Educator Programs

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Educator Extras

Have fun while you learn from Chicago Children's Museum’s experienced education staff!  Bring your group of educators, parents, high school students or college students to the museum for a self-guided or guided visit or, for a more in-depth learning experience, arrange a professional development workshop at the museum or at your site.

Educator Workshops Fees

Workshops:	$20/educator (10 person minimum) (separate rates apply for custom-designed programs)
Travel fee:	$50.00 (for workshops delivered outside the museum)
Guided group tour for educators:	$5.00/person
Self-guided group tour:	$2.50/person
Individual educator visit:	FREE!  Show your teacher i.d. and visit free anytime!

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Self-Guided and Guided Visits

Self-guided and guided visits provide valuable opportunities to observe child development, family interactions, open-ended learning, and much more. Led by museum educators, guided visits can be focused to suit your group.  

Professional Development Workshops

Participants will gain practical tools to apply in their work with children—and can earn CPDUs, too. Offered year-round, these two-hour workshops can accommodate between 10 and 30 participants, and can take place at the museum or at your site.  Please see our available workshops below.  We also offer a number of workshops throughout the year, open to individual registrants

Play and Learning: Exploring the Connection
Explore the fascinating world of children’s main vocation: play!  We’ll investigate, observe and discuss the importance of play in children’s social, emotional, physical and cognitive development.  Participants will leave with concrete tools for identifying the amazing feats of learning that occur during play as well as practical ideas on how to support and inspire children’s play and champion play in their communities.

Using Documentation to Communicate Learning            
Get over bulletin boredom! Documentation is an essential tool for showing your community the powerful teaching and learning that is happening in your classroom. We’ll share practical skills to help you create meaningful classroom displays and gain insight into your students’ learning.

(Re) Creating Spaces: Innovative Ways to Enrich Your Learning Environment
The right environments can inspire creative thinking in children and the important adults in their lives. In this workshop, we’ll share simple and inexpensive strategies for transforming your space (you’ll create a 3-D blueprint!) into a learning environment that supports hands-on activities, creative thinking, reflection and the concept of “environment as third teacher.”

The Journey of Art: Sustaining Creativity Through Open-Ended Activities
Learn by doing, as you explore process and product approaches to teaching young children. Discover how open-ended activities encourage children’s natural creativity and help them become confident, independent learners. (This workshop can also be extended into a 2- or 3-part series.)

Now You’re Talking! The story of how children acquire language
This interactive, playful workshop highlights the remarkable language-learning feats of young children.  Teachers and caregivers will discover ways to promote language acquisition through music, art and reading.

Inspiring a Love of Books
When kids get turned on to reading, they read for pleasure, and soon their reading skills skyrocket. But how can you lead more reluctant readers to the launching pad? This workshop demonstrates how playful activities can foster children's literacy skills while motivating them to want to read, read, read!

Wonders of Science (geared for Early Childhood educators)
It’s never too early to start thinking like a scientist!  Join Chicago Children’s Museum educators for a unique look at science for early learners.  We’ll start with the fundamental principles and work through lively, hands-on activities that demonstrate how even the youngest children can embark on scientific thinking. 

Let’s Play with Math!  (geared for Early Childhood educators)
Fundamental math concepts can be explored even before a child is able to count.  Join Chicago Children’s Museum educators as we explore lively and hands-on ways to bring math to life in your classroom.  We’ll explore unique activities that focus on early math skills, including creative ways to measure, sort, and classify as well as colorful ways to explore patterns and rhythm.

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