Reggio Emilia-inspired activities allow children to take an active role in their learning, by choosing what they want to explore and discover. With a focus on relationship building and community, these activities can benefit children by: It can be really fun; this is a gently meta-theatrical and very jolly historical romp of a show, in the mould of ‘Nell Gwyn’ or ‘Shakespeare in Love’. The winkingly modern perspective on the nonsense men spouted and women were expected to put up with is frequently amusing. But the writing and delivery can also be dreadfully on the nose. Our problems are not the same as those of women 400 years ago. It makes the feminist arguments broad and, well, pretty basic. Mud play is an excellent sensory activity that allows children to explore and experiment in nature. Encourage learners to scoop, splat and mould in this hands on learning through play activity. Why not display this Mud Kitchen Skills Action Mat in your mud kitchen to show all of the skills that children practise when exploring mud? When was the last time you saw a show where you felt entirely compelled to stand up at the end and cheer? For me, I don’t stand up very often. For me to give a show a standing ovation, it needs to be incredible. years ago Emilia Bassano wanted her voice to be heard. It wasn’t. Could she have been the “Dark Lady” of Shakespeare’s sonnets? What of her own poems? Why was her story erased from history?

Emilia is silly, it’s fun, and it’s completely unsubtle, but the most important word I can think of to describe this show is powerful . It’s about the importance of friendship, strength in numbers, and the power of female ingenuity. Another key concept in the Reggio Emilia Approach is the importance of the learning environment, known as the “Environment as the Third Teacher”. In this approach, activities must take place in an environment that suits learners’ interests and stages of development. Make sure that your environment is filled with materials that will promote creativity, thinking, problem-solving, questions, exploration and experimentation, and open-ended play. I wanted the play to be suppler, and to show rather than tell. Even speeches that hit the mark in both centuries – as when Lloyd Malcolm skewers the exoticisation of women of colour, or writes so beautifully about the cost of becoming a mother to women’s sense of self – are often proclaimed rather than embodied. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning The story explores feminism, the power than men have over women, especially in this time period, and how men’s talents often massively overshadow those of women who were only there to marry men and not to explore their passions.Emilia, with its all-female cast and creative team, is an interesting twist on the all-male companies of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare (played by Charity Wakefield) was Emilia’s lover and actually named two characters in his plays after her. Emilia is a reminder that even the most talented, clever and unique women in history struggled to find their place in the world. Through role-play, children can dramatise situations, use their imaginations to pretend to be someone else and explore risky situations from the safety of the classroom. The benefits of role-playing are seeing new perspectives, supporting social skills through interactions with other children, increased confidence and empathy and helping children solve problems using their imagination! Four hundred years ago, Emilia Bassano wanted her voice to be heard. It wasn't. Could she have been the 'Dark Lady' of Shakespeare's sonnets? What of her own poetry? Why was her story erased from history? The Reggio Emilia Approach is a philosophy and pedagogy of education which focuses on early years children. Developed by Loris Malaguzzi alongside parents in the villages surrounding Reggio Emilia in Italy, this pedagogy was developed during the post-World War II era, when Italy saw significant economic and social development, and alongside it a widespread desire for change, in education and beyond.

An archive recording of the West End play Emilia will be made available to watch next month. After last year's performances at the Vaudeville Theatre, audiences can relive the play with the cast and crew via an online livestream on 10 November, with the play then staying online for a further fortnight. Emilia Lanier née Bassano was one of the first English women to publish a book of poetry, the rumoured “Dark Lady” in Shakespeare’s sonnets and, as asserted by some, Shakespeare himself. This all-but-erased historical figure is the subject of Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s Olivier award-winning play, which was first commissioned for Shakespeare’s Globe before heading to London’s West End. Three actors play the 16th century poet at different ages, with known facts about Emilia’s life overlaid with conjecture on her rich interiority, motivations and how her words were used against her and for her. Emilia the Play transferred from The Globe to London West End’s Vaudeville Theatre, and sadly ends its run on June 1st, 2019. The play, written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, gives us a glimpse into the life of the seventeenth-century poet Emilia Bassano Lanier, who was allegedly one of Shakespeare’s muses. The Reggio Emilia Approach assumes that children form their unique personalities throughout early development. A key idea is that young children possess “a hundred languages”, which they can use to express themselves and their ideas. The approach seeks to support children to use these symbolic languages to communicate and learn. These languages are the tools that children use to learn, such as talking, thinking, exploring and creating. Read on for 10 Early Years Reggio Emilia Activities, inspired by the approach, that will allow children to learn actively through exploration, experimentation and play. With activities for both the indoors and outdoors, you’ll be sure to find some inspiration for fun and engaging activities in line with the philosophy of the approach.Following the run at the Globe, the production was announced to transfer into the West End at the Vaudeville Theatre from 8 March 2019. The limited run was due to end on 15 June, however it was announced that it would be closing two weeks early on 1 June 2019. [1] Under Petra Kalive’s direction, the play charts Emilia’s passage into the gentry class: when she was given away at the age of seven to Susan Bertie, Countess of Kent, after the death of her father; and her schooling in the etiquette of being a woman of a higher social standing, communicated in a highly entertaining dance sequence featuring Sonya Suares, Jing-Xuan Chan and Sarah Fitzgerald as noblewomen. In a funny little nod to the unhistorical casting, Suares performs moves synonymous with Bharatanatyam, an ancient Indian classical dance.

There are three women (Saffron Coomber, Adelle Leonce and Clare Perkins) who portray Emilia at different points in her life, and all three actresses are just amazing to watch. They each give their own unique performances that are emotional and powerful, and I hung on to every word they said. There’s also Charity Wakefield, who plays the silly but charismatic William Shakespeare, and I completely fell in love with her. (I pretty much fell in love with the entire cast.)

The unique thing about this show is that it’s entirely the effort of women. The cast, crew, and band are all women, which makes the massively feminist context of the show even more powerful. Every woman has a presence on the stage, and what makes it even greater is the vast diversity of the cast, including several disabled actors (who are cast purely because they’re incredible actors, and not because their disabilities have any bearing on the plot). Transferring from the Globe, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s play about the seventeenth-century poet Emilia Bassano Lanier has already been widely heralded as ‘rousing’– and it certainly is that. It rouses the audience right to their feet. They whoop and cheer the barnstorming feminist speeches, and literally boo the bad oppressive men.

Celebrate women’s voices through the story of this trailblazing, forgotten woman. Stand up and be counted. The approach centres on learners and the construction of knowledge through active experiences. Reggio Emilia activities are self-guided and aim to allow children to have rich educational experiences through hands-on learning and relationship building. Its fundamental principles are respect, responsibility and community, which are to be achieved through exploration, discovery and play. A lot of the Reggio Emilia Approach is focused on the importance of environment as the third teacher. By giving children access to role-playing materials, they will be able to engage in self-directed dramatic play using thoughtfully placed resources around the classroom or learning environment.Learn more about Loris Malaguzzi and the Reggio Emilia Approach with this fantastic Early Years Educational Theorists Staff Training Information Sheet.