Transcript

Text on screen: Family STEAM Event: Family Fun Day.

Logo: Count, play, explore—for early education.

Text on screen: How did you prepare for the Family Fun Day?

Claudia Meza, Senior Manager for Early Intervention: Our family engagement event, we really started with our installations. We brought installations into our front lobby, which allowed staff and children and families to really start being more curious, more excited, more interested in hearing us talk about math.

On screen: A slide shows photos of the illustrations, including a Hexbug Maze installation, a Wind installation, and a Weighing installation. Photos of staff engaging in professional learning activities are displayed.

Claudia: The next step was our professional learning with our staff. We included staff from different departments and different work that they do. We had home visitors, we had child development center staff, early intervention staff, our neighborhood resource center, so we got some key staff to really bring that excitement back to their department.

Michelle Haaland, Site Supervisor, Child Development Center: With our big event, the staff had to be prepared, and as much as we can do pre-planning and preparing, it helps to support the event and the families when they're engaging. So if we've practiced it, we've tried it. We've done a lot of pre-planning and talking about it, then we can support the families, the kids, to make that learning be successful.

Text on screen: Can you share some highlights from the Family Fun Day?

Claudia: The next step was then the family engagement event.

On screen: As Claudia Meza speaks, a flyer for the event is displayed in English and Spanish. It reads: “Family Fun Day. STEAM is Everywhere. Themed activities include inflatable water slide, music, face painting, snacks, raffle prizes, photo booth, and more!”

Claudia: We started planning June 12th. Our event was August 9th, and we had a total of five departments. In attendance was 111 families, 412 individuals. In total, 150 staff and volunteers helped with this event. 

On screen: Event maps showing the community agencies and STEAM learning stations are displayed.

Claudia: We had community agencies that were also excited about STEAM and wanted to share their resources with the community.

Michelle: We had families go to different stations and try different playful learning. We just wanted to really convey that message of the importance of play.

Image on screen: A photo of adults and children engaging in a Sink or Float activity at the event.

Claudia: We made sure that each station was individualized to the children that came up to each activity.

On screen: Next, a handout titled “STEM Family Activities for Independent Learning: Sink and Float” explains how to conduct the activity at home.

Claudia: The Sink and Float was one activity that we had and we shared those handouts with families. We actually gave them supplies to take home so that they could try it at home.

Image on screen: A child standing next to floating boat structure in a water table that he made. The boat is built from various materials, including aluminum foil and blocks.

Claudia: That little guy right there with his little boat, he was so excited that day and he really wanted to build this boat. He was so excited, explaining how he's built a boat before and the resources we had there for him to use, he was using all of them and even asking if we had extra. And so he was really involved. Mom was really excited to see that, wow, this is a big deal, that he was able to build this and that we saw him in a positive light.

Michelle: Families were really surprised, like, wow, look at my child is such an expert at all of these things, and I'm learning from my child.

Text on screen: A special thanks to the children, families, and staff of Exceptional Parents Unlimited, without whose help these videos would not have been possible.

Logo: Count, play, explore—for early education.