welcomed OC Reggio Round Table and forty attendees with generosity and warmth. The
campus is a beautiful compound of spanish style buildings with terracotta roofs, that surround a
large grassy field. Tucked away on the south side of the campus is the Early School in its own
courtyard. The classrooms were light and bright with big windows that open onto the outdoor
classroom. Besides pretty classrooms the Early School also has an atelier, a tinker lab, a
demonstration lab (used mostly for cooking), and a well stocked library. The Early School
teachers opened their classrooms to us and were on hand to talk, answer questions and share
their experience.
At the end of the tour Dr. Cris Lozon gave a quick talk about the school and a
recent tour to The Rhode Island School of Design. She explained that the Early School has
always been play based and constructivist, she said that they started using Reggio as a
template about eight years ago. During her talk she noted that the students she saw at the
Rhode Island School of Design demonstrated the same curiosity and wonder she sees in young
children. She noted that although the Labs at the Rhode Island School of Design were more
sophisticated, they were very similar to what you see at Reggio inspired schools. At RISD there
was a color lab (atelier), a movement lab (playground), a nature lab, (outdoor classroom). Her
point was children’s explorations are sophisticated and maybe we should rethink and reconsider
what we call both play and our learning environments so they better reflect how children learn.