northern Italy that shines with a bright light for what it has accomplished and what it stands for in the field of education. “

1. Reggio Children. Reggio tutta - A guide to the city by the children. Reggio Emilia, 2000.

2. LellaGandini. Introduction to the Fundamental Values of the Education of Young Children in Reggio Emilia (Revision October 2008)

3. Carolyn Edwards, LellaGandini, George Forman. The Hundred Languages of Children, second edition. AblexPublising Corporation, 1998.

4. Carla Rinaldi et al. Making learning visible. Children as individual and group learners. Project Zero Harvard School of Education, 2001.

Our context

Located in the suburbs of Miami, our beautiful school in West Kendall rests in the center of a commercial area of Kendall Drive. We are close to Miami Dade College and bene t along with the many high schools and educational centers that provide our future teachers. This area has seen signi cant economic growth and is in continued development for the future and brining of new activities for residents. The interesting, diverse, and culturally rich environment allows our children to explore in a variety of ways.

Where are we from?

Our families represent the vast nationalities that are present in our town. Through them our school is enriched and open to embracing the uniqueness in our children.

In West Kendall we encompass 150 children, speaking 8 different languages and coming from 30 different countries.

Jamie Klurfan

Olivia Noya

Nixon Alvarado

Ava Acker

Zachary Andino

Eva Ferrus

Matias Ruiz

Rylie Rodriguez

Maddox Guerrero

Camila Muñoz

Jude Martinez

Giovanni Riojas

Alessandro Acosta

Victoria Hernandez

Olivia Gonzalez

Audrey Rocha

Rebeca Briceno

Liz Pajon-Llanez Zulelma Manzanilla

Henri Berry

Valentina Tamayo

Mrs. Rocio Gomez

Assembly time

Assembly is a time for greeting the day and our peers by introducing stories, finger-plays and songs. Children learn t recognize their picture as well as acknowledge their friends.

Lights and Shadows

The light table, as well as the overhead projector, helps to support active exploration and discovery. The children enjoy seeing the light going through their buildings while telling stories about their creations. They have mastered the use of the overhead projector by making shadow-catching games, loose parts compositions, and showing body language.

Friendship

Throughout the year, the children have built genuine relationships with each other. The children start to transition from parallel playing to group play. They begin to share and show affection amongst one another. As time passes some of the children have shown that some bonds are stronger than others.

Parent’s Night

Loris Malaguzzi

Music

During Music class the children use various recycled objects to make music. Music helps better their cognitive skills while also aiding in brain development, concentration skills, and sound recognition. The children enjoyed listening to all the different sounds they were able to make as well as, the sounds their friends made.

7th Year Anniversary

Dr. Seuss

Trunk or Treat

St. Valentine’s Day

Holiday Celebration

Assembly with Parents

Spring Celebration

Gallery Night

St. Patrick’s Day

Mother’s Day is a very special day for the children. During Mother’s Day week, the children shared their many reasons why they love their mommy’s, their favorite activities they enjoy doing together, what they will gift their mom’s, and what they will make for them. In the process of making their gifts, the children paid special attention to the colors they chose and the way they painted. As the nal touch, the class had an assembly and sang a beautiful song to wish a Happy Mother’s Day to their awesome mommy’s!

Father’s Day

KLA’S Faculty

Candelaria OrtegaDIRECTOR Pedagogical Director of KLA Schools

Roberto Ortega MANAGING DIRECTOR CEO

Angela LamadridCUSTODIAN

Elena Cruz TEACHER FLOATER

Yanet OrtizDIRECTOR

Pamela Boulanger TEACHER COORDINATOR

Adriana Fontes PEDAGOGICAL COORDINATOR

Mariela Gil MUSIC TEACHER

Ayleen GonzalezADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Professional Development

The school believes in the importance of supporting teachers in the process of learning. It is the right of the teacher to contribute to the study of the conceptual models that define education. This takes place through open discussion, study, cooperation, research, analysis and observation. We wish to build a cooperative network of people.

On August 7th and 8th our staff assisted to the KLA Schools’ Seminar “Thinking Together”, where KLA Schools presented the most meaningful stories from the school year 2017 – 2018. We had the honor to be invited to participate with the VPK story: Maps with Identity: Places where I belong.

KLA Schools’ workshop: Light & Graphics was hosted in KLA of Boynton Beach on August 9th. It was a great opportunity for the teachers to experience many of the possibilities of these two materials before the beginning of the school year.

On-going weekly professional development sessions bring together the lead teachers for discussions on current projects and mutual support guided by our own Pedagogical Coordinator Ms. Sandra Carpio Follegati, as well as staff meetings and teacher workdays.

In our Winter Conference of December 3rd 2018 KLA Schools was graced with the visit of the President of Reggio Children Ms. Claudia Giudicci and the Atelierista Ms. Francessca Manfredi presenting “School as a System of Relationships” giving us a better view of how to engage the children not only with their own classrooms, but also with the whole school.

Study groups divided by age groups meet every three months with Ms. Claudia Chaustre Professional Development Director and six pedagogical coordinators as well. Both support KLA Schools of West Kendall in specific training requirements.

This year we also offered the staff First Aid and CPR training as required by the Department of Children and Families and followed up on all new requirements such as Safe Sleep and Fire Extinguisher trainings.

References

Edwards, Carolyn;Lella and Forman, George. The Hundred Languages of Children. The Reggio Emilia Approach - Advances Reflections. Second Edition. Connecticut: 1998.

Gandini, Lella; Hill, Lynn; Cadwell, Louise; Charles Schwall. In the Spirit of the Studio Learn from the Atelier of Reggio Emilia. New York: Teachers College Press, 2006.

Klve, Ursula.

Rapunzel’s Supermarket. All about young children and their art. Second Edition. Australia: 2007.

Pelo, Ann.

The Languages of Art. Inquiry-based Studio practices in early childhood settings. Redleaf Press Minnesota: 2007.

Reggio Children. Everything has a shadow, except ants. Reggio Emilia: 2000.

Reggio Children.

I Cento Linguaggi dei Bambini I The Hundred Languages of Children. Reggio Emilia: 1997.

Reggio Children.

Reggio tutta - A guide to the city by the children. Reggio Emilia, 2000.

Reggio Children. Making learning visible. Children as individual and group learners. Project Zero Harvard School of Education, 2001.

Reggio Children. A journey into the rights of Children. Reggio Emilia, 1995.

Rinaldi, Carla.

In Dialogue with Reggio Emilia. Listening, researching and learning. New York: Routledge, 2007.

Smith, Dee and Goldhaber, Jeanne. Poking, Pinching and Pretending. Documentation Toddlers’ Exploration with clay. Saint Paul, Minnesota. Redleaf Press, 2004.

Weisman Topal, Cathy and Gandini, Lella. Beautiful Stuff! Learning with Found Materials. Massachusetts: Davies Publications, Inc; 1999.

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