“Buona Sera”, or “Good evening” to all of our faithful readers! Our time in Italy continues to be busy and inspiring, and we continue to be excited to share our day’s events with you… We are rotating the writing of our nightly postings, so the pressure to be as reflective and inspiring as my colleagues have been is tucked in the back of my head - I hope tonite's post will be equally as inspirational as they have been!

During the morning, all of the conference attendees had the opportunity to visit to a variety of Reggio preschools. Several large motor coaches lined up outside the conference center to drive all of us…on the skinniest streets…and take us to one of nine different schools. Each of us went to a separate school in order to see as much as we could, and in addition to getting lots of great ideas for our indoor classrooms, we were all struck by what we saw in each of the school’s outdoor play environments.

As we were comparing notes about our visits, we discussed that being outside is so much more than playing on the climbing structures or riding the bicycles, as there is so much to explore. How fortunate the children are in our Preprimary to have such a wonderful and fantastic playground, but one of the questions we asked ourselves was how we could further enhance the possibilities for learning and discovery outdoors. As intentional as we are in planning the inside learning environment, we want to be more mindful about planning for the outside environment, too, even though the Wisconsin climate does not always cooperate with this wish!  The collaborative work of the PK, JK, Middle School students, Mr. Jacobs, and Mr. Mussoline to create our Preprimary garden are first steps towards adding other elements to extend the learning outside of the walls of our classrooms.

The afternoon and evening today was unscheduled time for us, so we decided to do a little outdoor learning and exploration of our own and take the train to Florence. Although our time in this beautiful city was brief, we enjoyed our afternoon and evening very much, and we can’t wait to share all of the 50 million picture with you!!! Just kidding about the 50 million number, but a city as picturesque as “Firenze” certainly invited the inner photographer in each of us to shine!!!

Until next time,

XOXO