Educator Resources

As teachers, it is important that we never stop learning. Our students and instructors education and happiness is extremely important. The work you do with children makes a ripple that has no bounds.

Because of this, PNWK offers reimbursements for up to 2 credits or $10 of MERIT approved classes per month for each instructor.

Learn more about registering for MERIT account & taking classes here. Search for trainings here.

For Reimbursements, email support@premiernwkids.com with your class receipt & certificate of completion.


Terms to know:

Developmentally Appropriate Practice: DAP is a teaching philosophy based on research and sound developmental theory about how kids learn and grow. Essentially, it’s respecting children as individuals, childhood as valuable and valid, and learning as part of a larger developmental process. Using DAP means approaching environments and experiences with an awareness and appreciation of where kids are developmentally and how they are wired to learn and progress in a healthy way as a whole child.

Art of Questioning: a teaching style that leads the student on a path of discovery. Starting with shared curiosity, the instructor offers a series of questions that serve to focus perceptions.  

The Loose Parts Play Theory: with loose parts, such as sticks, rope, pinecones or rocks, children can manipulate their environment in any way they desired. This promotes creative and imaginative growth.

Core Routines of Nature Connection: disciplines for learning nature that are routinely practiced to cultivate sensory awareness and a way of being in and with nature. Sensory Awareness is central to our development as people because it is the main tool for influencing the cycle of our brain patterning.

Trees Have Souls Too Approach: developing empathy and environmental values in early childhood is important. Humans could not have survived as a species if everyone cared only for himself (Hoffman, 2001, p. 1)

Young children today recognize hundreds of corporate logos, but few can identify more than a handful of plants and animals in their own backyard. You're about to meet a group of preschoolers who are quite different. That's because they go to school outside.

Does getting away from human artifacts affect our brains? In this surprising talk, Craig Childs connects our decision-making abilities and sense of well-being with the power of playing outside. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.

Math in the forest —> Familiar objects and situations add meaning to any math exploration and help all children understand and use what they’ve learned.

Look for examples of counting, comparing quantities, ordering, patterning, identifying and comparing shapes, measuring, and sorting in activities that children do regularly and that are useful in their lives. This is the best way to build connections with what children already know.