Minnesota Children's Museum

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Professional Development Workshops

Sharpen your playful learning skills!

Discover new ideas! Find inspiration and develop practical skills to apply in your classroom. You’ll also earn clock hours towards CEU credits.

New! The Intentional Provider

Are you ready for the next step in your professional development? Try our new, in-depth workshop, The Intentional Provider. This workshop series, that meets four times, is a unique opportunity to deepen your understanding of early childhood education and take your own personal journey of growth to a new level.

This class gives participants the gift of time, and one another, so that they have a chance to look at and reflect on their own practices, strategies and techniques, discover even more ways for being purposeful during routines and activities, and establish on-going support and relationships with other course participants. Each educator will receive a portfolio for documenting and organizing all of the activities, handouts, and information gained.

Dates:

Fall: September 18, October 9, October 30, and November 20: 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Winter/Spring: January 29, February 19, March 12, and April 2: 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Cost: $200

15 hours of in-service awarded

Workshops at the Museum

Cost: $35/person
Duration: 3 hours
Register: By phone at 651-225-6021

November 6
Pint-size Science: 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Bound to Read: Early Literacy: 1 - 4 p.m.

May 7
Hands-on Health: 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Nurturing Nature: 1 - 4 p.m.

Workshops at your Site

Convenient, two-hour educator workshop at your location
Class size: Minimum 20, maximum 35
Cost: $350 plus mileage
Workshop Topics: Museum staff will work with you to select a date and time that fits your schedule.

Workshop Topics

Bound to Read: Early Literacy

Discover the vital role literacy plays during the early childhood years, which helps create successful writers and readers later in life. Learn about stimulating, literacy-rich environments, enhancing pre-literacy skills, and teaching techniques that foster literacy growth and development. From listening and speaking, to writing and reading, valuable information and numerous hands-on, active and fun activity ideas that promote literacy success will be shared.

Music and Movement Play

Music and movement are powerful tools that foster children's physical and educational development. Get ready to sing, share and move as we discuss how music and movement promote children's physical and educational development. Get ideas for incorporating music and musical play into every part of your daily routine as well as into your environment.

Nurturing Nature: Environmental Education for Young Children
Learn many ways to incorporate natural science themes into your classroom setting that children are sure to enjoy. This workshop provides information on how to celebrate the outdoors as well as ideas on how to bring the outdoors inside through songs, games, large group activities, recipes and creative art projects. This class will give you many ideas to choose from as you begin showcasing nature and all its beauty to young children. 

Pint-size Science
Children's innate interest, inquiry and imagination are the first steps for science exploration. In this workshop, discover how to recognize the simple science already happening in your early childhood setting and how to capitalize on it. You will explore and experiment with activities designed around motion, sound, change and matter. See just how simple, fun, and ever-changing physical science can be by taking ordinary items and turning them into extraordinary activities.

Building Basics

This workshop helps us recognize the significant role that blocks play in the lives of children. Gain and share developmentally appropriate activities and ideas that highlight math, literacy, social science and engineering skills using "building" and/or "construction" as the theme. Dozens of activities focused around towers, shelters and homes, and shapes and patterns are explored as well as experimenting with a variety of other building materials that will stimulate children's thinking and creativity.

Math Everywhere
Basic mathematical concepts need to be explored early in the lives of children to help assure mathematical success later in the school years. Discover the joy of mathematics in the early childhood setting and see how easily it applies to everyday life. In this workshop, you will learn to recognize math concepts already happening throughout the day, how to create inviting, stand-alone math activities, and highlight math through literacy and other areas of learning.