CDES Lab School Holds Open House for Parents
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Parents, families and children were invited to participate in the Fullerton College Child Development and Educational Studies Department Lab School’s Spring Open House on April 21. During the open house, the lab school set up various experiences for parents and visitors to participate in. All experiences reflected the CDES Lab School’s program philosophy and values, which are rooted in and inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy and principles of Constructivist Education.
During the Thinking with a Line experience, parents were introduced to various printing tools, ink, and a printing pad. Thinking with a Line supports the emergent writing process, hand-eye coordination, brain development and also offers a different perspective to line and shape.
For the next experience, Clay Work Inspired by Birds and Nests, lab school children showed parents and visitors basic clay working techniques demonstrating their understanding of the language of clay and their ability to collaborate on art projects.
This semester, the lab school children learned about the value of caring for their gardens, and they demonstrated this during the Spring Gardening Exploration experience. For this experience, opportunities to engage in seed exploration, planting of seedlings, planting pots for the green house, as well as sketching plants were demonstrated.
Family members participated in creating a “community salad” with fresh ingredients inspired by the CDES Department gardening program. Participants used the authentic tools their children use during their study of food and cooking and shared the resulting salad among the families.
Using observational drawing techniques, parents engaged in the process of sketching a sunflower and then added color using a Sunflower Paint Palette which were created by the children during the Sunflower experience.
As part of the Literacy and Math experience in the STEM studio, children guided parents through loose parts explorations. The story Animal Builders written by David Evelyn Stewart was the spark for building with loose parts exploration. This experience offered parents the opportunity to explore construction materials and loose parts as children guided their parents to create homes.
Department Lab School staff explained how the experiences began and how they unfolded into long-term work over the course of the last several months. The CDES Department Lab School staff wishes to thank the Lab School Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) for helping with the planning and organizing of the event along with support from CDES Department faculty.
