Creative Curriculum

Used for over 25 years, The Creative Curriculum is an award-winning curriculum for preschool success.

 

We believe the best way to help children succeed is to teach them to be creative, confident thinkers. That means offering them opportunities for hands-on exploration and discovery that help build lifelong critical thinking skills and foster confidence. The Creative Curriculum provides teachers with the content and tools needed to encourage and support every type of learner and address all the important areas of learning.

 

What is Creative Curriculum

The Creative Curriculum balances both teacher-directed and child-initiated learning, with an emphasis on responding to children's learning styles and building on their strengths and interests. This curricula applies the latest theory and research on best practices in teaching and learning and the content standards developed by states and professional organizations. While keeping the original environmentally-based approach it clearly defines the teacher's vital role in connecting content, teaching, and learning for preschool children. It features goals and objectives linked directly to our valid and reliable assessment instrument. The Creative Curriculum enhances social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and language development.

 

What Children Learn
The Creative Curriculum identifies the knowledge, skills, and concepts important for preschool children to acquire in each content area. Below we describe these content areas:

 

Literacy: vocabulary and language, phonological awareness, letters, words, print, comprehension, books and other texts,   and sources of enjoyment

Mathematics: numbers; patterns and relationships; geometry and spatial awareness; measurement; and data collection, organization, and representation

Science: physical science, life science, and earth and the environment

Social Studies: spaces and geography, people and how they live, people and the environment, and people and the past

The Arts: dance, music, drama, and the visual arts

Technology: awareness of technology, basic operations and concepts, technological tools, and people and technology

 

The Teacher's Role
Teachers motivate children, build on their prior knowledge and strengths, and support their learning in an intentional way by using a variety of strategies to increase their knowledge, skills, and understandings. They use assessment information to guide children's learning throughout the day: during large- and small-group times, routine times, long-term studies, and in interest areas.

The Family’s Role
Home and school are a young child's two most important worlds. Children must bridge these two worlds every day. Teachers can build a true partnership when they truly value the family's role in a child's education and recognize how much they can accomplish by working together. We welcome and try communicating with home regularly, partnering for children's learning, and responding to challenging situations.

The Learning Environment
The learning environment is the structure of the classroom that sets the context for teaching and learning. The physical space of The Creative Curriculum classroom is organized into 10 interest areas:

 

Blocks            Dramatic            Manipulative and Games                          Library            Discovery            

Sand and Water          Art       Music and Movement            Cooking            Computers

 

The 10 indoor interest areas plus the outdoor space offer multiple opportunities for children to explore, discover, and learn. Interest areas provide a setting for children to learn academic content and apply skills.

 

Assessments & Progress Reports

Assessments are essential for appropriate teaching practices it helps all children be more prepared for school.

 

Why are Assessment So Important

Research tells us that the best programs constantly measure how well teachers teach and how much children learn. They use the results to continue what is working and improve what is not; for example, to decide whether to provide more teacher training or to identify gaps in children's experiences.

 

Assessment

Every area of classroom teaching and program operations is rated to identify strengths and areas for improvement. Each day, teachers and caregivers generate brief descriptions, or anecdotes, that objectively describe children's behavior. They use these notes to evaluate children's development and then plan activities to help individual children and the classroom as a whole make progress. Our Program uses ASQ; Ages & Stages Questionnaire to evaluate children’s grow development.

 

Progress Reports

Our Progress Reports are conducted quarterly. This is the evaluation we use to connect what the child is learning at school and at home. The Progress Report does not change, it is a guide for what the child should know by the end of the school year. Parents will receive a copy for their records.