These posts document my teaching adventures in starting up a Reggio-inspired school in my farm shed in January 2023. I’ll share more about how all this came about soon, but in the mean time, I hope you enjoy these moments & learnings.

Granny & Grandpa, and more importantly, their horses…live just up the road from us and I often take my school kiddies there on our walks. Seeing the h-h-horses was a good opportunity to learn about the letter ‘H’ and bring in some other interesting things that are around and about at this time of the year; namely…the hay bales. We wrap our bales to protect them from the elements (as they live outside and not inside a barn) and this makes them extra fun to climb all over as they aren’t as prickly and spikey as unwrapped bales.

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses2013 1.jpeg

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses2431 2 1.jpeg

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses2434 2 1 Medium.jpeg

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses2434 2 1.jpeg

I based our art activity on the horses for this week, and found a sweet cloth peg horse craft for the kiddies to make. They loved making these and playing with them in the shed. I brought out our favourite letter land stories; and Harry/Hairy Hat Man was the character for the week.

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses1900 1.jpeg

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses1902 1.jpeg

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses1912 1.jpeg

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses1913 Medium.jpeg

I printed out some outlines of horses which the kids coloured in and cut out (with a little/lots) of help and we then stuck them onto cardboard cutouts that I had already prepared. The man & tail holes were made with a holepunch, and then different coloured string was threaded through based on each child’s horse colour preference. Two wooden cloth pegs were then ‘clipped’ on for the legs and off they went, galloping around the shed.

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses1915 2 1.jpeg

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses1916 1.jpeg

After snack time one day we took a stroll through my garden to smell the different herbs we could find. The kids loved this activity, and had lots of fun smelling, tasting and feeling the different scents and textures. We then picked a bunch of different herbs to take back to school to paint with.

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses1923 1.jpeg

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses1929 1.jpeg

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses2019 2 1.jpeg

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses2023 2 1.jpeg

We spent a morning walking to the horses to say hello and given them some carrot treats, and then popped into Granny’s orchard to pick some oranges.

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses1971 1.jpeg

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses1983 1.jpeg

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses1986 2 1.jpeg

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses1995 1.jpeg

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses2002 1.jpeg

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses2029 1.jpeg

For our writing activity, I like to keep things very simple and tactile, making use of my sandpaper letters and rainbow ruse to practice the letter formation before giving the children the opportunity to pick up a pen. Then it’s to the whiteboard we go to first practice with my hand holding theirs, and then to let them free to try themselves. Everyone always loves this activity.

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses.jpeg

Red Shed Reggio lesson ideas letter H horses1837 1.jpeg

And then sticking with the letter of the week, it was time to learn how to play Hopscotch! A fun way to practice numbers and counting and get those bodies moving. Everyone really enjoyed the sensory table too, with lots of interesting ‘discussions’ based around horses and haybales that they found inside the rice.