Teaching Beyond the Square

Teaching Beyond the Square TBS is a non-profit organization based in NYC, founded by Beginnings Nursery School.

Teaching Beyond the Square is a non-profit organization based in New York City. Founded in 2013, our work is guided by an exploration-based approach for early childhood education. Young children have great potential and our goal is to help make their voices be heard and made visible.

05/14/2026

Local educators joined us on Tuesday for a day trip to The Watermill Center in Water Mill NY for a private tour of Upside Down Zebra, a Rhoda Kellogg exhibit that incorporates 900 pieces of children’s artwork from the Rhoda Kellogg International Child Art Collective alongside 35 contemporary artists. Curators Brian Belott and Noah Khoshbin said, “The exhibition invites us to set aside adult expectations and approach these works with openness and curiosity, to recognize the scribble not as chaos, but as the origin of visual language and meaning itself.”

We had a delightful and eye-opening tour led by Katie Meade followed by a reflective conversation and lunch at Union Burger in Southampton. It was a perfect spring day out east to consider our own teaching practice and how we honor the work of children.

3K and PreK teachers at the Long Island City YMCA Early Childhood Program enthusiastically explored a collection of loos...
05/11/2026

3K and PreK teachers at the Long Island City YMCA Early Childhood Program enthusiastically explored a collection of loose parts during a recent materials workshop. They quickly utilized the majority of the materials we brought and then began to integrate the empty containers into their work (“It’s a birthday cake!”).

Use of empty containers that display our materials is a common practice amongst the children we visit. In fact, in one class, interest was so high in this material that we brought along an extra bag of containers for play and creation during our next visit. They were quickly “gobbled up” and integrated into structures, easily transforming their identity from “holder” to building element.

It is exciting to make new artistic discoveries while walking around New York City’s different neighborhoods. This work ...
05/06/2026

It is exciting to make new artistic discoveries while walking around New York City’s different neighborhoods. This work by artist Denilson Baniwa transforms a building’s facade into an Amazonian night. Check it out at the Storefront for Art and Architecture at 97 Kenmare Street in Soho.

4-year-olds presented their multi-media art to parents at a morning art show last week, and it was touching to see how ...
05/05/2026

4-year-olds presented their multi-media art to parents at a morning art show last week, and it was touching to see how their home city of New York inspired many of their pieces. Witnessing the children’s art gave us a peek into their perspective and interpretation of this vibrant city.

05/04/2026

The Materials Trailer returned to to close out Earth month. Packer has been exploring the theme of “building bridges” across campus throughout the year, and, last week, students from Pre-K through 12th grade built a bridge that connected a city to a countryside. One Kindergarten class started the process by developing the layout for the bridge. James Cohen, owner of Wadaly Design Build LLC, and his assistant, Marco Lima, set up a wood workshop beside the Trailer so students could saw, sand, hammer, drill and screw before gathering materials from the Trailer to finalize their pieces. On the last day of work, a fourth grader commented, “It’s a good day. People really like working on the bridge.” They named the bridge “Bridgstitute” and explained, “Well, if you want things to sound good, you may just have to make up words.” This collaborative work now lives in the new Lower School for children to play with for years to come.

Packer students and teachers also spent time inside the Materials Trailer “shopping” for items that coincided with their curriculum and/or played with objects that caught their attention. An atmosphere of true collaboration, connection, respect, care and awareness filled our week.

05/01/2026

During the second half of our educator tour to Italy, we ventured out of Reggio Emilia to Modena where we visited EducatioNest, an American Bilingual School that teaches children from infant to 8th grade in the Reggio-inspired approach. We also got our hands dirty while working with clay, wire and wood at Officina Natura Maestra, an art studio created by two former Reggio teachers. Finally, all of the week's learning came together in a visit to Bologna’s own ReMedia, where Carlotta Ferrozzi invited us to explore materials, play in the many ateliers, and shop for unique loose parts to bring back to our classrooms. We said farewell with lunch altogether at Adesso Pasta Car Ristorante with two special guests and co-authors, Hervé Tullet and Virgil de Voldére.

As one fellow educator said, “I have never been so inspired by the environments, information presented, demonstrations, materials, but most of all by all of you…This trip was planned to perfection."

And as shared, “To be amongst people who share my passion, speak my language, and are just as excited by shampoo caps as I am, was truly infectious and will stick with me forever.”

04/30/2026

We have just returned from our educator tour to Reggio Emilia, Italy where we welcomed 30 educators to learn, grow, and connect with us. These are some highlights from our first two days when we visited the Loris Malaguzzi International Center & Remida, the Creative Recycling Center in Reggio Emilia.

We started our time together at the Malaguzzi Center with Reggio Children’s Claudia Giudici who presented on The Wonder of Learning: The Values of the Reggio Emilia Approach. She spoke about the 100 languages and creativity, and she invited us to share our thoughts and reflections with her which was a unique opportunity. We also had time to explore and play in the many ateliers and exhibits scattered throughout the building which were incredibly inspiring and highlighted the many materials and languages of children: paper, clay, light, gears, wire, and every drawing instrument you can imagine.

During our next two days, we learned from the experts at ReMida, the Creative Recycling Center, whose original location inspired our own Materials Center. Eloisa Di Rocco, Remida’s Project Coordinator, presented her work: Educational Research Center on Sustainability and the Digital Age and Storytelling with Waste Materials to Inhabit a Common World. We explored found materials through a new lens of sound, as we discovered which sounds materials make. We saw beautiful images from a nature-centric school in the presentation Between Nature and Man-made Materials: Objects and Materials in the Educational Landscape by Stefano Sturloni, a nature-lover and expert atelierista. Lastly, we visited a local school that invited us to explore current and on-going curriculums in their classrooms, like chocolate-making, chair decorations, perfume and magic. It truly was magical.

Have you been thinking about how to support language in your classroom? Don’t miss our next videochat on Wednesday, Apri...
04/27/2026

Have you been thinking about how to support language in your classroom? Don’t miss our next videochat on Wednesday, April 29th from 3-4 pm with speech and language pathologist Alex Levine. Alex will share ways to support receptive and expressive language through play, daily school routines, and exploration. o register sign up here: https://www.teachingbeyondthesquare.org/videochats-1/supporting-language-26

04/15/2026

Gift yourself a day out of the city on May 12th! Not only will we see Rhoda Kellogg’s collection of children’s artwork at The Watermill Center, but we’ll also enjoy the incredible grounds where Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone’s 12 towering stone sculptures are on display. Sign up at this link to spend the day with us, immersing yourself in art and conversation: https://www.teachingbeyondthesquare.org/workshops-1/tour-upside-down-zebra

Inspired by Lesley Koplow’s book Bears Bears Everywhere!, provides bears for all of the children in their school as a w...
04/14/2026

Inspired by Lesley Koplow’s book Bears Bears Everywhere!, provides bears for all of the children in their school as a way to support their social-emotional health. Children adopt their own bears, make choices about how to dress them, incorporate them into their play, and love on them when they need a little extra something to get through a hard day. They are often adorned in unique fabrics and materials curated from the school’s Curiosity Central, a collection of found materials that inspire a wide variety of ideas and designs.

When we visit schools we encourage children to PLAY, CREATE, AND BUILD with the materials we bring. These three words of...
04/13/2026

When we visit schools we encourage children to PLAY, CREATE, AND BUILD with the materials we bring. These three words offer children the freedom to explore and express ideas without the pressure or expectation of predetermined outcomes.

Some may primarily explore via touch and movement, picking up handfuls of seemingly random materials and joyfully piling them in unstructured collections. Others may make deliberate decisions about which materials they want to select and then place them in artfully composed arrangements. Each approach is driven by intent and carries meaning but may be overlooked unless adults take the time to observe and document children’s processes. Have you witnessed this range of approaches to exploration in your classroom?
EarlyChildhoodEducation Parenting reschool instaUVM BankStreet BankStreetSchoolForChildren HunterSOE EnvironmentIsTheThirdTeacher MakeSomethingBeautiful RethinkPlastic ZeroWaste TrashToToys Plastic ReduceReuseReinspire LooseParts TeacherCoach teachingbeyondthesquare earlyed earlyeducation teachers reggioinspired learningthroughplay reggio

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