Upcoming Events

WELCOME TO MY STUDIO: LOOSE PARTS WITH TODDLERS, LISA ZARETSKY

Tuesday, November 17th 3-4pm

Loose parts are found in everyday environments and interactions. They come to us with potential, diversity, and at times abundance. These everyday items in the hands of our youngest learners unlock great potential. Through playAGAIN, Lisa champions the use of everyday, repurposed materials to inspire children’s creativity, imagination, resourcefulness, and social-emotional well-being. Her approach celebrates children’s natural desire to repeat, revisit, and transform their experiences, while emphasizing that meaningful play is about the process—not the product. Lisa is a lifelong early childhood educator whose work with toddlers and materials will inspire you to reimagine and play again!

BIO:

Lisa Zaretsky is a lifelong early childhood educator, mother of two grown children, and the creator of playAGAIN, a philosophy and program centered on the power of free, unstructured play. After earning her Master’s in Education from Bank Street College of Education and spending many years as a nursery school teacher in New York City, Lisa founded playAGAIN in 2010.  In 2018, Lisa created the EVERYDAY PLAY DECK, featuring more than 100 invitations to play with household and repurposed materials. In 2022, she opened The playAGAIN Studio in Stockton, New Jersey, where she continues to create opportunities for children and families to explore the possibilities of open-ended play.

WELCOME TO MY STUDIO: CLAY, CAROLINE MCAULIFFE

Tuesday, December 1st  4-5pm

Clay is magical earth material! It can bring children together, grant opportunities for discoveries, laughter, and even offer a space to release big emotions. It's a malleable material that can really be pushed around. Clay allows children to work with both fine and gross motor skills, storytelling, parallel and collaborative play. Join Caroline to learn how to create various clay provocations for a range of ages and settings, care for clay like a class pet, and extend clay investigations further. Gather tricks for reconstituting clay and learn how to keep children who don’t like the feel of clay at the table. Discover how to incorporate natural materials into clay work, and even use clay to make paint and drawing tools.

BIO:

Caroline McAuliffe is an interdisciplinary artist and fine arts specialist. She believes in creating possibilities for quality education that engages individuals cognitively, emotionally, and socially. Caroline strives to develop ways to bring people together throughout her workplace and community spaces. She believes the art studio is a space for open dialogue and inclusion. She brings her love of art, practice, process, materials, nature, repurposing, and artistic expression to children and staff. Caroline studied art and the philosophy of arts education at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and received her Masters in Painting and Drawing from Pratt Institute. She has taught throughout New York and New Jersey through museums and arts organizations, and taught in the Primary and Middle school programs at Blue School until joining Beginnings Nursery School as the Studio and Naturalist teacher in 2022. She lives and practices art in Brooklyn with her family.

EMERGENT CURRICULUM/TERRIFIC TODDLERS: ANDREW HAUNER

Tuesday, December 15th 5-6PM

Ever wondered about what emergent curriculum looks like in a twos classroom? Please join Andrew as he shares the journey of an Emergent Curriculum with his two’s class. 

BIO:

Andrew Hauner, M.F.A., is an early childhood educator and artist–researcher. He is a head teacher at the Reggio-inspired Beginnings Nursery School. He has worked with children and families across educational contexts in NYC, including Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Imani House, Blue School, and P.S. 10K. His arts-based research into creativity and education has been exhibited internationally. He has presented on artist biofiction in children’s picture books at College Art Association and early intercorporeality at New York City’s Art of Play and Wonderment Conference. Hauner’s recent articles are “Artistic Research as Citational Practice” (Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis) & “Creative Documentation: Making My Research Lens Visible” (Innovations in Early Education: The International Reggio Emilia Exchange). His forthcoming work is a chapter entitled “There is No Arts-Based Research Without Arts-Based Learning” to be featured in a volume addressing the interplay between creative practice and pedagogical practice (Vernon Press, 2026). He is interested in the Reggio Emilia approach as a way of seeing, challenging, and leveraging his teacher subjectivity and cultural lens.