WPU – Early Childhood Spring Conference: Creating a Culture of Inquiry with Unscripted Materials

Keynote Speaker
Miriam Beloglovsky – Author
Date: Saturday, April 22nd
Time: 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
3 Hours Professional Development

Registration Link

Professional Development Schools Free with PDS code
Current NJEEPRE members Free with membership number
P-3 Students Free with student code

All others: $25 Check or Purchase Order to:
WP Child Development Center 1800 Valley Road Wayne, NJ.

Keynote Description- Imagine Equitable and Inclusive Play Ecosystems:

This workshop focuses on creating the conditions that best support children with diverse abilities. This workshop invites early childhood educators and families to see the strengths of children with diverse abilities and listen to their powerful voices. It supports educators in creating ecosystems based on peace, freedom, equity, and inclusion practices.

For additional information contact:

Cindy Gennarelli gennarellic@wpunj.edu 973-720-2529

• This conference is hosted by the WP Child Development Center in collaboration with the
New Jersey Educators Exploring the Principles of Reggio Emilia (NJEEPRE)

Breakout Sessions

1. Title: Seashells, bottle caps, sticks and cardboard-can you find the common denominator? Open-ended provocations and intentional teaching.
Presenter: Marta Nemesh
Description: Open-ended materials inspire children to use their imagination. They encourage children to make connections by drawing from prior knowledge to make sense of their world and how it works. In this thought-provoking workshop, teachers will learn how to integrate impactful, open-ended provocations into their curriculum. Participants will gain insight into how to enhance the learning that happens naturally through play, while applying observation and the cycle of inquiry as a valuable tool.
2. Title: Co-Created Curriculum Studies in Pre-school: From Bridges and Tunnels to Wrecking Balls to the Development of Games – The Role of Loose Parts.
Presenter: Sonja de Groot Kim, Ph.D
Description: Describes how preschool children and their teacher co-created curriculum studies following children’s interests, using loose parts. A study of Bridges and Tunnels emerged and eventually culminated in a “clean-up” with a “wrecking ball”, again using loose parts. An interest in games developed and each child created games as well as a group games, using loose parts.
3. Title: Literacy with Lose Parts (Story Workshop)
Presenter: Maria Kelly
Description: Story workshop allows children the opportunity to become authors while creating a developing literacy concept through play-based learning. In the breakout session loose parts will be provided for educators to create their own story. Together we will explore how this Reggio inspired approach to literacy incorporates differentiation and supports diverse learners in developing vocabulary and understanding the structure of a story.
4.Title: Myth Busters: Busting through the outdated preschool myths and phrases that have been used for years. Why do we continue to use them? What should we do instead?
Presenter: Sivan Baumgartner.
Description: Reflecting upon the appropriateness of strategies, phrases and techniques used in the preschool classroom. Participants will have the opportunity to critically think and reflect upon their teaching practice by disrupting their comfort level.
5. Title: Creating a Culture of Inquiry with Unscripted Materials:
Presenter: Miriam Beloglovsky
Description: How to create a culture of inquiry in early childhood ecosystems. The process of investigation and reflection supports educators in systematically analyzing their practices to increase their knowledge, which leads to positive changes that ultimately benefit children. Through play and active engagement with unscripted materials, participant will define, design, and discover a process of collecting data, asking questions, and closely examining the evidence of their work with young children. Inquiry allows educators to reflect on and develop practices to support children’s learning better.
6. Title: Clay as an art medium… clay as a loose part:
Presenter: Heidi Lanino
Description: Clay provides children with opportunities to explore new perspectives of art, away from the conventional drawing or painting while honoring the child’s potential to create three- dimensional art, in ways that have been thought of as unlikely or impossible. Participants should be prepared to get messy as they
work with this versatile material, discuss the elements of clay, and learn new technical vocabulary.

Conference Agenda

8:00am-9:00- Registration in the lobby Rm 1023
8:00am-9:00 – Visits with Vendors Rm. 1007-1008

9:15-10:30- Keynote address Valley Road Auditorium Rm 1012
10:45-12:00- Breakout workshops to follow