Early Childhood Education

Professional development for early childhood educators at the Amazeum is filled with play! We believe educators need to play too! Through hands-on experiences, early childhood education professionals will be inspired to implement child-driven, play-focused learning opportunities that allow children to become effective learners.

Registration Details

The Amazeum offers private workshops in three different areas: STEAM, Object Play, and Storybook Playground. Full descriptions are available below. Each private workshop is 2 hours long with the date determined in collaboration between school and Amazeum. Private workshops are best when held at Amazeum due to the experience and access to resources. However, workshops can be held at your school site.  Professional Development workshops held in-person have new processes and procedures to maintain a healthy and safe environment. More information provided during registration.

Fee*: two-hour workshop at Amazeum for up to 25 teachers: $425
          two-hour workshop at school site** for up to 25 teachers: $500

Advanced registration and payment required by contacting Director of Education at mporter@amazeum.org

*Fees listed are negotiable with the Director of Education based upon quantity and frequency.
**Additional fee may apply for sites over 45 miles from Amazeum. 

Professional development workshops are designed for adult only.  

Workshop Descriptions 

Object Play: Enriching Early Learner Environments
Recommended for early childhood teachers/providers of children ages 9-60 months

Object-rich environments provide meaningful, open-ended learning that is an effective way to help children develop their imagination, creativity, and to deepen critical thinking and problem-solving skills. This workshop is designed to guide teachers' understanding and practice of providing natural and recycled materials in the classroom and how to support children's process of investigation and active exploration. Through this workshop, early childhood teachers and providers will

• Discover the importance and benefits of object play in children's learning and development
• Identify strategies for supporting children's object play
• Make connections between themes and objects

Click here for the early learning standards addressed in Object Play workshop

STEAM for Early Childhood
Recommended for early childhood teachers/providers of children ages 3-5 years

Young children are naturally driven to explore, play, and wonder about how and why things work. This workshop is designed to inspire confidence in exploring STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) topics. Through hands-on activities and demonstrations, educators will gain resources and teaching strategies to integrate STEAM into the early childhood classroom and practice techniques in guiding children in play-based facilitation.

• Breaking STEAM apart and putting it back together for your classroom
• Focus on process, not just outcomes; Support learning through play investigation
• Creating provocations (challenges) that engage children in constructing knowledge

Click here for the early learning standards addressed in STEAM for Early Childhood workshop

Storybook Playground: A Foundation for Learning
Recommended for early childhood teachers/providers of children ages 2-5 years

Storybooks naturally stretch young children’s thinking as they imagine, guess, describe and wonder. Storybook Playground inspired activities will add a richness to classroom curriculum by supporting children’s early science explorations, building problem-solving skills, and creating opportunities to construct mathematical knowledge. Through this workshop, early childhood teachers and providers will;

• Learn to incorporate storybook activities into the curriculum to increase children's mathematical and scientific discoveries
• Advance children's language skills by applying open-ended questions that require children to think in more complex ways
• Identify strategies to extend and deepen children's understanding and learning from stories

Process Art for Early Learners
Recommended for early childhood teachers/providers of children ages 3-6 years

Creating environments that focus on the process instead of the product invites early learners to explore materials and ideas, to ask and test questions and to discover for themselves how things work. Through process art invitations and collaborative process art activities, educators can develop their own portfolio of art experiences for the classroom.

Tinkering in Early Childhood
Recommended for early childhood teachers/providers of children ages 3-6 years

Tinkering is an active process that is all about doing, discovering, and creating. Whether children are putting something together or taking something apart, these experiences encourage curiosity and a love of learning. Encouraging children to tinker encourages children to be problem solvers, build fine motor skills and provides experiences in developing both sharing and collaboration skills.    

Science Explorations
Recommended for early childhood teachers/providers of children ages 4-6 years

Children are born highly motivated to explore, question, and discover the world around them and the early exploration of science involves important practice in skill development that can be used in situations outside of science. This workshop takes a science-centered approach to early childhood education that supports learning and development across domains.

Developing Focus and Self Control through Playful Games 
Recommended for early childhood teachers/providers of children ages 3-6 years

Executive function and self-regulation skills are necessary abilities needed to learn something new. These abilities are tied to brain function that undergoes significant development in the early childhood years and children who develop these skills have better long range outcomes in adulthood. Early childhood educators can support the development of self-regulation and executive functions by modeling and engaging children in physical games and activities that involve start and stop actions and games in which children need to pay attention to a specific attribute, while ignoring other attributes.