Program Events
Taste the Sunshine, Touch the Sky with Sarah Plydell
Adapted from her award-winning book, "The Dramatic Difference,” Inspired Child teaching artist Sarah Pleydell, gives teachers hands-on experience using multi-sensory props and stimulation plus simple storytelling techniques to enhance their reading of much-loved children's books.
Stories that Sing with Valerie Carroll
In this workshop, lead by Inspired Child’s Valerie Carroll, participants will learn how to find and amplify the musical qualities of a book to create an engaging and active experience. These musical elements hold the attention of the class and invite them to become part of the storytelling.
Sense of Wonder with Magpie
Inspired Child teaching artists Terry Leonino & Greg Artzner (a.k.a. Magpie) provide teachers with tools and strategies for instilling in their children a love for and sense of wonder about the natural world around us.
A-Go A-May with Mama Sylvia
Inspired Child’s renowned teaching artist, Mama Sylvia, leads participants through a combination of African dance, creative movement, music, children’s literature, and crafts, incorporating auditory and kinesthetic ways of learning to achieve early childhood goals. Come prepared to sing, dance and have fun!
Books! Big, Bold & Bountiful with Karen Brown
This is a hand-on workshop and participation is encouraged. Keeping it simple, we’ll use lots of recycled materials. Join supportive workshop leader, Karen O. Brown in this useful and essential idea building class.
Chant, Move and Count! With Marcia Daft
Tap into the power of rhythm and movement to teach young children counting, cardinality, and positional number sense. Begin by learning how a musical steady beat is fundamental for developing one-to-one correspondence and accurate counting. Then, learn to use your chanting and moving skills to introduce counting, inclusion, and number cardinality.
Auntie Oye and her Animal Friends
Auntie Oye tells the story of her four animal friends: Elephant, Lion, Giraffe, and Pepe the bilingual Mouse.
Wiggly Fingers with Karen Brown
In this workshop, participants explore new art tools and projects to strengthen students’ fine motor skills and three-dimensional thinking. Using everyday materials including recyclables, we make simple, reusable looms and practice weaving with cardboard strips and yarn. Next, we’ll learn to expand paper weaving into larger classroom projects inspired by West African textile traditions.
Children’s Books: The Musical
Inspired Child teaching artists Terry Leonino & Greg Artzner (a.k.a. Magpie) bring decades of hands-on classroom experience and artistic collaborations with teachers to this engaging, music infused workshop.
Dancing With Books with Natasha
Using steady beat, simple props and other arts-based techniques to create engaging story time.
SING-PLAY FOR THE EARLY CHILDHOOD CLASSROOM with Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer
In this participatory workshop we will explore and practice simple songs and strategies to use music in your classroom in multi-purpose ways. We’ll play with rhythm, rhyme, sound and movement.
Moving Through Math Toy Stories with Marcia Daft
Join Inspired Child’s teaching artist Marcia Daft, in this workshop and learn how to tell simple stories that bring Early Childhood Mathematics to life! First, learn the storyteller’s craft of creating voices, facial expressions, and gestures that are woven throughout the story. Then, discover how to animate small toys and simple objects while leading students in the telling of a story.
Dancing with Emotions with Natasha Mirny
This session will facilitate the use of theater practices and movement strategies that address social-emotional learning (SEL) in the classroom.
Taste the Sunshine, Touch the Sky with Sarah Pleydell
Adapted from her award-winning book, "The Dramatic Difference,” Inspired Child teaching artist Sarah Pleydell, gives teachers hands-on experience using multi-sensory props and stimulation plus simple storytelling techniques to enhance their reading of much-loved children's books.
Young HeARTS with Imani Gonzalez
This interactive workshop with renowned vocalist and Inspired Child teaching artist, Imani Gonzalez, demonstrates how well-loved children’s books provide the springboard for arts infused activities that support social-emotional development while students are learning virtually or in the classroom.
PUPPET PLAY! New Tools to Strengthen Social and Emotional Learning in the Early Childhood Classroom with Karen Brown
During our hands-on workshop, participants learn to make lively puppets using simple, recycled materials. Fine motor skills are strengthened through cutting, gluing, tearing, braiding, coloring, twisting, and threading.
Dancing Imaginations: Using Music and Movement to Support Early Childhood Literacy and Math Skills with Sylvana Christopher
Join Inspired Child teaching artist and professional dancer, Sylvana Christopher, for a holistic storytelling that focuses on our natural ability to reimagine stories that awaken the imagination.
Sing and Dance a Story: Using the Arts to Promote Early Literacy Part 2
Inspired Child's interactive workshop will give early childhood educators the tools to use music, theater and movement to develop children’s literacy skills, love of books and passion for reading.
Sing and Dance a Story: Using the Arts to Promote Early
Inspired Child's interactive workshop will give early childhood educators the tools to use music, theater and movement to develop children’s literacy skills, love of books and passion for reading.
Incorporating Music, Movement, Theater and Visual Arts to Strengthen Early Childhood Participation
In partnership with Inspired Child, Teatro La Bolsa, a bilingual and educational Latin American theater company for children, youth and adults, presents a professional development workshop creating educational experiences using different arts-based techniques that engage children in the early childhood classroom while promoting social-emotional and cognitive learning.