Ideas on Remida Day

In the Portland State University Early Childhood Education Master's Program, the class "Childhood, Ecology, and Reuse Materials" offered a public experience where children could engage rescued, rejected, natural, and reuse materials. Utilizing Chaillé's big ideas such as studying sound, music and water, Master's students prepared an open-ended environment experience where they documented young children as they encountered the often commonplace materials offered as unfamiliar invitations. Coming to the Portland State University park blocks every July, up to 250 children encountered the materials such as those in the visuals below. Students and professors worked to (re)interpret Remida Day in our own context. These early Remida-inspired years included events near the Park Blocks square which have eventually moved to our new venue of Remida Day {in the schools}. Over the first 5 years, we offered events that drew crowds of children and adults alike and now we center the work on schools, parents, teachers, children and their communities. A few projects are shared below: