WED 7 AUG | 9.30AM - 5PM
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This is a Guest Hire Event
Reggio Inspired Conference
Wednesday 7 August | 9.30am - 5pm
* This is a Guest hire Event tickets must be booked via Eventbrite and cannot be booked at the Flowerfield Reception.
EARLY BIRD/FEE FOR MEMBERS: £99 if booked before 14th June. After this date, the fee will be £120 per person/£99 for members. This includes regular refreshments throughout the day, lunch and a wealth of expertise and resources.
Early Years will be hosting a one-day Reggio Inspired Conference at the beautiful Flowerfield Arts Centre
The keynote speaker, Pete Moorhouse is an early years creative consultant, researcher, author and artist educator based in the UK. Pete is an associate trainer for Early Education delivering training nationally and overseas and a Froebel Tutor for the Froebel Trust. His work is centred around nurturing children's creativity inspired by Froebelian principles and the approach in Reggio Emilia.
Join us for a day of inspiration and motivation to reignite your passion and curiosity. Whether you're an experienced Reggio Emilia practitioner or just beginning your journey, this event is perfect for all early years educators. Connect with like-minded professionals and immerse yourself in the innovative practices that can transform your approach to early childhood education.
Workshop Information
Clay play and the role of the educator (Danielle McKenna, Julie Thompson)
This workshop will introduce clay as a play invitation, providing context and background into the educator’s role in inspiring creativity in the classroom.
The study of clay, a natural material that speaks of human exploration stimulates the imagination. Using our hands we will discover the different forms of clay; damp, dry, powdered and crushed. Our hands will inspire experimentation as we trial different techniques such as digging, manipulation, folding and working the clay with our fingertips, palms and using different materials; peelers, mashers etc and other traditional tools for hollowing, smoothing, and making marks and moulds.
Clay play allows adults and children to experience the earth, malleable, layered, and rich, encouraging us to construct different forms and use different energy levels to create.
We will share lots of ideas for you to take back to your setting; invitations and provocations to develop children’s creativity, experimentation skills, attention skills and coordination.
The Language and Dialogue of Children’s Photography (Pete Moorhouse)
Photography is a powerful tool for communication and creative expression. It is an extremely versatile medium. It is visual but it often becomes more about language - as it has so much capacity to stimulate and open up dialogue by allowing children to express their thoughts and their way of seeing the world – encouraging children’s voice.
For the practitioner it gives a unique insight into the children's interests, the way the child sees their environment, friends, learning etc. Children use cameras in creative ways – unrestricted by convention – being so direct and curious and the results can be profound with the images being the starting point for further exploration.
We will look at the use of photography as a way of consulting with children and understand how photography can be used as a tool for self-evaluation. We will think about the practicalities, the best cameras for children, reviewing images, storage, software and how to successfully introduce photography to young children.
**There will also be a practical activity so bring a camera or smart phone**
An invitation to play - I am work of art, not an end product (Zoe Kernohan-Neely, Noletta Smyth, Megan McConaghy)
Aim: Explore with freedom and create from the self
This workshop will provide an opportunity to understand how resources and provocations enhance early development supporting creativity, problem solving and social interactions.
Using a range of materials and resources participants will immerse themselves in the experience of curiosity and imagination through making, building, and playing with low-cost resources.
Resources will prompt adults to connect with their “inner child” to encourage rediscovery of the emotional and cognitive experiences young children open themselves too. By exploring the materials participants will become innovators, designers, explorers, artists, and collaborators as they build, sort, design, manipulate, arrange, and construct in a variety of different ways. Participants will experience the process of learning which comes with open ended play and exploration.
The Wonder of an Outdoor Play Space (Yvonne Tracey)
Aim: To uncover the fundamentals which contribute to developing a creative, innovative, and inviting outdoor space for young children
Reggio educators pay close attention to the use of space and use the expression ‘every space has a purpose’ this involves looking carefully at how different spaces are planned and used.
In this workshop we will experience an outdoor space with a purpose to enable children to be creative, make choices, explore & investigate, think & reflect, communicate and develop relationships. We will create tranquil spaces to reflect on how the educator can ignite children’s curiosity and present interesting outdoor materials to harness children’s interests.
"The wider the range of possibilities we offer children, the more intense will be their motivations and the richer their experiences." Louis Malaguzzi
Illuminating spaces and young minds (Siobhan Wallace, Tilly Porter, Nina Chapman)
In this workshop we place the spotlight onto light, shadow and the intelligent materials that help practitioners, as co constructors of learning, to create ambient spaces that provoke, challenge and engage a child’s imagination, empathy and learning.
Light and shadow, alongside the other curated materials we offer, can transform the Reggio Emilia theory of the hundred languages into a reality! Light and shadow adds a layer of complexity provoking young children (and their educators) to see and feel their environments in a new way.
Join this workshop to have your own lightbulb moments and be inspired to revisit your own setting with a new aesthetic lens of wonder that can support you to design spaces that fascinate and intrigue.
