Because of the success of the Reggio Emilia Approach in early childhood education, it could be useful to researchers and practitioners to identify and explicate components of the approach that make it effective in motivating students. In this paper, we examine the Reggio Emilia Approach through the lens of the MUSIC® Model of Motivation, a model based on key motivation components (i.e., empowerment, usefulness, success, interest, and caring) derived from current research and theory. We explain the connections between the Reggio approach and the MUSIC model using theoretical and practical examples to demonstrate that the success of the Reggio approach is in part due to the manner in which it is consistent with key motivation principles. We believe that educators could assess their own programs to determine whether they could do more to incorporate these motivational components into their educational environment.