She was in the kitchen playing, but suddenly she felt like painting. That's how the pre-schooler picked up the plastic asparagus and confidently drew her imaginary version of a work of art on a real piece of paper.
Such actions are common at the Reggio Emilia Headstart preschool at Henderson Community College. The preschool is one of three in Henderson and Union counties that uses an innovative Italian program to help children ages 3 to 5 years think differently about their environments.
In fact, the Reggio approach has been in place at HCC's Headstart program for more than seven years, while Morganfield Elementary School has two separate classrooms that use the Reggio program. One is an infant-toddler classroom.
"It's very exciting to see what children can do when you give them the chance," said Terry Green, child development/health team manager with Audubon Area Community Services.
Reggio Emilia is not that well known in the United States. The educational program actually began during reconstruction of Italy after World War II in an area known for its art and architecture where child welfare is highly developed, according to "Bringing Learning to Life: The Reggio Approach to Early Childhood Education" by Louise Boyd Cadwell.
The main idea is that all children are naturally curious and have the potential to learn. Also, all children are full partners with teachers and parents in the learning process.
Children in the Reggio Emilia program are taught not just with words but also through movement, drawing, painting, music and drama, for instance.
And the emphasis is on work in small groups versus isolated learning. That is based on a theory that states that people learn in relation to their peers, adults, things in the world and symbols, Cadwell found in her research.
"Everybody has a place and everybody learns together," Green said. "This helps the children pay attention and really look at things. (They) think through, plan, and they often work on the same project for months at a time."
One day in February, for instance, a small group of preschoolers spent part of their morning picking through sea shells, rocks and sand. They used their fingers to make designs and picked up the shells, placing them against their ears to listen for the sounds of the ocean.
Then they moved to a different table and used stickers to create gifts for friends. But the focus was on sharing, so that each child would have access to the same tools.
These activities allow students to take part in hands-on learning that helps them to explore on their own with natural objects such as plants, dried flowers, sticks and acorns. But once the students find subjects they are more keenly interested in, the teachers work to help the students learn more.
Take spiders. Jennifer Crump, a teacher in the Reggio Emilia program at HCC, said she didn't know much about arachnids before her students saw one outside their classroom window one day. But that was all the inspiration it took.
The children then learned about different types of spiders, how they live, and what they eat. The students also drew spiders and made spiders out of pine cones, and they made an enormous spider web out of sticks and wire. They also learned how spiders weave webs.
That is the type of student-inspired learning process that Reggio Emilia is known for.
"We find ... their attention spans are amazingly long because they are the ones that are interested," Crump said.
The 37-year-old added that students are also assessed three times per year to determine their growth in areas such as pre-reading, pre-writing, numbers and colors.
"When the students are interested in it, they are the ones that have the questions," Crump said. "We are there to facilitate that."
Crump has a master's degree in early childhood education and has worked in both regular childcare programs as well as the Reggio Emilia program at HCC. Generally, she said, students seem to do better in the Reggio Emilia program.
"I find the children in a Reggio program are farther along developmentally," Crump added. "They are more motivated to write and count and copy things and to do some reading."
It helps that parents are invited to be a part of the learning process. That is easier for some parents at HCC since they are attending classes right on campus, she said.
But there is also a parent committee that meets and plans family activities, and just about every month there is a family evening where family members and friends of the children in the program are invited to see what the students have created.
And while there has not been any formal tracking of student performance once they graduate from the Reggio Emilia program and move into elementary schools, Crump said that, anecdotally, the children are doing well.
"I think it's wonderful," she added. "I think every classroom should at least borrow from the Reggio approach or use some of the Reggio influence."
