We used the inspiration from Reggio Emilia of “A Dialogue with a Place” to think about the principles of Reggio Emilia and the Environment as the Third Teacher.

In 2006, children in the preschools and infant toddler centres were asked to think of a gift that would please them and please the place of a new teacher development centre (the Malaguzzi Centre) in Reggio Emilia. The children made a visit to the Centre and chose an area that they were interested in. The teachers listened to the children’s thinking about the space, looked at the children’s photographs and drawings of the space and supported the children to construct a ‘gift’ for the Centre.

In this workshop we began by asking who we are and what we wanted to achieve in this workshop. The needs were varied!

·       Learning more about Reggio Emilia

·       Confirmation of what we are doing

·       Being able to share knowledge with the co-teacher

·       Using inspirations from Reggio in years 1-7

·       Using inspirations from Reggio with children with additional needs

·       Working around the parameters to portfolios, accountability and testing

·       Documenting the Learning

·       Negotiating the space.