Professional Development WorkshopsWolf Trap Institute offers a program of participatory professional development workshops that can be organized at schools anywhere in the world.

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Call (703) 255-1933 or 1(800) 404-8461 or email education@wolftrap.org for additional information or to schedule a Workshop.

Workshop Descriptions

Choose among a variety of expertly developed workshops centered around multidisciplinary arts, drama, puppetry, music, dance, and infants and toddlers.

• Multidisciplinary Arts
• Drama
• Puppetry
• Music
• Dance
• Infants and Toddlers

Multidisciplinary Arts

The Playful Classroom: Performing Arts and Classroom Management
Rising Moon, Nashville Wolf Trap Artist

Add fun to your classroom management tool belt! Learn how to create a more positive learning environment while reducing educator stress and fatigue. This workshop will give early childhood professionals techniques for using the performing arts to reinforce, redirect, and reconnect with their students. Working with simple ideas and everyday materials, participants will experiment with and create unique classroom strategies and props. Participants will have the opportunity to share a challenging classroom issue and develop a solution for dealing with it. Includes handout.

Goal: Participants will explore strategies for using the performing arts to manage challenging classroom behavior and transitions.

Drama

Acting It Out, Working It Out: Facilitating Issue-Based Drama in the Early Childhood Classroom
Steve Elm or Karina Naumer, New York City Wolf Trap Artists

This workshop will explore how various drama strategies can be used to create issue based dramas in the classroom and foster children's emergent literacy skills. Participants will be provided with practical knowledge of and experience in issue-based interactive drama. Includes handout.

Goal: To assist participants in learning to facilitate one or more drama strategies that promote children's ability to problem solve and foster children's emergent literacy skills.

Artful Questions: Tuning Into Children's Thinking
Karina Naumer, New York City Wolf Trap Artist

This workshop will allow the participants to delve into the world of artful questioning skills and consider ways to use children's ideas to build imaginative drama experiences for your classroom. Discover how artful questions challenge children to think beyond their initial ideas in order to forge deeper understandings. Includes handout.

Goal: To gain an understanding of how asking artful questions can offer children opportunities to think creatively, to problem solve and reflect, and to make discoveries about themselves and the world around them.

Extending The Story: Integrating the Performing Arts and Learning
Jeanne Wall, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist

This highly interactive workshop will demonstrate how to use drama, creative movement, puppetry, and music to prepare early learners for a new book and help them gain greater comprehension of literature by extending the story.  Using books as a source of inspiration, the lessons modeled in this workshop will demonstrate how teachers can integrate the performing arts into learning about natural science and math, while fostering positive social behavior, conflict resolution and emergent literacy skills.  Includes handout.

Goal: Early childhood educators will be able to develop lesson plans that integrate the performing arts into classroom curriculum.

In-Role for In-Secure or Characters for the Confident
Nancy Meyers, Georgia Wolf Trap Artist

In this highly interactive workshop, participants will learn how to use body, voice, imagination and improvisational skills to create one or more roles based on characters from children’s literature.  Drama and improvisational activities will reinforce creativity, critical thinking and emergent literacy skills.  Participants will be guided through drama and improvisational exercises and discussion, leading to practical application of the art form.  Includes handout.

Goal: To personalize and create a role participants can play based on a character from or inspired by a book that they can use in their classrooms with children to foster creativity, critical thinking and emergent literacy skills.

The Story in Question: Storytelling and Child-Directed Technique
Steve Elm, New York Wolf Trap Teaching Artist

Involve your children in the drama of storytelling!  Expand your storytelling skills and enliven story time by identifying points of participation for children to co-create the narrative.  Participants will develop interactive strategies for learning, expanding, and adapting stories more effectively by utilizing child-directed learning and open-ended questioning.   These dynamic methods of collaboration will provide an exciting learning experience emphasizing verbalization, language acquisition, rhythm, imagination, and problem-solving in the classroom.  Includes handout.

Goal: To assist participants in learning to develop interactive storytelling strategies that will promote emergent literacy, critical thinking, and problem solving skills.

Puppetry

From the Picture Book Page to the Puppet Stage
Ingrid Crepeau, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist

This workshop is designed to help teachers understand the benefits of using books to create puppet lessons in the early childhood classroom. Book selection and introduction will be discussed.  Tips for making and using simple puppet stages will be offered. Includes handout.

Goal:  To increase the use of books to create puppet lessons in the early childhood classroom.

Let Your Voices Be Heard: Using Puppets to Bring Stories to Life
Kathleen Lynam, Nashville Wolf Trap Artist

This workshop will help teachers develop the skills needed to become puppeteers and storytellers, and give them the tools to develop their own classroom experiences. Participants will have the opportunity to make their own puppets. Participants will learn how to create a distinctive character using only their voices, how to choose books appropriate for use with puppetry, and how to bring a story to life in a literature-based puppet presentation. Includes handout.

Goal: To motivate teachers to use puppets through demonstrating the effectiveness and simplicity of using puppetry in the class.

Puppets Alive!
Ingrid Crepeau, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist

This workshop will help teachers understand the benefits of using puppets in the classroom and develop confidence in their ability to use puppets. Demonstrations of a variety of simple puppets will take place. Tips for making simple puppets will be offered. Participants will have the opportunity to explore new ideas for using puppets that are appropriate for immediate use in their classrooms. Includes handout.

Goal: To increase the use of puppets in the early childhood classroom.

Puppet Power: Effective Techniques for Using Puppets in the Classroom
Joe Pipik, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist

This workshop will explore the interaction of teachers, children, and puppets. The use of puppets to introduce a new curriculum topic or theme will be discussed and examples of specific curriculum connections will be provided. Includes handout and puppet.

Goal: To teach about the power of puppets in the early childhood classroom.

Music

Supports Head Start's I am Moving I am Learning Goals
Food 'N Fun: Laugh and Sing Your Way to Better Nutritional Habits
Gary Lapow, California Wolf Trap Teaching Artist

Encourage children’s healthy eating and exercise habits.  Learn to create developmentally appropriate songs and dramatic activities to encourage health oriented concepts. Find new ways to capture your children’s understanding and plant the seeds for good practices.    Participants will work in small groups to develop songs and activities that can be taken back to the classroom and will expand the use of music and drama to support children’s language, kinesthetic, and literacy skills. Includes handout and CD.

Goal: To enhance participant’s confidence and ability to create their own songs and activities that reflect health oriented curriculum goals.

 
Let Them Sing! Active Learning Using Songs, Chants and Musical Storytelling
Julie Austin, Georgia Wolf Trap Artist

This interactive workshop provides early childhood educators with music strategies that create an active learning environment.  Participants will get in touch with their creative spirit as they co-create songs and developmentally appropriate music activities.  The strategies developed will foster young learner’s listening and attending skills.  Includes handout and recording.

Goal: Early childhood professionals will learn music strategies to keep young children actively engaged and to increase their language/communication skills.

Developmentally Appropriate Early Childhood Song and Chant Repertoire: It's What You Do with It That Counts
Sue Trainor, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist

How you present a song or a chant is as important as which song is chosen for use with young children.  In this workshop, participants will a) identify and explore important variables to be considered when preparing to use music with children in different ages/stages, and b) create an original song/chant strategy that manipulates those variables to meet a classroom objective in a developmentally appropriate way.

Goal: Early Childhood Educators will enhance their ability to create a developmentally appropriate song and chant strategy that will meet an identified classroom objective. 
 
Agoo Amee: Engaging Young Children in Call-and-Response Experiences
Kofi Dennis, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Teaching Artist

This workshop will offer early childhood educators an opportunity to look critically at call-and-response experiences and how they define and enhance emergent literacy, language concepts, and developmental skills in the early years. Participants will explore the use of call and response to enhance stories and books, and have the opportunity to work in small groups to develop and share their own experiences for immediate use in their classrooms. Includes handout.

Goal: To enable early childhood educators to use carefully selected call and response techniques and experiences to engage children and enhance their emergent literacy and language concepts and developmental skills.

Cooking in the Kitchen: Music for the Classroom
Rachel Sumner, Nashville Wolf Trap Teaching Artist

Have you ever wished you could play an instrument but felt like you didn't have the time or the skills required? What if you could make instruments from materials straight from your home or school kitchen and play them easily? In this workshop you will learn to do just that! Participants will have the opportunity to make unusual instruments that will instantly grab children's attention, and to develop music skills that support the integration of music into a wide variety of curriculum topics. Learn how music can foster representational thought, transference of knowledge, and ignite children's creative spirit and yours. Includes handout.

Goal: Participants will learn how to make and play simple instruments made from kitchen items and everyday materials. They will work in groups to create musical experiences that can be used in their classroom.

Great Musical Adaptations! Songs for Memorable Teaching and Smooth Transitions
Sue Trainor, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist

In this workshop, participants will identify areas where musical tools can enhance their classrooms and learn how to create and use music strategies to support identified objectives. Participants will gain an understanding of how beat, melody, and lyrics create focus, improve motivation, affect mood, and foster emergent literacy skills. Singing for the confidence-impaired and "best practice" principles for leading music will be addressed. Includes handout.

Goal: Participants will explore strategies for using music as a tool for teaching and classroom management in preschool settings.

If Books Could Sing (Even If You Don't!)
Terry Leonino and Greg Artzner, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artists

Become familiar with the various ways in which the content and themes of children's books can be set to song and help bring to life what is on the printed page! Designed for teachers with little or no musical background, this workshop will empower participants to create musical settings for books they use in the classroom. The techniques developed in this workshop address the enhancement of emergent literacy skills including listening, cognition, identification, and verbalization skills, among others. Participants will have the opportunity to practice these techniques in both large and small group settings, leaving the workshop not only with the resources provided, but with new material they have participated in creating and that they can use in their classrooms. Participants are invited to bring a children's book to use in musical experiences during the workshop. Includes handout.

Making Music with Children Who Have Special Needs
Sue Trainor, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Teaching Artist

In this hands-on workshop, participants will gain an understanding of how to adapt strategies for songs and singing games to address various physical, cognitive, and emotional disabilities. Principles of Universal Design will be discussed as they relate to planning music experiences for children. Participants will have the opportunity to develop creative new strategies for "music time" that accommodate a range of special needs and address variations in learning styles. Includes handout.

Goal: Participants will gain an understanding of how to adapt strategies for songs and singing games in order to address various physical cognitive and emotional disabilities.

Music Makes the World Go 'Round
Michele Valeri, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist

This workshop will explore how songs, simple instruments, and sound effects can be used to reinforce curriculum topics, enhance creative play, enliven emergent literacy activities, and foster positive transitions. Includes handout and recording.

Goal: Teachers attending this workshop will be able to increase integration of and applications for music into their preschool classroom setting.

Sing It, Shape It, Write It Yourself
Gary Lapow

Learn to write and sing simple, developmentally appropriate songs that support children's language and kinesthetic development—even if you've never done it before! Pocket songs, rap, and call and response will all be explained and demonstrated. Participants will analyze the structure of songs they already use in their classrooms and use these same song forms (structures) to create new songs. They will leave with several songs ready to use the next school day.

Goal: Participants will enhance their feelings of self-assurance in order to keep creating songs that reflect their curriculum.

Dance

Creating Dance Experiences in the Early Childhood Classroom
Rachel Knudson, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist

This highly interactive movement workshop focusing on the dance concept of space is designed to enhance participant's understanding of and comfort level with the use of dance movement experiences in their classrooms. Learn how children benefit from participating in dance/movement experiences. Participants will work in small groups to develop experiences that can be used immediately in their classrooms. Includes handout.

Goal: Participants will begin to use expand their use of dance movement experiences in their early childhood classrooms.

Cruising the Caribbean
Terlene D. Terry-Todd, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist

Join Terlene on a trip to the sunny West Indies, a journey full of songs, dances, and stories. Participants take an imaginary voyage to the seashore and a Caribbean market place while exploring props and costumes, which bring songs and dances from the Caribbean to life. Whether used as part of a multicultural unit or to reinforce gross motor, counting, sequencing, verbal, or other skills, the activities presented in this workshop fit beautifully into the early childhood curriculum. Includes handout and recording.

Goal: Early childhood educators will incorporate a multi-sensory approach to explore a rich cultural experience designed to foster social interaction and creative play skills in young children.

A Dancing Day
Krissie Marty, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Teaching Artist

Turn your classroom day into a dancing day! Participants will explore ways for children to learn with their bodies. Participants will identify language for creative movement and strategies for using it in the early childhood classroom. Participants will connect dance experiences to daily classroom moments and have the opportunity to develop and create their own dance experiences. Contrasting concepts in vocabulary and motion will be explored along with the dance concept of energy. Includes handout.

Goal: The goal of this workshop is to increase teachers' use of arts integration, especially dance and creative movement, in the early childhood classroom.

Everybody Can Dance-Every Body Can Dance!
Roberta Lucas, Michigan Wolf Trap Artist

In this workshop, learn to lead movement and create dances inspired by ideas from children and resources from your classroom.  Participants will learn basic creative dance fundamentals that teach about the body, space, and time and that connect with cognitive, kinesthetic, and social development appropriate for children ages 3-5 (or 50!)  Simple props, instruments and “dancing” stories will be used to expand class time movement experiences beyond your favorite recordings. Includes handout.

Goal: To enhance the teachers’ ability to lead and create movement experiences through creative dance fundamentals.

Journeys All Around Us: Exploring Creative Movement and Story in the Early Childhood Classroom
Jody Fabso Cassell, North Carolina Wolf Trap Artist

Take your students on a creative movement journey without ever leaving your classroom! Participants will learn how to structure a story with movement that takes children on a journey through the classroom space. Discover how to create your own journey tales to teach children new vocabulary, strengthen verbal, emergent literacy, and gross/fine motor skills. Learn the language of movement while exploring the curriculum! Includes handout.

Goal: To explore how teachers can take their students on a creative movement journey that will foster a variety of curriculum objectives without leaving the classroom.

Moving to Learn: A Dance Experience
Pam Van Gilder, Delta Wolf Trap, Crittenden Arts Council

Children love to move! At this fascinating workshop, learn ways to facilitate safe and creative movement experiences for your students. Examine how you and your students can create and respond to dance, as well as connect dance, language, and children's literature. This workshop supports and enables each child to achieve movement capabilities appropriate to her/his own age and developmental level. Includes handout.

Goal: In this workshop teachers will learn how to create and lead developmentally appropriate movement experiences in the early childhood classroom.

Taking Chances Making Dances: Strategies for Emergent Literacy Through Stories and Movement
Laura Schandelmeier, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist

How can you jump like a rabbit? Can you jump with your hands? How can you use your body to jump on a low level? In this interactive workshop, participants will investigate the answers to these questions and learn strategies to tell a story through Interactive Movement Experiences—experiences that explore one or more open-ended physical problems. Through dance, participants will create experiences that connect to emergent literacy skills and explore the use of Descriptive Language Strategy. Includes handout.

Goal: Participants will explore movement-based strategies that aid in the development of emergent literacy skills in the early childhood classroom.

Infants and Toddlers

And the Beat Goes On: Keeping the Beat with 0-3s
Cynthia Elek, Arizona Wolf Trap Artist

Explore the most basic of musical elements—beat. Learn about the importance of steady beat and discover how to design and lead music-based experiences for infants and toddlers, using voice, instruments, books, and props in a wide range of aural, oral, and motor activities. Participants will also learn why steady beat is a vital pre-literacy skill and why music for young children is an important way to stimulate vocalization and vocabulary, as well as build active listening and responding skills. Includes handout.

Goal: Teachers who attend this workshop will learn about the importance of steady beat as they discover how to design and lead music-based experiences for infants and toddlers, using voice, instruments, books, and props.

Baby Artsplay: Music with Infants and Toddlers
Valerie Bayne Carroll, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist

This workshop will help participants learn how songs and other musical experiences can be woven into the daily schedule to foster and support learning and skill development for infants and toddlers. Participants will be actively engaged in quality, developmentally appropriate music, songs, and movement experiences designed for infants and toddlers.

Goal: To develop confidence in the participants in using their singing voice and body movement to employ the use of musical tools that foster and support infant and toddler development in the following areas: language, cognitive, social, emotional, and physical.

Puppet Play For Infants and toddlers
Ingrid Crepeau, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist

Puppets have a captivating presence that can help teachers and caregivers throughout the day.  This hands on workshop gives simple performance techniques for bringing puppets and stuffed animals to life, with hands on opportunities to practice.   The artist will demonstrate and discuss many ideas for using puppets with infants and toddlers including, how to use puppets for transitions such as nap time, lunchtime and even diaper time. The workshop will conclude with age appropriate puppet shows.

Goal: To increase the use of puppets in infant/toddler classrooms.


Schedule a Workshop
To schedule any program, discuss options that meet your particular needs, or for further information, contact:

Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts
National Workshop Program
1645 Trap Rd, Vienna, VA 22182
Phone: (703) 255-1933 | 1 (800) 404-8461
Fax: (703) 255-1924
Email: education@wolftrap.org