Many of you may have seen Miss Emma, our wonderful local artist, who visits throughout the week to lead inspiring art sessions across all of our classrooms. Every room has its own exciting project underway, whether it’s creating displays for our sleep room, building a 4ft paper mache penguin, crafting pufferfish or simply exploring painting through different textures, tools and materials.
Miss Emma’s approach is inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy, which, just like Montessori, believes that children learn best through hands-on exploration, creativity and following their own ideas. Rather than creating identical crafts, the focus is on the creative process, exploring real tools, experimenting with different materials and expressing individuality.
To support this, every classroom has its own Atelier, a dedicated creative space filled with a wide variety of art resources that children can freely access throughout the day. This fits beautifully alongside our Montessori ethos of independence, freedom of choice and learning through meaningful, real experiences.
Exciting news! Next week, every Atelier will be receiving a refresh with lots of new resources and creative materials. Keep an eye out for photos as we can’t wait to share the children’s wonderful creations!
Can you help? Miss Emma is always looking for natural treasures to inspire our artists. If you’re out walking in the woods, visiting the beach, or exploring your local park, we’d love any donations of:
- 🐚 Shells
- 🍂 Dried leaves
- 🌸 Flower petals
- 🌿 Small twigs
- 🌰 Pinecones
- 🪨 Interesting stones
- 🌾 Seed heads
Natural materials encourage children to explore texture, colour, pattern and shape while helping them develop a connection with the natural world. This is an ongoing request, as we love having a constantly changing collection of natural resources available in every classroom’s Atelier.