Curriculum.
Infant and toddler classrooms will follow The Creative Curriculum® for Infants, Toddlers & Twos, which emphasizes the importance of the child/caregiver relationship. The Creative Curriculum® emphasizes a classroom environment filled with responsive daily routines and meaningful, individualized experiences that nurture your child’s learning and development. The curriculum aligns with the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards and allows teachers to help each child meet his/her developmental goals.
The routines will sound familiar to you: hellos and good-byes, diapering and toileting, eating and mealtimes, sleeping and nap time, and getting dressed. These routines are the foundation of your child’s day; they are also the foundation of learning. The consistent and nurturing interactions that children experience during everyday activities build trust and allow them to learn through experiencing the world around them.
In addition to daily routines, The Creative Curriculum® will support your child’s teacher every day as she engages your child in meaningful experiences, such as exploring materials in the classroom, enjoying books and stories, creating art, and going outdoors. In each of these experiences, teachers observe what children do and select materials that match their growing abilities and interests.
The Creative Curriculum® for Preschool is based on 38 objectives for development and learning that focus on all the areas that are most important for school success: social–emotional, cognitive, math, literacy, physical, language, social studies, science and technology, and the arts. These objectives are built into every activity that happens in the classroom, which means that all day long, the teacher is helping your child build skills and knowledge in these important areas.
In The Creative Curriculum® for Preschool, learning happens through studies. Studies, which span several weeks, are in-depth, project-based investigations of topics that are part of your child’s everyday life. They feature topics such as trees, buildings, clothes, and balls. In a study, children raise questions about the topic and find answers by exploring, experimenting, and investigating in a hands-on way—through activities that take place in the classroom and outdoors.
Importantly, teachers will follow the lead of the children and pursue the questions and investigations within each study that are most interesting to the children in their classroom, thus promoting a love of learning. Teachers will also continue to have the freedom to add their own “handprint” when lesson planning, utilizing their personal experience and passions to shape the studies.