The Nest (1R)

Happy Valentine’s Day

All of us in the Nest wish you a Happy Valentine's Day.

It was another wonderful, fun week in the Nest and this week love filled our classroom. The Nest wanted to share the love with their families and friends, so we chatted about who and what we love. We talked about cuddles, sharing, and smiling as ways to show others we love them. The children were introduced to the shape of the heart, and we talked about the colours red or pink being used to describe love. We found some red and pink things in our classroom. Valentine's Day is about love. Your family relationships are the most important loving, relationships you can ever have.

This week as the families entered the Nest, they were met with our Valentine’s Day set-up and, on the table, there was a box that read “Share the love”. The families were invited to spend a special moment with their child and write them a special message for Valentine’s Day. The children really felt all the love from the special messages that you wrote for them. We displayed these messages on our baobab tree in our classroom and the children gathered around as we read out each special message to the children.

As founder of the Reggio Emilia approach (on which our school philosophy is based), Loris Malaguzzi explains to us that education must be a collaboration between the children, their teachers, and our families, if it is to have a long-lasting, significant impact. This is illustrated in his statement that “learning and teaching should not stand on opposite banks and just watch the river flow; instead, they should embark together on a journey down the water. Through an active, reciprocal exchange, teaching can strengthen learning and how to learn.”