Create in our Reggio-Emilia Inspired Atelier
The Reggio Emilia Approach is a holistic educational philosophy that views children as active, capable learners who construct knowledge through their experiences. Children make meaning by exploring, expressing, and revisiting ideas through multiple modalities—art, music, science experiments, language, dramatic play, building, and more— the “100 languages of childhood.”
“Creativity requires that the school of knowing finds connections with the school of expressing, opening doors… to the hundred languages of children.”
— Loris Malaguzzi
The Atelier—named to evoke the image of an artist’s workshop and a laboratory for expression—is a central element of Reggio-inspired environments. At The Mayapple School, we have dedicated an entire classroom to serve as the Atelier this year. (In the future, we may instead integrate Atelier spaces into each classroom, adapting for group sizes and demands.)
Within the Atelier, children are invited to explore open-ended materials and thoughtfully arranged “provocations.” These may include mark-making and collage materials (watercolors, markers, glue, tape, sequins, pom poms, yarn, magazine cuttings, and found objects), loose parts, a light table for color and shape exploration, a pottery wheel or woodworking bench, a sensory table, and easel for painting.
Open the doors and see children:
Experience Freedom and Express Creativity: Making art nurtures a child’s personal growth—developing initiative, confidence, and responsibility. As children explore their own ideas and take cognitive risks, they learn to navigate disappointment, refine their visions, and experience pride in their accomplishments. With agency comes freedom, as children expand their choices and stretch beyond what they already know.
Embark on “Process Art” Journeys: Art at The Mayapple School is about how children think, not just what they create. Process art encourages children to plan, predict, explore, and discover—often ending up in beautifully unexpected places. We value the journey over the finished product, which is why you won’t find cookie-cutter crafts in our studio. Instead, adults focus on children’s cognitive processes as they make art, encouraging children’s unique ways of thinking and expressing.
Collaborate and Build Community: Creativity flourishes in relationship. In the Atelier, children share ideas, compare approaches, and negotiate differences as they work together. They grow as part of a learning community—and as part of a larger world—as they are inspired by artists from both the global stage and their local neighborhoods.
Learn about the research of arts and the effect on our neurobiology.
Explore in the Heart of Nature
There’s a wildness in all of us, corners of our hearts that thrill when the wind sings in our faces, our toes grip the mud, and sunlight skips across the water. As teachers and students pack for Price Park, we wonder what our explorations will bring today. Perhaps we’ll find a green frog slipping into Walls Branch, or the first unfurling of the cinnamon fern. Maybe the tracks of deer in the snow will tell a winter’s tale of still-active wildlife, or the ropey strands of the yucca will provide abundance for curious hands. Mayapple teachers are trained in facilitating the cultivation of kinship with nature, and our frequent trips to Price Park, which we can walk to, allows us a deep phenological study of each season.
Price Park’s 44 acres, held and overseen by the Friends of the Rivers of Virginia, is well loved by Mayapplings and town residents alike for its beautiful meadows, abundant harvests of Autumn Olives, cooling streams, mature forests, interesting archaeological features, and historical importance.
The biophilia hypothesis suggests that humans hold a innate drive within to connect with the natural world. Price Park allows us to connect with both nature and culture. It’s a place where children:
Develop Resilience and Emotional Regulation: The natural world is the perfect playground for children to challenge themselves at their own levels. Through positive challenge, children gain confidence, develop problem solving skills, adapt, play and solve problems with others, and practice managing and responding to their own emotions.
Experience Active Engagement and Connection: The calming, yet stimulating, effect of natural areas encourages children to enter into a deep and active immersion— a flow state. This sense of deep attentiveness creates a sense of connection, engendering belonging both with their peers and with the environment. At times, teachers notice this connection feels so palpable while at Price Park, it’s a wonder that it can’t be physically touched.
Boost Physical Health: Natural areas provide the gross and fine motor challenges children need to develop, through navigation of uneven terrain, stamina-building, and manipulation of natural materials. Outdoor time boosts the immune system, improves children’s sleep patterns, and increases overall physical activity, contributing to overall well-being.
Learn About the World: The archaeological evidence and history of Price Park opens up explorations of past, present, and future, as well as Native American and European American cultures.
Grow Cognitively and Create Meaning: As children immerse themselves and learn about the flora, fauna, and landscapes of Price Park, they are sorting and classifying information, making mental maps, and creating and evaluating plans and actions in a process of hands-on meaning making.
“When children come into contact with nature, they reveal their strength.” - Maria Montessori
Learn more about research on children’s green time.
Grow in our Educational Garden
Before we step through the garden gate, our group of tiny gardeners pauses. Together, we take a deep breath and say “thank you” to the garden. Our journey on this 1/8 acre living food forest has just begun, but already our harvest extends far beyond vegetables. The children’s joyful faces and helpful hands share their satisfaction in connecting to the forces that sustain and nourish us.
"I thought I was growing a garden, but the garden was quietly growing me all along." - Alice Waters
In a world filled with distractions, our garden offers an antidote of peace and authenticity. It's a place where children naturally:
Cultivate Well-being: The rhythm of garden work and even the soil we touch naturally reduces stress, nurtures mental health, and fosters a deep sense of happiness and calm.
Sharpen Focus: Engaging with living plants and intricate ecosystems improves directed attention and mindfulness.
Build Community: Working together in planting, tending, and harvesting encourages strong peer connections and teamwork.
Nourish Healthy Habits: Growing food cultivates nutritional awareness and encourages healthy eating choices. All of our senses are stimulated in the garden as we work and grow hungry!
Grow Confidence: Students experience self-efficacy and positive peer interactions as they see their efforts bring forth life.
Enrich Life: Gardening improves quality of life, offering a tangible connection to the source of our nourishment and a joyful sense of purpose.
Develop Science Skills: From understanding plant life cycles and soil composition to observing pollinators and seasonal changes, the garden deepens understanding of key science concepts
Our garden is a place of beauty and abundance. The cycle of caretaking for the plants, land, and its organisms, who in turn nourish us, is an essential cycle of belonging and understanding for all humans.
Learn more about research on gardening.
Develop Skills for the Whole Child in Our Cozy Classroom
At The Mayapple School, our classroom is intentionally designed as a warm, welcoming space that supports childrens’ development with a focus on the cognitive, social, and emotional. We see each child as a whole person: capable, curious, and deeply connected to their environment and community.
Natural light, a soft couch, plants, and both child-size tables and carpeted floor work spaces create a cozy, home-like atmosphere. Shelves are open and accessible, materials are varied and interesting, and the environment invites children to engage, explore, and take ownership of their learning. During free choices and small group activities, teachers give short, intentional lessons, sharing how to use materials and further their skills and understanding. Children build on lessons through hands-on practice as they:
Build Social Skills in our Dramatic Play Center: Through role play and storytelling, children collaborate, negotiate, and explore different perspectives, laying the foundation for empathy and teamwork.
Develop Reading and Writing Skills in our Literacy Center: Children engage with letters, sounds, and symbols in meaningful and hands-on contexts— labeling creations, associating letter forms and sounds, writing, and playing with language such as separating onset and rime, matching rhyming words, blending and segmenting sounds, and building compound words.
Form Patterns and Develop Numeracy in our Math Center: Children work on sorting, counting, comparing, and problem solving by progressing through increasingly challenging work and play with manipulatives. These hands-on materials allow for concrete understanding of mathematical concepts within numeracy, measurement, geometry, and patterning strands.
Grow a Love of Reading in our Book Nook: In a cozy corner, a variety of engaging books helps children to develop a lifelong love for reading. Books are an enjoyable, accessible part of daily life that give children opportunities to explore new worlds and ideas; understand other people and cultures, developing empathy; and expand knowledge.
Explore Spatial Awareness and Reasoning in our Block and Science Center: Building structures, conducting simple experiments, and testing ideas help children think critically and understand the world around them.
Grow Responsibility with our Cleaning Station and Student Cubbies
By caring for their environment—sweeping, tidying, organizing belongings—children take responsibility and pride in their community, experiencing agency and expanding capabilities.
“There is a vital force in every human being which leads them to make ever greater efforts for the realisation of individual potentialities. Our tendency is to realise them. Joy and interest will come when we can realise the potentialities that are within us. ” - Maria Montessori