Professional Development WorkshopsWolf Trap Institute offers a program of participatory professional development workshops that can be organized at schools anywhere in the world.
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
Extending the Story: Integrating Performing Arts and Learning
Jeanne Wall, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist
Open up a young child’s imagination and learning skills using performing arts strategies. Learn how to use drama, creative movement, puppetry, and music techniques to prepare early learners to experience a new book and help them gain greater comprehension of literature by extending the story. Using children’s literature as a source of inspiration, you will learn how to develop strategies to integrate the performing arts into learning about their world, natural science and math while fostering emergent literacy skills, positive social behavior, and conflict management. Includes handout.
Goal: Early childhood educators will be able to develop lesson plans that integrate the performing arts into classroom curriculum in order to enhance comprehension and emergent literacy skills, foster positive social behavior and critical thinking skills.
Rediscovering and Exploring Science Through the Arts
Jeanne Wall, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Master Teaching Artist
Through the use of our senses and drama, movement, puppetry and music experiences, we will explore and discover unique environments and enhance a child's understanding of the natural world. This exploration of magnets and natural habitats aligned with curriculum standards will expand a child’s knowledge of the physical world while developing skills that promote approaches to learning, observation and descriptive skills, problem solving and emergent literacy. Includes handout.
Goal: Educators will be able to develop age appropriate arts integrated learning experiences that incorporate performing arts strategies in preschool curriculum standards designed to introduce scientific discovery.
Story Boxes: Looking Beyond the Book; Thinking Inside the Box
Amanda Layton, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist
Discover how story boxes facilitate emergent literacy skills and enhance children’s learning in the classroom while utilizing a variety of learning styles and intelligences. Learn how creating a box full of found objects and a little imagination can provide dance, theatrical, and creative experiences. In this workshop educators explore tools to enrich and extend children’s literature using a form of Wolf Trap Coffee Can Theater to ignite a way of thinking that will allow the teacher to see the book beyond the page and bring it to life with a creative arts experience. Includes handout.
Goal: To enhance children’s literature by creating sensory experiences in the classroom through the use of creative containers and engaging manipulative objects.
Drama
Acting It Out: Problem Solving Through Interactive Drama
Steve Elm or Karina Naumer, New York City Wolf Trap Artists
Expand your children’s knowledge and understanding by exploring their natural gift of imagination. Under the guise of pretend, discover ways to engage children in problem solving experiences in an enjoyable and non-threatening manner. This workshop will explore how various drama strategies can be used to create dramas in the classroom to foster children’s emergent literacy, verbalization and critical thinking skills. Participants will be provided with practical knowledge of and experience in 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.
In-Role for In-Secure or Characters for the Confident
Nancy Meyers, Georgia Wolf Trap Artist
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. In this highly interactive workshop, 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.
Speak For The Trees: Helping Children Love the Earth
Nancy Meyer, Georgia Wolf Trap Master Teaching Artist
Visit the imaginary, Beautiful Land of Truffula Trees. Transform yourself into a quiet pond. Through observation, exploration and very active participation, teachers will make connections to age appropriate environmental literature and themes as they heighten children’s awareness of the world around them and the role that they can play in helping to protect the earth. Join us as we use this timely and important “green” theme to demonstrate a variety of drama strategies that can be applied to all forms of children’s literature. Includes handout.
Goal: To explore how to combine literacy and age appropriate ecology themes that encourage problem solving and critical thinking skills by using a variety of drama strategies.
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! Explore child-directed learning through the use of open-ended questioning and storytelling. You will develop interactive strategies for learning, expanding, and adapting stories more effectively through increased knowledge and understanding of child-directed versus teacher-directed learning as well as open-ended and directed open-ended questioning. Increase your storytelling skills by identifying points of participation for children to become co-creators of the story as it unfolds. Collaboration provides an exciting and deeply child-directed learning experience during which such skills as verbalization, language acquisition, rhythm, visualization, imagination, and problem-solving are developed. Participants will be provided with practical knowledge of and experience in interactive storytelling. Includes handout.
Goal: To assist participants in learning to develop interactive storytelling strategies that will promote emergent literacy, critical thinking, and problem solving skills.
Wake Up Your Wishes: Introduction To Wolf Trap Drama
Michele Valeri or Valerie Bayne Carroll, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Master Teaching Artists
In this highly interactive workshop, explore practical and creative drama strategies including coffee can theatre, role play, imaginary travel and story dramatization. Actively involving preschoolers in storytelling and dramatization will increase developmental skills in the areas of sequencing, language and vocabulary building, following directions, collaborative problem solving, listening, and social/self-confidence skills. These approaches have been developed and perfected by Wolf Trap Teaching artists since 1981 and are designed to build emergent literacy skills by bringing stories to life for preschool children in early childhood settings. Includes handout.
Goal: To introduce a variety of performing arts strategies for storytelling and dramatization that can be integrated into the early childhood classroom to increase emergent literacy skills.
Puppetry
From the Picture Book Page to the Puppet Stage
Ingrid Crepeau, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist
Puppet play generates interest and excitement about books! Puppet play reaches all of the learning styles: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic and has been found to play a role in helping children with Special Needs access the curriculum. Young children learn best with repetition and both reading a book and acting it out with puppets provides that repetition in an engaging way. Gain a deeper understanding of the benefits of using books to create puppet lessons in the early childhood classroom to promote literacy and language development. Learn which elements aid book selection. Participants will increase their knowledge of simple puppetry skills, explore ideas for using books to create puppet lessons, and learn methods for making and using simple puppet stages. Includes handout.
Goal: To expand the use of books to create puppet lesson opportunities in the early childhood classroom.
Let Your Voices Be Heard: Using Puppets to Bring Stories to Life
Kathleen Lynam, Nashville Wolf Trap Artist
“Once upon a time…” Every child loves the beginning of a new story. Using puppets to tell a story creates an enhanced sensory experience in which the story actually comes to life before a child’s eyes. The character’s voices, movement and engaging visual presence will capture the attention of even the most demanding child. We all have many voices within ourselves. Let your voices be heard as you use puppetry to bring books to life! This workshop will help you develop skills needed to become a puppeteer and storyteller and capture a child’s imagination in the creative world of enchantment. Emphasis on vocal expression will be an asset in the classroom, whether used in conjunction with puppets or simply when reading aloud. Includes handout.
Goal: To assist participants discover and develop their voices to promote emergent literacy and listening skills through the effective use of puppetry in the classroom.
Mother Goose... On The Loose!
Kathleen Lynam, Nashville Wolf Trap Artist
Mother Goose nursery rhymes come alive and serve as learning catalysts as they are explored through puppetry, song, movement, dramatic play, and props. Nursery rhymes provide easy and developmentally appropriate connections to curriculum strands and outcomes, emergent literacy skills, such as recall and sequencing, rhyming, phonemic awareness, making predictions, as well as extending other developmental domains such as cognitive, social/emotional, and motor skills. Includes handout.
Goal: To enhance the development of children’s imagination and representational thought and to explore simple puppet making skills and techniques that can be easily used in the classroom.
Puppet Power: Effective Techniques for Using Puppets in the Classroom
Joe Pipik, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist
Puppets have the power to pique children’s curiosity, focus attention and incite enthusiasm for learning. Explore the interaction of teachers, children and puppets and learn specific techniques to simplify their use in the classroom. Discover how to use puppets to introduce new curriculum and concepts, support verbalization and language acquisition and developing social/emotional topics. Includes handout and puppet.
Goal: To explore the use of simple but effective puppets to enhance early childhood developmental domains and encourage enthusiasm for learning in the classroom.
Music
Agoo Amee: Engaging Young Children in Call-and-Response Experiences
Kofi Dennis, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist
Call and Response: It’s More Than You Think! Call and response corresponds to the pattern in human communication and is found in many traditions. In West African cultures, call and response is a pervasive pattern of democratic participation in public gatherings as well as in vocal and instrumental musical expression. In music, a call and response is a succession of two distinct phrases usually played by different musicians, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or response to the first. This workshop will offer early childhood educators an opportunity to look at how call and response experiences enhance emergent literacy, language concepts and foster skills such as memory, concentration, listening, math concepts, patterning, sequence and symmetry. Includes handout.
Goal: To enable participants to use carefully selected call and response techniques and experiences to engage children and enhance their emergent literacy and language concepts and other developmental skills.
Cooking in the Kitchen: Music for the Classroom
Rachel Sumner, Nashville Wolf Trap 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, please note this workshop features a make and take therefore a $5.00 materials fee per participant may be added to the total fee for this workshop
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.
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. Includes handout.
Goal: Early Childhood Educators will enhance their ability to create a developmentally appropriate song and chant strategy that will meet an identified classroom objective.
Food 'N Fun: Laugh and Sing Your Way to Better Nutritional Habits
Gary Lapow, California Wolf Trap 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 recording.
Goal: To enhance participant’s confidence and ability to create their own songs and activities that reflect health oriented curriculum goals.
Great Musical Adaptations! Songs for Memorable Teaching and Smooth Transitions
Sue Trainor, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist
Music is a powerful presence in all our lives. We tend to think that the experience of music is our goal. Music also can be used as a tool to accomplish other goals. 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.
Growing Green
Terry Leonino and Greg Artzner, DC/MD/VA Teaching Artists
Celebrate the wonder of the natural world around us and encourage the protection of wildlife and habitat through the use of music, creative drama and movement. Explore our connection to the families of plants and animals while sharing ideas and choices children can make to become environmental caregivers while enhancing numerous curriculum goals such as cognition and identification, listening and verbalization, and motor skills.
Goal: To become familiar with songs of nature that facilitates and encourages responsible environmental habits in young children.
If Books Could Sing (Even If You Don't!)
Terry Leonino and Greg Artzner, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artists
This five session course, developed for teachers with little or no musical background, will assist participants to become familiar with the various ways songs can enhance the content and themes of children’s books. Over the course of the five sessions participants will take part in individual, large and small group work designed to provide opportunities to help teachers develop and practice music and song techniques that foster emergent literacy skills and support curriculum themes. Includes handout.
Goal: To help participants become familiar and comfortable with various ways to use music, movement and drama to enhance curriculum goals and bring the content and themes of children’s books to life. (*Also available for half-day workshop.)
Let Them Sing! Active Learning Using Songs, Chants and Musical Storytelling
Julie Austin, Georgia Wolf Trap Artist
Children are active learners. Children love the feeling of mastering a song or chant. This interactive workshop provides participants with music strategies that create an active learning environment and give children meaningful, interactive musical experiences throughout the day to help them develop emergent literacy, listening and communication skills. Participants will get in touch with their creative spirit as they co-create songs and developmentally appropriate music activities. Includes handout and recording.
Goal: Participants will learn music strategies to keep young children actively engaged and to increase their language and communication skills.
Making Music with Children Who Have Special Needs
Sue Trainor, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap 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
MUSIC! Music is fun and fundamental to all children. Music develops listening skills, invites intuitive responses and helps children remember. Explore how songs, simple instruments and sound effects can be used to reinforce curriculum topics, enhance creative play and imagination, enliven emergent literacy activities, and foster positive transitions during their day. Learn and share songs appropriate for early childhood classrooms, explore strategies for integrating songs and sound effects into the daily schedule, and increase your knowledge of how to create experiences that use songs and sound effects to structure and guide imaginative play and to stimulate the creative experience of pretending. Includes handout and recording.
Goal: To increase the use of music integration in the preschool classroom setting.
Sing It, Shape It, Write It Yourself
Gary Lapow, California Wolf Trap Artist
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. Includes handout and recording.
Goal: Participants will enhance their feelings of self-assurance in order to keep creating songs that reflect their curriculum.
Dance
A Dancing Day
Krissie Marty, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap 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.
Arts Based Assessment: Serious Fun and Games
Laura Schandelmeier, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist
Assessment fun? You bet! Learn arts based strategies that will delight both you and your children while easily and efficiently fulfilling your assessment needs without negating curriculum requirements. Gain practical tools, developmentally appropriate for the early childhood classroom, to determine children’s skills and knowledge base through movement, drama, and music. Turn classroom transitions, circle time, story time, any time into an opportunity for assessment. Through this workshop you will develop your own arts based assessment experience and expand the healthful, movement filled, imaginative, and musical environment in your classroom. Includes handout.
Goal: The purpose of this workshop is to help Early Childhood Professionals fulfill their assessment requirements accurately and efficiently through developmentally appropriate, child centered/directed arts based experiences.
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 and Beyond: Gateways to Teaching Cultural Experiences
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. This workshop provides participants with examples of strategies and techniques that could be adapted to explore other cultural content. 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.
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.
Math In Motion: Using creative movement to explore math FUNdamentals!
Rachel Knudson, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Master Teaching Artist
Movement is the first language of children; it is how they first explore their environment, it is what they do naturally. Through creative movement and dance, children can develop the thinking skills and concepts used in preschool early math learning curriculum such as: number sense, classification, geometry, measurement and mathematical reasoning. Participants will explore how kinesthetic experiences can enhance math and movement skills as well as support literacy development, social interaction and self-regulation. Includes handout.
Goal: To expand participants’ use of dance/movement experiences to explore math fundamentals and math concepts which are part of the early child curriculum.
Moving to Learn: A Dance Experience
Pam Van Gilder, Delta Wolf Trap
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
Dance your way through any book! Through fun, interactive strategies (like the magic dance box) this workshop will help you facilitate child-directed, movement-based experiences to tell a story. Engage your children in increased physical activity while honing emergent literacy skills including sequencing, patterning, syllabication, and prosody. Learn simple strategies such as how to generate a dance phrase using movements created by your children and how to facilitate self-regulation through a movement exploration based on the main character of a book! Learn how to unfold a story over several lessons, generating excitement for literature and opportunities for children to make predictions through a rigorous and developmentally appropriate process. In this workshop you will explore and create experiences that can be used immediately in your classroom. Includes handout.
Goal: To offer teachers movement-based strategies that aid in the development of emergent literacy skills and easily increase the amount of moderate to
vigorous activity in the early childhood classroom.
Raps and Rhymes: Motivating Children Through Movement and Rhythmic Music
Daniel Giray, California Wolf Trap Artist
Join "Danny G" in a participatory workshop that is sure to leave you full of energy and great ideas to bring back to your classroom. A musician and dancer of the Southeast Asian Kulintang gong tradition, Danny G uses a variety of movement and mime techniques to help children develop such necessary skills as motor coordination, sequencing and spatial awareness. Activities include chants and "raps" which reinforce social skills such as cooperation and sharing while teaching colors, shapes and numbers. In addition, participants are introduced to indigenous Filipino folk tales, dances, music and games in a way that is age-appropriate, educational and entertaining for young children. Teachers will learn new strategies for promoting self-expression, imagination, symbol recognition, creativity and improvisation among their children. Includes handout.
Goal: Teachers who attend this workshop will be able to develop raps/chants with movements that connect to children’s emergent literacy skills.
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.
Baby Beat, Baby Feet!
Valerie Bayne Carroll, DC/MD/VA Master Teaching Artist
Maria Tripodi, DC/MD/VA Teaching Artist
In this workshop, the natural combination of music and movement experiences is used to impact healthy physical, emotional, social, cognitive, and language development skills in infants and toddlers. Wolf Trap Teaching Artists will present dynamic, creative, developmentally appropriate movement and music experiences that can be used in the home, day care setting and classroom. Participants in this highly interactive workshop will learn and practice arts based content that can be infused into the daily routine, providing many long term benefits to infant/toddler growth and development. Includes handout.
Goal: Participants will learn about the inherent connection that music and movement have in infant and toddler development and their application in the everyday routines of the classroom and home settings.
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. Includes handout.
Goal: To increase the use of puppets in infant/toddler classrooms.
Family Workshops
Let Them Sing!
Julie Austin, Georgia Wolf Trap Artist
Come sing and move along to delightful music designed to keep young children actively engaged and enjoying themselves. These songs and accompanying activities encourage children to build listening and concentration skills, and inspire individual creativity. This participatory workshop is an opportunity to learn new songs and ways to use them at home or on the go!
Journey to Africa: Sharing Family Experiences
Kwame Ansah Brew and/or Kofi Dennis, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artists
This family workshop introduces many exciting ways to adapt songs, rituals, and activities from other cultures to every family’s daily routine. Participants will take an imaginary journey to share in the movements, sounds, and instruments of different West African traditions.
Dancing Stories: Stories Come Alive!
Jody Cassell, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist
Twirl, bounce and slowly dip as dancing storyteller Jody Cassell makes stories come alive. Great family fun unfolds as the children join her in creative movements, rhythms and sounds to become parts of moving tales. Stir your imagination and delight your giggles! Come join!
And The Beat Goes On
Cynthia Elek, Arizona Wolf Trap Artist
Using songs from many nations as a starting point, learn how to greet and dance and musically warm up body parts from head to toe with your child! Songs will be enhanced with simple movements, props and percussion instruments. This family experience will culminate with an interactive book or story that incorporates singing, chanting and body percussion.
Big Bear/Little Bear
Steve Elm, New York City Wolf Trap Artist
Sego! Sego is how we say "hello" in the Oneida language. Wolf Trap artist Steve Elm, a member of the Oneida Indian Nation of Wisconsin, invites you and your family to join him in an interactive, culturally rich evening of drama on Turtle Island. This workshop illustrates how child centered techniques are used as a tool to promote and develop emergent literacy skills, including critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Everybody Comes From a Different Place
Slim Harrison, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist
Explore the diverse “Roots” of our American Folk Music and Dance Heritage while “a good old time is had by all!” Folk music and dances are designed to bring people together to have fun while “Learning by Doing”. Join in the “Jugband” with washboards, spoons, washtub bass, jugs, stumpf-fiddles, limberjacks, whammydiddles & skiffleboards. Simple folk dances are briefly taught and the whole family can join in circles, reels & square dances.
Havana Hop!
Paige Hernandez, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Teaching Artist
This interactive family workshop dramatizes differences and similarities in family generations, culture, and dance. In this hip-hop theatre arts performance workshop, Paige presents her original work based loosely on her experience as a performer with African American Roots and a Latino Soul. Her story teaches us to be creative and unique using our heritage and family values as inspiration. The audience will see three generations of women who are determined to keep their spirit, passion, and culture alive!
Basically Blues
Kenneth Jackson, Delta Wolf Trap Artist, Crittenden Arts Council
Don’t miss this opportunity to motivate your preschool children with one of America’s most indigenous art forms . . . THE BLUES! Learn fun blues songs, games, stories, and movement activities to share with children away from the classroom. Curriculum connections (such as numbers, colors, alphabet, hygiene, behavior, safety, emergent literacy, science and nutrition) set to music allow for a greater grasp and deeper understanding. Everyone will be energized to take on the new challenges of education in today’s world.
Movement Matters
Rachel Knudson, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist
Come explore the magic of dance with props, rhythm instruments and a wide variety of music. Learn how to support and encourage your child’s growth through movement activities that engage all types of learners. This workshop focuses on fun and appropriate movements for building the body and the brain.
Sing Your Child's Day
Gary Lapow, California Wolf Trap Artist
Get silly and sing your child’s curriculum! Sing along on some interactive songs that teach everything from numbers, body parts, science, and family relations to other concepts in your child’s world. Learn how music can be used to create a memorable learning experience. All of Gary’s original songs are cooked to perfection with age appropriate activities and spiced up with movement and laughter.
Puppets Bring Stories to Life
Kathleen Lynam, Nashville Wolf Trap Artist
Children love puppets! Learn how to transform kitchen utensils into puppets, engage your child with finger play glove puppets, and retell stories with finger puppets! An easy-to-make finger puppet pattern provided for a great project to do at home with your children.
Puppet Power
Joe Pipik, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist
Learn more about the power of puppets in this exploration of how teachers or parents/caregivers, young children and puppets interact. The workshop begins with a brief overview of puppet types; participants are then given some ideas for puppet operation and use. The second half of the workshop gives participants examples of specific curriculum tie-ins, such as using puppets to enhance and highlight field trips, teaching numbers, shapes and colors through puppets, and ways to use puppets to introduce a new unit of study or topic.
Raps and Rhymes: Motivating Children Through Movement and Rhythmic Music
Daniel Giray, California Wolf Trap Artist
Join “Danny G” in a participatory workshop that is sure to leave you full of energy and great ideas. A musician and dancer of the Southeast Asian Kulintang gong tradition, Danny G uses a variety of movement and mime techniques to help children develop such necessary skills as motor coordination, sequencing and spatial awareness. Participants are introduced to indigenous Filipino folk tales, dances, music and games in a way that is age-appropriate, educational and entertaining for young children.
Taking Changes Making Dances: Strategies For Emergent Literacy Through Stories and Movement
Laura Schandelmeier, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist
Come dance and sing together! 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? Learn how to make a dance phrase with your child based on a character from a book. Explore the setting of a story with Interactive Movement Experiences. Learn how to create an environment for movement exploration and vocabulary development through the Descriptive Language Strategy.
Good Vibration Everywhere!
Sue Trainor, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist
Singing together creates good vibrations, here and everywhere you go. Take some home! You and your child are sure to enjoy playing with these imaginative songs, singing games and chants (which also happen to be great for teaching pre-reading skills and for redirecting behavior – shhh!).
Rhythm, Chants and Space Games: Movement for Memory
John Taylor, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist
A highly energetic workshop led by John “Kinderman” Taylor integrates rhythms, movements and simple body part chants with more intricate spatial awareness games to demonstrate activities which help children identify and recall concepts such as colors, shapes, numbers, community relationships, modes of transportation and action verbs. Finger spelling and American Sign Language are incorporated as an aid in teaching the alphabet and developing fine motor skills. Sequencing games also build concentration, self-control and memory.
Cruising The Caribbean
Terlene D. Terry-Todd, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist
Join Ms. T on a trip to the sunny West Indies, a journey full of songs, dances and stories. You and your family will 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.
Ready, Set, Imagine!
Michele Valeri, DC/MD/VA Wolf Trap Artist
In this interactive family workshop you will discover how the world of imagination can make learning fun everywhere and everyday, for you and your child. Learn various storytelling techniques that will help open your child's door to reading, verbalizing, and problem solving.
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
Other National Programs
One-Week Residencies