Reading the Descriptions
Above each description
you will find a typical length for the workshop and an age focus. The
symbols used correspond with the following.
Babies
(Birth to 14 months)
Toddlers
(14 to 36 months)
Preschool/Kindergarten (3
to 6 years)
Kindergarten/Primary (6
to 10 years)
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Being
Developmentally Appropriate in Our Work with Families
|
Age Focus
Birth to 10-years
|
Length
3 hours
|
Description
The principles of being individually
appropriate and age appropriate with children are generally
considered crucial to our work with children, why not families?
Our attitudes toward parents and other family members will be
explored during this interactive workshop while we examine
techniques for dealing with the unique parents of the unique
children that we educate and care for everyday. This interactive workshop
features research-based theory and practical, affordable
ideas.
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Being Sensitive to
Differing Values & Choices Made by Families
|
Age Focus
Birth to 10-years
|
Length
3 hours
|
Description
Early childhood professionals sometimes
find the values of families and the differing ways in which the
families care for their children difficult to respect and support.
The first step in building an anti-bias program is to reflect on
your own values followed by understanding where the values of others
come from. In this interactive workshop, participants will reflect
on their own values and culture and discuss the many influences that
impact how families care for their children.
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Blocks: A Tool for
an Integrated Early Childhood Curriculum*
|
Age Focus
14-months to 10-years
|
Length
3 hours
|
Description
If only one piece of equipment is
purchased, it should be blocks because of their versatility in
teaching multiple concepts in all areas of the early childhood
curriculum. The participant will have experiences with multiple
types of blocks and leave the session with a homemade set of blocks
to use the next day.
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Daddy, Development, & the Well-Being of Young
Children*
|
Age Focus
Birth to 10-years
|
Length
3 hours
|
Description
Research clearly shows that when children
have men in their lives that children are better off. This
interactive workshop looks at the characteristics and roles of fathers
and other men play with young children. Attention is paid to
stereotypes and the unsaid and unwritten views of men. Includes discussion of
involving fathers in early childhood programs.
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Emergent
Curriculum and Lesson Plans: You Can Have
Both!
|
Age Focus
14-months to 10-years
|
Length
3 hours
|
Description
Teachers sometimes feel that the requirements for
lesson plans eliminate responsiveness to children's emerging
interests and needs. This interactive workshop focuses on how to
listen sensitively to children, how to incorporate those interests
into written planning, how to include children in planning their own
learning, and how to successfully monitor whether the children are
meeting developmental and learning expectations in the classroom.
Participants in this workshop will interact with each other and the
instructor, practice some of the skills taught, and develop a plan
for implementing ideas learned in their own classroom.
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Exploring & Creating Math & Science with
Young Children
|
Age Focus
3-years to 10-years
|
Length
6 hours
|
Some activities and parts of this workshop are appropriate to 2-year-olds.
Also see the three hour versions of this workshop: Exploring
& Creating Math with Young Children and Exploring &
Creating Science with Young Children
Description
Opportunities
abound—often in the most unlikely places—to explore and create
math and science learning with young children. This
full-day, interactive workshop
features research-based theory and practical, affordable
activities. Both the inexperienced and experienced teacher will come away
from this active workshop with a stronger understanding of how
to integrate math and science into young children’s routines and
a folder full of resources, recipes, and activities for success.
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Exploring & Creating Math with Young Children
|
Age Focus
3-years to 10-years
|
Length
3 hours
|
Some
activities and parts of this workshop are appropriate to 2-year-olds.
Description
Opportunities
abound—often in the most unlikely places—to explore and create
math learning with young children. This interactive workshop
features research-based theory and practical, affordable
activities. Both the inexperienced and experienced teacher will come away
from this active workshop with a stronger understanding of how
to integrate math into young children’s routines and
a folder full of resources, recipes, and activities for success.
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Exploring & Creating Science with Young
Children
|
Age Focus
3-years to 10-years
|
Length
3 hours
|
Some
activities and parts of this workshop are appropriate to 2-year-olds.
Description
Opportunities
abound—often in the most unlikely places—to explore and create
science learning with young children. This interactive workshop
features research-based theory and practical, affordable
activities. Both the inexperienced and experienced teacher will come away
from this active workshop with a stronger understanding of how
to integrate science into young children’s routines and
a folder full of resources, recipes, and activities for success.
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The First Five Years: The Roots of Democracy
|
Age Focus
Birth to 10-years
|
Length
2 hours
|
Description
Dispositions needed
for participation in democratic environments begin to be learned at
birth and continue to be refined throughout the preschool years.
Discussion focuses on how families and other caring adults can nurture
the skills and dispositions needed for participation in democracy.
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More than Diapers: Activities for
Infants & Toddlers
|
Age Focus
Birth to 36-months
|
Length
3 hours
|
This workshop can be done as a
2-hour with limited interaction time.
Description
Babies and toddlers need more than just
diaper changes but they don’t need downsized preschool
activities. Participants in this interactive, hands-on workshop
will explore appropriate activities and inexpensive materials
that meet the cognitive, social, and physical needs of the under
three-year-old. The participant will leave knowing what is
appropriate, why it is appropriate, and with specific strategies
for preparing fun-filled days with babies and toddlers.
This interactive workshop
features research-based theory and practical, affordable
activities.
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More than Recess:
Planning for Movement
|
Age Focus
Birth to 10-years
|
Length
2 hours
|
This workshop can be expanded to
3-hours to include more specific activities.
Description
The epidemic of obesity
among young children underscores the importance of planning movement
activities in early childhood classrooms. This workshop will articulate
the rationale for both child- and teacher-initiated movement education.
The participant will be actively involved in demonstrated activities for
the mobile infant, active toddler, and preschooler. Using presented
criteria for planning for movement, the participant will plan and share
locomotor, stability, and manipulative activities for children in his
or her own classroom.
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The Nitty Gritty of a High-Morale Workplace
This is a follow-up to Team
Building: Working Toward a High-Morale Workplace
|
Age Focus
Birth to 10-years
|
Length
3 hours
|
Description
When educarers are working well-together the children
and families benefit. This follow-up to Working Toward a High Morale
Workplace revisits the importance of being aware of one another's
moods, values, skills, and personalities and emphasizes personal
responsibility for creating a climate of respect. This workshop will
focus on the process of developing individual plans for improving
the social emotional climate of the program and making a verbal and
written commitment to implement the plan.
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Practical Discipline for Infants,
Toddlers, & Young Children
|
Age Focus
Birth to 10-years
|
Length
3 hours
|
This workshop can be modified to match the
age-focus concern of the participants. This workshop
can be done as a 2-hour session if time to problem solve is
eliminated.
Description
The young child is learning about both
self and the world including which behaviors are acceptable
and which behaviors are effective. The participant in this
workshop will improve his or her understanding of why
children act in certain ways, the purposes of discipline,
and an understanding of the impact that adult attitudes and
confidence have on child behavior. Participants will have an
opportunity to select a behavior they are concerned about
and develop strategies for resolving that behavior.
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Professional Ethics in Early
Childhood Education
|
Age Focus
Birth to 10-years
|
Length
3 hours
|
Description
Meet the needs of the parent? the child? the
co-worker? Early childhood professionals are often faced
with the dilemma of meeting the conflicting needs of the
children and adults with whom they interact with on a daily
basis. In this interactive workshop, participants will be
introduced to the NAEYC Code of Ethics and problem solve
various provided scenarios as well as specific scenarios
from their own experience.
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Putting Emergent Curriculum Into
Practice in Your Classroom
This is a follow-up to
Emergent Curriculum and Lesson Plans: You Can Have Both!
|
Age Focus
14-months to 10-years
|
Length
3 hours
|
Description
Teachers sometimes feel that the requirements
for lesson plans eliminate responsiveness to children's
emerging interests and needs. In this interactive workshop,
the differences between responding to developmental needs
and responding to children's emergent interests will be
discussed. The participants will practice incorporating
emerging interests into written planning and develop a plan
to successfully monitor curriculum progress through the use
of videos of children from their own classrooms.
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School-Age Kids in Control!
|
Age Focus
6- to 10-years
|
Length
2 hours
|
Description
School-Age children who spend their
days in school book-ended by your program often feel a lack of
control of their own lives. This can turn into challenges for
you as you strive to provide appropriate experiences and discipline
for young children. This interactive workshop focuses on who
the school-age child is, assisting the school-age child to learn
self control, and build a sense of community in your before and
after school program.
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Slop, Glop, & Mop: Creative Activities for Young Children
|
Age Focus
14-months to 6-years
|
Length
6 hours
|
The
focus in this workshop includes creativity, visual arts, music, and creative
drama.
Description
Get your creative juices flowing and get
ready to make a mess. Creative activities with twos, threes, and
fours are often quite messy and this hands-on workshop is no
exception. Learn about and experience ways to encourage
music, the visual arts, and the creative process with young
children. This interactive workshop
features research-based theory and practical, affordable
activities.
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Slop, Glop, & Mop: Creative Activities for Young Children
(Creativity & Art)
|
Age Focus
14-months to 6-years
|
Length
3 hours
|
The
focus in this workshop includes creativity and the visual arts.
Description
Get your creative juices flowing and get
ready to make a mess. Creative activities with twos, threes, and
fours are often quite messy and this hands-on workshop is no
exception. Learn about and experience ways to encourage
the visual arts, and the creative process with young
children. This interactive workshop
features research-based theory and practical, affordable
activities.
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Supporting
Family-Child Attachments
(When You Spend Eight-Hours a Day With Their
Kid)
|
Age Focus
Birth to 36-months
|
Length
3 hours
|
This workshop can be presented as a 2-hour session.
Description
Do your families question whether their baby
or toddler “loves you more”? Perhaps, the most important
responsibility of the educarer in infant and toddler programs is
to support the mother-child and father-child relationship.
Prepare for concrete strategies based upon solid research.
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Team Building: Working Toward a High Morale
Workplace
|
Age Focus
Birth to 10-years
|
Length
3 hours
|
Description
Like a well-choreographed dance, when educarers are
working well together, it looks easy and natural. The reality is
quite different: effective teamwork requires awareness of one
another's moods, values, skills, and personalities. Effective
educaring requires that the adults are self-aware, respectful of one
another, and willing to honestly and constructively resolve
conflicts. This workshop will focus on the basic skills needed for a
high-morale program and allow participants an opportunity to begin
practicing those skills.
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Ten Ethical Values Parents Need to Teach Their Children
|
Age Focus
Birth to 10-years
|
Length
1
hour
|
Days
10 days |
This is typically a series of 1 to 1-1/2
hour sessions for parents. It can be adapted for single session or
for teachers. It could also be adapted in such a way that Training
Wheels could do an initial and final session with early childhood
program staff of parents leading sessions in-between.
Description
Rabbi Wayne Dosick identifies ten crucial
ethical values that transcend all major religions in his book, Golden
Rules: The Ten Ethical Values Parents Need to Teach Their Children.
This workshop and discussion series focuses on these ten values in a
practical way.
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What Do You See? Early Childhood
Observation & Assessment
|
Age Focus
Birth to 10-years
|
Length
3 hours
|
Description
The early childhood
curriculum is effective when it is built upon the stone of solid facts
about children's learning needs, development, and interests. Different
kinds of tools for observation and assessment serve different purposes.
This workshop looks at the role of assessment within the curriculum and
early childhood program, looks at a wide variety of specific tools and
their specific purposes, and allows the participant to practice using
the tools. The focus is less on standardized assessment than the ongoing
hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly assessment that is crucial to
effective classroom teaching.
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