RESOURCES

• Watch the full webinar here
• Join our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every week
• Check out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management Software

What if the everyday “problems” you see in your classroom could become the spark for deeper learning?

When a block tower tumbles down or paint drips across a page, children are already engaging in problem-solving, experimenting, and exploring big ideas. This webinar will show you how to transform those ordinary moments into extraordinary opportunities through problem-based STEAM learning.

Together, we’ll explore how to design hands-on, developmentally appropriate centers that invite children to question, investigate, and solve challenges in creative ways. You’ll see how science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math can come alive through playful exploration that nurtures curiosity and builds essential 21st-century skills.

In this approachable STEAM session, hosted by Tiffany Berman, M.Ed we’ll walk through the process step by step—from observing children to uncover the problems they’re naturally drawn to, to choosing the right materials, to guiding child-led investigations that empower independent learning.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover how to use an observation and discussion tool to identify children’s curiosities and classroom challenges that can spark STEAM investigations.

• Create a plan for a developmentally appropriate, problem-based STEAM learning center that fosters exploration and discovery.

• Explore practical strategies for facilitating child-led investigations that encourage independence, creativity, and joyful learning through play.

RESOURCES

• Watch the full webinar here
• Join our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every week
• Check out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management Software

Early education program leaders around the world are increasingly enthusiastic about nature-based learning. Many leaders want to jump in wholeheartedly but find shifting the culture of their organization incredibly challenging. This webinar is a pause to say, “Imagine if…” Imagine if nature were another teacher in the classroom, if nature-based learning were core to the program’s culture, and if families were choosing your program because of its nature-rich experiences. In this session, Dr. Larimore will explore different ways to consider a nature-based approach in your teaching—from the structure of the day and the physical environment to planning and teacher-child interactions. She’ll share a wide range of possibilities for imagining—or reimagining—the ways we support young children through nature-based learning.

In this action-focused webinar designed for program leaders and administrators, experienced early childhood nature-based program leader and author Dr. Rachel Larimore will share her Trail Map for Leading Change—an approach for inspiring and supporting staff as they move toward nature-based teaching. In previous ECI webinars, she focused on the big picture of the Trail Map for Change and Step 1: preparing yourself as a leader. In this webinar, she’ll focus on Step 5 of the Trail Map: reimagining teaching practices to embrace nature-based pedagogy.

Come be inspired by the diverse and innovative ways early childhood programs are integrating nature-based learning into their classrooms.

Objectives

Participants will be able to:

1. Describe the core components of nature-based pedagogy.
2. Identify at least two ways to reimagine daily structure to embrace nature-based pedagogy.
3. Identify at least two ways to reimagine the physical environment to deepen nature-based learning.
4. Describe ways to support teachers in making small shifts toward nature-based teaching.

RESOURCES

• Watch the full webinar here
• Join our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every week
• Check out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management Software

In every classroom, on every playground, and over every shared meal, there are opportunities for healing. This immersive session invites early childhood educators and professionals to reconnect with their own wisdom, intuition, and power as everyday healers in the lives of young children.

Facilitated by educator and author Mike Browne, MBA, this webinar is more than professional development—it’s a restorative experience for the heart of our field. Together, we’ll explore how healing-centered practices can live in the routines and relationships that define early childhood care and education. Through story, breath, and reflection, participants will consider how trauma shows up in our classrooms and communities—and how safety, connection, and regulation can be offered in even the smallest interactions.

Whether you’re a teacher, cook, driver, family advocate, or administrator, your presence matters. Healing doesn’t happen in isolation—it happens in relationship. Together, we’ll remember that care is collective, and that every role in early childhood education is a healing role.

Intentions (Learning Objectives):

This session is not just about understanding trauma—it’s about:

• Restoring ourselves so we can hold space for children and families
• Honoring lived experience as wisdom
• Deepening connection, safety, and care across all roles
• Creating environments where everyone feels seen and valued
• Moving toward healing in community—through story, rhythm, reflection, and breath