Creative Curriculum

The Creative Curriculum offers developmentally appropriate support for active learning and promoting children's progress in all developmental areas.  These research-based and research proven curriculum resources help every early childhood program create a high quality learning environment that enables every child to become a creative, confident thinker.  The Foundation helps teachers create a high-quality learning environment and build a thorough understanding of best practices.  And daily resources help teachers plan and manage every moment of their day.  Through studies, which are hands on, project-based investigations.  The Creative Curriculum for Preschool helps teachers build children's confidence, creativity and critical thinking skills and promote positive outcomes.

 

For more information on the Creative Curriculum click here.

 

Preparing for the First Days of School

 

Planning carefully for the first few days of school can ease transitions and help children feel more comfortable and secure. If we can anticipate their needs, we'll be better prepared to plan for their arrival and support them successfully.

 

Some children with prior experience in group settings may have learned the skills needed to be members of a classroom community. For other children, preschool may be their first experience away from home or in a group.

 

Focus Questions

 

 

Why should students investigate clothes?

 

This study shows how to use children's interest in clothes to help them explore social studies and science concepts about different kinds of clothing and where and how clothing is made.  The study also helps children use skills in literacy, math, technology, and the arts as they investigate.

 

Children are interested in clothes from a very young age.  Babies tug at their clothing; toddlers study buttons, snaps, and zippers; and, by the time children are in preschool, they develop distinct preferences for colors, fabrics and styles. Children's interest in clothing can be the foundation for learning about different kinds of clothes, a variety of fabrics, the processes involved in making and selling clothes, the specialized purposes of same garments, and how clothes have changed over time.

 

 

 

Why are trees important?

 

This study builds upon children's interest in trees to help them explore science and social studies.  Rather then emphasize naming different trees, this study focuses on helping children develop an understanding of the characteristics of trees and their role in our natural and man-made worlds.  During the study, children use skills in literacy, math, technology, and the arts to investigate and represent their knowledge about trees.

 

Trees fascinate children and spark their curiosity and wonder. Let's look back when you were young  by closing your eyes, and think of your childhood memories that involved trees.  Those

memories you experience are also experience by our students.

 

 

 

Why investigate reduce, reuse and recycle?

 

Trash and garbage are all around us.  We find rubbish and waste in our homes, on the streets, and in places where we, work and play.  We pay more attention to garbage when it becomes a problem: a community with more garbage than it can dispose of faces the prospect of a new landfill; dangerous waste begins to affect people's health; a tragedy, such as a hurricane, produces mountains of debris; or excessive litter creates an eyesore.  However, once immediate problems are resolved, we often forget about the ongoing challenge of dealing with trash and garbage.

 

Children are fascinated by what is in garbage cans and often pick up trash against our wishes.  This natural curiosity provides a good starting point for finding out what happens to trash after it's thrown away and exploring the concept of reducing, reusing, and recycling.

 

A study of reducing, reusing, and recycling not only offers opportunities for children to explore a topic that interests them but allows them to gather information, become more aware of the world around them, and solve problems. They will use skills in mathematics, literacy, the arts, and technology to represent their understanding of important concepts related to science and social studies.

 

 

 

Why buildings?

 

This study offers many opportunities to explore buildings firsthand. Children will expand their knowledge and understanding of building materials and physical forces. They will also explore concepts in social studies related to shelter, jobs, and the purposed of different structures.

 

Buildings are everywhere in your community. They vary in size, color, construction, material, function, and location. Children enter and exit buildings every day as they leave and return home, spend time in other people's homes, go to school, and visit businesses. Sometimes children see buildings being constructed, repaired, or torn down.

 

Young children are very curious about buildings. They want to know how they are constructed and what people do inside them. Perhaps you've seen a child mesmerized by large construction equipment as it moves massive piles of earth or hoists a steel beam high in the sky.

 

 

Balls?

 

This study shows how to use children's interest in balls to help them explore social studies and science concepts about the features and nature of balls, and to use skills in literacy, math, technology, and the arts as they investigate. 

 

Children love balls. They play with them in many different ways. They throw them, catch them, kick them, and roll them with seemingly endless delight. Children learn how natural forces, such as gravity and friction, affect the movement of balls, and they enjoy making balls, marbles, and other rolling objects change speed and direction. The universal and enduring appeal of balls is evident in the traditional games children play with them and in the ways they invent their own ball game.

 

 

 

Why investigate pets?

 

A study on pets not offers opportunities for children to explore a topic that interests them, but it also allows children to gather information, become more aware of the world around them, and solve problem. Children will explore many types of pets; investigate, and what they need; observed people caring for pets; and learn about jobs related to caring. 

 

In preschool, children learn to be contributing members of a classroom community. Caring for a class pet creates an opportunity for children to see the direct benefits of their responsible actions when they feed the class pet or remember to handle the pet gently and respectfully. Caring for a pet in the context of an in-depth study fives children a chance to learn about pets while interacting closely with the animal and each other.

 

 

 

Why investigate music making?

 

From very early ages, children demonstrate their enjoyment of music by smiling, clapping, bouncing, and dancing. Songs that they frequently hear sung or played by caregivers become easily remembered and "performed." Children soon learn that they can strike objects and make sounds that will cause others to listen, allowing them to become "musicians" in their own right.

 

This study offers many opportunities for children to investigate music making firsthand while they explore social studies and science concepts, experiment with and create instruments, interview musicians, and identify their feelings and preferences associated with different music experiences. The study also helps children use and develop skills in literacy, math, technology, and the arts.

 

In preschool years, children are often very interested in performing musically, understanding how music is made, and learning new ways to generate sounds. Music is an important part of preschoolers' lives and the preschool classroom community and is an invaluable part of children's academic, social, and emotional development.