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Curricula/Teaching Approaches for Preschool Care

Recent research has shown that even the youngest children are capable of learning complex language, concepts, and skills. Well planned, evidence-based curricula can contribute significantly to positive outcomes for children. The term curriculum has been a topic for debate among early educators. According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education (NAECS/SDE) joint position statement, the following is a broad definition of curriculum:

A curriculum is a complex idea containing multiple components, such as goals, content, pedagogy, or instructional practices. Curriculum is influenced by many factors, including society’s values, content standards, accountability systems, research findings, community expectations, culture and language, and individual children’s characteristics. (p. 6)

This position statement is available at www.naeyc.org/about/positions/pdf/CAPEexpand.pdf.

This document provides an overview of research, curricula/teaching approaches for preschool care, and State implementation and training activities related to curricula/teaching approaches for preschool care. NCCIC does not endorse any practice, organization, publication, or resource.

Research and Recommendations

  • “Early Childhood Curriculum, Assessment, and Program Evaluation: Building an Effective, Accountable System in Programs for Children Birth through Age 8” (2003), a joint position statement by NAEYC and NAECS/SDE,identifies several indicators of effectiveness for early childhood curricula/teaching approaches from children ages birth to 8. The statement emphasizes the following:
    • Children are active and engaged.
    • Goals are clear and shared by all.
    • Curriculum is evidence-based.
    • Valued content is learned through investigation, play, and focused, intentional teaching.
    • Curriculum builds on prior learning and experiences.
    • Curriculum is comprehensive.
    • Professional standards validate the curriculum’s subject matter content.
    • The curriculum is likely to benefit children.

This resource is available at www.naeyc.org/about/positions/pdf/capeexpand.pdf.

Preschool Curricula/Teaching Approaches

There are many different types of curricula/teaching approaches for young children. Preschool curricula vary based on their focus. They can focus on developmental growth in young children within a single area or multiple areas. The following is an overview of these different types of preschool curricula:

  • Multiple domain curricula/teaching approaches. These curricula/teaching approaches focus on developing skills in more than one developmental domain (i.e., social-emotional, cognitive, language, and physical development). Curricula/teaching approaches that measure all of these domains or more than one are examples of multiple domain curricula/teaching approaches.
  • Single domain curricula/teaching approaches. These curricula/teaching approaches focus on a single developmental domain (i.e., social-emotional, cognitive, language, or physical development). Curricula/teaching approaches that focus primarily on early language or literacy skills are examples of single domain curricula/teaching approaches.

The following is a sample of preschool curricula, teaching approaches, and related resources in alphabetical order by title. Curricula are grouped by the number of domains they cover. Visit NCCIC’s Online Library, which can be accessed at http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/library/index.cfm?do=oll.search, for more resources with information about early learning. Additional resources are also available on NCCIC’c Web site at http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/topics/topic/index.cfm?topicId=11.

Curriculum Curriculum Description Publisher
Curricula/Teaching Approaches: Multi-Domain
Bank Street Developmental Interaction Approach The Bank Street Developmental Interaction Approach recognizes that while development occurs on a continuum, it happens at different times for different children. Teachers rely on research and practice to choose topics and design experiences that will engage and challenge children. The Bank Street School for Children Curriculum Guide covers curricula for children from 3 years through high school. The areas covered in the curriculum are social studies, literacy, mathematics, science, Spanish and French, art and shop, music, library, and physical education. Bank Street Developmental Interaction Approach
Phone: 212-875-4400
Web site: http://www.bnkst.edu/fc/
curriculum.html
The Creative Curriculum® for Preschool The Creative Curriculum series, developed by Teaching Strategies, Inc., includes specific resources for curriculum development for infants and toddlers, preschool-age children, school-age children, and children in family child care. This curriculum focuses on how children learn, what children learn, the parent’s role, the teacher’s or provider’s role, and the physical environment. Teaching Strategies has aligned The Creative Curriculum for Preschool and The Creative Curriculum Developmental Continuum for Ages 3-5 with the Head Start Outcomes Framework, the NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standards and Accreditation Criteria, and many State early learning standards. Additional information is available at www.teachingstrategies.com/pages/page.cfm
?pageID=226. 		Teaching Strategies, Inc.
Phone: 800-637-3652
Web site: www.teachingstrategies.com
The High/Scope Curriculum for Preschool® The High/Scope educational approach is a set of guiding principles and practices that adults follow as they work with and care for infants and toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary and adolescent students. These principles are intended to be an open framework that teams of adults are free to adapt to the special needs and conditions of their group, setting, and community. Active learning—the belief that children learn best through active experiences with people, materials, events, and ideas, rather than through direct teaching or sequenced exercises—is a central tenet of the High/Scope approach for all age levels. High/Scope Educational Research Foundation
Phone: 734-485-2000
Web site: www.highscope.org
Learningames Learningames, first published in 1979 and revised in 2004, has been used as the Abecedarian Project curriculum. It is a home-based, center-based, or parent groups’ curriculum for children birth through 5 years. Activities are derived from developmental milestones in the domains of social-emotional development and cognitive/creative development, language, and motor skills. Each game provides caregivers with an example of how to enhance child development. In addition to the games, the curriculum includes a user’s guide and an assessment instrument. MindNurture, Inc.
Phone: 919-967-0126
Web site: http://mindnurture.com
Montessori Preschool Curriculum This curriculum provides information for implementation, classroom start-up, normalization, assessment, observation, and classroom management for children birth to school age. The North American Montessori Center (NAMC) also offers distance-learning opportunities and certification with the Montessori approach. NAMC
Phone: 877-531-6665
Web site:
www.montessoritraining.net/
Opening the World of Learning (OWL) OWL is a comprehensive literacy-based curriculum for use with preschoolers that covers all domains of early learning (i.e., language and literacy, mathematics, social studies and science, the arts, physical development, and social-emotional development). The OWL includes six units, each which provide 4 weeks of activities. The content of each unit is built around a carefully crafted daily routine within an activity-center day. Support to teachers to individualize instruction is provided in an ongoing assessment tool. Pearson Learning Group
Phone: 800-526-9907
Web site: www.pearsonearlylearning.
com/products/curriculum/
owl/index.html
Project Approach The Project Approach builds on the familiar experiences of children and provides multiple ways of active interaction with people, objects, and the environment. The goal of the Project Approach is to learn more about a topic through active learning. It allows an in-depth investigation of a topic by a small group of children within a class, by the whole class, or occasionally by an individual child. It is an integral component to a curriculum that provides a context for applying mathematical concepts and other skills, and involves themes and preplanned lessons and activities. The Project Approach
Phone: 780 434-7416
Web site: www.projectapproach.org/
index.php?option=com_front
page&Itemid=1
Reggio Emilia Approach The Reggio Emilia Approach is based on years of experience in the Reggio Emilia Municipal Infant/Toddler and Preschool Centers in Italy. It places emphasis on children’s symbolic languages in the context of a project-oriented curriculum. Learning is viewed as a journey; and education as building relationships with people (both children and adults) and creating connections between ideas and the environment. Through this approach, adults help children understand the meaning of their experience more completely through documentation of children’s work, observations, and continuous teacher dialogue. In addition, the Reggio Approach guides children’s ideas with provocations—not predetermined curricula. There is collaboration on many levels: parent participation, teacher discussions, community members, and city administrators. Reggio Emilia Approach
Phone: 770-552-0179
Web site: www.reggioalliance.org
Scholastic Early Childhood Program (SECP) SECP is a comprehensive, year-long curriculum for prekindergarten children that provides a rich environment of print and nonprint experiences to support literacy success. Focusing on the cognitive, language, and literacy development of young learners, SECP is based on these key concepts of teaching and learning:
  • Effective scientifically research-based curriculum;
  • Relevant professional development; and
  • Strong family connections and support.
 Scholastic, Inc.
Phone: 1-800-SCHOLASTIC
Web site: http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/secp/index.htm
Waldorf Approach The concept of Waldorf education was developed by Rudolf Steiner in Europe in the 1920s. Today there are more than 500 Waldorf schools worldwide and more than 100 Waldorf schools in the United States. The aim of Waldorf education is to educate the whole child—head, heart, and hands. The curriculum is geared to the child’s stages of development and brings together all elements of development—intellectual, artistic, spiritual, and movement. The curriculum is designed for children from preschool through high school. The Association of Waldorf Schools of North America
Phone: 916-961-0927
Web site: www.awsna.org
Curricula/Teaching Approaches: Single-Domain
Breakthrough to Literacy Breakthrough to Literacy helps children build their expressive and receptive language and vocabularies, enhance their awareness of print, increase their knowledge of the alphabet, increase phonological/phonemic awareness and knowledge of sound/symbol relationships, and help them make a smooth transition to print. The curriculum covers prekindergarten through second grade. The prekindergarten curriculum includes whole group and small group instruction, individualized software instruction, literacy centers, writing instruction and workshops, home connections, explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, and professional development. It also offers a component for English language learners—Breakthrough to Literacy and English Language Learners, which is available at www.breakthroughtoliteracy.com/index.html?SID&
page=df_lr_breakell.		 Breakthrough to Literacy
Phone: 800-874-2851
Web site: www.breakthroughtoliteracy.
com/
Building Language for Literacy Building Language for Literacy, created by Catherine Snow, Susan Neuman, and Susan Canizares, is designed to equip prekindergarten and kindergarten children with foundational language and literacy skills and experiences. Building Language for Literacy uses three language-loving characters to teach literacy behaviors and motivate learning. Each character represents one of three areas of literacy development (i.e., oral language, phonological awareness, and letter knowledge), with all of them representing the fourth (print awareness). Scholastic
Phone: 800-SCHOLASTIC (724-6527)
Web site:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bll/
The Creative Curriculum Literacy: The Creative Curriculum Approach

Literacy: The Creative Curriculum Approach shows teachers how to create literacy learning opportunities within the structure of a comprehensive, integrated curriculum. The curriculum presents a review of the latest research for teachers about literacy development and describes the seven components of literacy in detail: literacy as a source of enjoyment, vocabulary and language, phonological awareness, knowledge of print, letters and words, comprehension, and books and other texts.		 Teaching Strategies, Inc.
Phone: 800-637-3652
Web site: www.teachingstrategies.com
Mathematics: The Creative Curriculum Approach

This curriculum supplements The Creative Curriculum for Preschool with detailed information about the following:
  • Number, geometry, data analysis, measurement, and patterns;
  • Reasoning, problem solving, communication, connections, and representations;
  • Math learning in interest areas, during routines and transition times;
  • Planning the mathematics program;
  • Structured math activities; and
  • Adapting instruction for English language learners and children with disabilities.
Curiosity Corner Curiosity Corner provides teachers with well-structured thematic units aligned with State and national early learning guidelines. The program includes detailed instructions and provides many of the materials necessary for implementing a stimulating, engaging program as well as training and support for educators implementing the program. The two separate programs for 3- and 4-year-old children are based on the same themes, with variations in books and activities for each age group, to meet the developmental needs of young children. Success for All Foundation
Phone: 800-548-4998, ext. 2372
Web site: www.successforall.net/early/
early_curiosity.htm
Resources for Preschool Curricula/Teaching Approaches
Active Learning The Active Learning Series from the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, published by the Pearson Learning Group, devotes a volume to each specific age group, including infants and toddlers as well as children with disabilities. Each volume contains more than 300 clearly formatted activities that have been carefully field-tested to ensure their effectiveness in care and education. These materials are intended for use in home visiting programs or center-based early care and education programs. Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute
University of North Carolina
Phone: 919-966-2622
Web site: http://www.fpg.unc.edu/
~ECERS/rw_als.htm
Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System® (AEPS) for Infants and Children, Second Edition AEPS links assessment, intervention, and evaluation for children from birth to 6 years who have disabilities or are at risk for developmental delays. AEPS helps identify targets tailored for each child’s needs, formulate developmentally appropriate goals, conduct evaluations before and after to ensure that interventions are working, and involve families in the whole process. Brookes Publishing Company
Phone: 800-638-3775
Web site: www.brookespublishing.com
/index.htm
Hawaii> Early Learning Profile® (HELP) HELP (0–3) is a center-based curriculum for children from birth through age 3. It is a curriculum-based assessment used to identify needs and track growth and development. It provides play-based activities and intervention strategies for each of the 685 skills in 6 developmental domains: cognitive, language, gross motor, fine motor, social, and self-help. It promotes a cross-disciplinary, integrated approach that can be used by physical, speech, and occupational therapists; early childhood educators; infant specialists; psychologists; social workers; and nurses. VORT Corporation
Phone: 650-322-8282
Web site: www.vort.com
HighReach Learning® (HRL) The HRL curriculum, designed for children ages 12 months to 5 years, emphasizes a blend of teacher-facilitated and child-initiated activities. The curriculum is delivered through monthly theme-based curriculum programs, integrating language, literacy, mathematics, science, creative arts, physical, health, and social-emotional domains while attending to children’s approaches to learning and individual learning styles. The curriculum provides training for teachers and materials to facilitate teachers’ documentation of student learning. HRL
Phone: 800-729-9988
Web site: www.highreach.com/Scripts/default.asp

How States Are Using Preschool Curricula

The following are some examples of State activities related to preschool curricula/teaching approaches from Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Plans for FY 2008–2009. These examples do not include all States, but are meant to represent a range of approaches States have taken to develop/implement curricula and teaching approaches for preschool care and education. Minor revisions were incorporated to enhance readability. CCDF Plans are available on NCCIC’s Web site at http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/ stateplan/stateplan-intro.html.

Arkansas

Adventures in Learning is a comprehensive curriculum for children from three to five featuring 40 topics of study in 9 focus areas. The curriculum can also be a supplement to an established curriculum and features 40 topics of study in nine focus areas. Each topic is introduced with familiar children’s books and has a strong language and literacy emphasis. Curriculum activities within the topics of study are based on the Arkansas Early Childhood Education Framework Developmental Learning Strands and address each of the Benchmarks. Many of the resources available from the Division are included in the development of Adventures in Learning.

Adventures in Learning is a flexible curriculum that allows teachers to choose from 40 topics of study and to decide when and how long to explore the topics with the children. For each of the 40 topics of study, there is a weekly plan sheet, plus 11 additional review week plan sheets for a total of 51 plans. These weekly plan sheets are intended as a guide for teachers. Plans can be expanded to cover more than a week of study, for example, and can be adapted for individual classrooms.

Massachusetts

The Department of Early Care and Education (EEC) is promoting the use of the LearningGames curriculum, a comprehensive package of developmentally appropriate activities that encourage concept and language development in young children from birth through age five, in family child care settings. Through one-on-one coaching and periodic monitoring visits, family child care providers are trained on how to implement the curriculum and the children in their care are assessed to evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum in improving the children’s development.

EEC is collaborating with Abt Associates, MindNurture, and family child care systems to conduct a national study of the LearningGames approach in family child care systems. LearningGames is a developmental curriculum that grew out of the Abecedarian Project and is built on evidence from 30 years of research that children learn best in individual interactions with responsive caregivers who provide rich language stimulation. The curriculum consists of approximately 200 simple everyday activities to help parents and caregivers enhance the development of children birth to 60 months. The study will test this curriculum and assess its effectiveness in helping family child care providers improve children’s development. The study will also assess the difficulties of implementing a new mentoring system and identify the difficulties encountered when training and monitoring a new curriculum approach. The study is funded through a grant from the Administration for Children and Families to determine the effectiveness of implementing LearningGames in a family child care network environment. Preliminary results of the study are expected by the fall of 2007.

North Dakota

Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota and Lakes and Prairies Community Action Partnership, Inc., CCR&Rs deliver training opportunities which include Care to Read, Developmentally Appropriate Practice, Creative Curriculum, and Safe Active Play.

Tennessee

The Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS) have been correlated with the Environment Rating Scales, Head Start curriculum, K-12 curriculum, Creative Curriculum and are being used by special education to align with the objectives in individualized education plans and individual family service plans. Plans are also being made to introduce the TN-ELDS to parents and to local community agencies working with children and parents. There are additional plans being made to include the usage of the TN-ELDS in the criteria for the Report Card and Star Quality Program.

State Approved Curricula for Prekindergarten Programs

States are increasing their investment in prekindergarten education and are giving guidelines about the use of evidence-based curricula. These guidelines encourage child initiative, individualization, and direct instruction and at the same time are directly tied to individual assessment, program evaluation, and professional development. The following is information about State guidance on curricula from selected States.

Georgia

  • Bright from the Start: Georgia’s Prekindergarten Program Approved Curriculum Models: Quick Reference Sheet (December 2005), by the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning, provides a description of curricula models that have been approved for use in Georgia’s prekindergarten classrooms. It lists the name, history, characteristics, training provisions, and assessment for nine curricula: Bank Street, Blueprint for Early Literacy (Children’s Literacy Initiative), The Creative Curriculum, HighReach Learning, High/Scope, Montessori, Opening the World of Learning, Pinnacle Early Childhood, and Scholastic Early Learning Curriculum. This resource is available at www.highreach.com/pdfs/Georgiacurr.pdf.

Maryland

  • Comprehensive Curricula Matrix(n.d.), prepared by the Preschool Curriculum Project, Maryland State Department of Education, lists comprehensive preschool curricula for 3-, 4-, 5-year-old children recommended for use by nonpublic early childhood programs. These curricula are aligned with the State’s prekindergarten and kindergarten curricula frameworks, also known as the Maryland Model for School Readiness/Voluntary State Curriculum. For 3 year-old children, the recommended list of resources aligns with Maryland’s Guidelines for Healthy Child Development and Care for Young Children. All recommended curricula resources are also aligned with the pedagogy standards within the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards guidelines. The following are the recommended curricula:
Curriculum Publisher
The Core Knowledge Preschool CORE Knowledge Foundation
Little Treasures/Treasures MacMillan-McGraw-Hill
Opening the World of Learning Pearson Early Learning
Creative Curriculum Teaching Strategies, Inc.
Houghton Mifflin PreK Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company
Success for All Kinder Corner Success for All Foundation

This resource is available at http://marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/divisions/child_care/preschool_curriculum/matrix.htm. Additional information about Preschool Curriculum Project is available at http://marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/divisions/child_care/preschool_curriculum

Missouri

The State Preschool Program section of the Missouri Starting at 3 Web site has the following information about curricula choices:

2.1.10 The program must adopt one of the three approved research-based curriculums (High/Scope, Project Construct, or The Creative Curriculum). Lead teachers and teacher assistants in the MPP [Missouri Preschool Project] classroom must be trained in the curriculum.

This information is available at www.startingat3.org/state_laws/statelawsMOdetail.html.

Pennsylvania

  • Updated Report on Early Childhood Assessment for Children from Birth to Age 8 (Grade 3) (September 2006), by Elisabeth L. Grinder and Anita Kochanoff, Early Learning Standards Task Force and Kindergarten Assessment Work Group, Pennsylvania BUILD Initiative, for Pennsylvania’s Departments of Education and Public Welfare, includes the following:
    • Table 6 provides descriptions of commonly used curricula. Curricula are separated into categories that include general curricula and then curricula for particular standards. General curricula include Active Learning Series for 3s and 4s, The Creative Curriculum, Developmental Learning Materials-DLM Learning Express, High/Scope, Houghton Mifflin Pre-K Curriculum, Innovations Comprehensive Preschool Curricula, Opening the World of Learning, and Scholastic Early Childhood Program.
    • Table 7 provides a quick glance of the alignment of the curricula with the Early Learning Standards for Pre-Kindergarten, Pennsylvania’s early learning guidelines.

The report is available at www.pde.state.pa.us/early_childhood/lib/early_childhood/Build_9-06_AssessB-8.pdf. The accompanying tables are available at www.pde.state.pa.us/early_childhood/lib/early_childhood/Assessment_curriculum.pdf.

Additional Organizations and Resources

  • Effects of Preschool Curriculum Programs on School Readiness: Report From the Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research Initiative Executive Summary (2008), by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, provides results from the Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research (PCER) initiative that evaluated the efficacy of available preschool curricula, including Bright Beginnings, The Creative Curriculum, Doors to Discovery, Florida Early Literacy & Learning Model, High/Scope, Ladders to Literacy, Let’s Begin With the Letter People, Pre-K Mathematics, and the Project Approach. It is available at http://ies.ed.gov/ncer/pubs/20082009/pdf/20082009_1.pdf.

  • “Preschool Curriculum Decision-Making: Dimensions to Consider” (March 2007), NIEER Policy Brief Issue 12, by Ellen Frede and Debra J. Ackerman, provides a framework for decisionmakers to use in evaluating which curriculum might be most appropriate for their specific preschool program. This resource is available at http://nieer.org/resources/policybriefs/12.pdf.

  • Effective Preschool Curriculums and Teaching Strategies (September 2006), a Pathways to Early School Success Issue Brief No. 2, by Lisa Klein and Jane Knitzer, published by the National Center for Children in Poverty, explores lessons from research and practice about the role of intentional curriculum and professional development and supports for teachers in closing the achievement gap in early literacy and math for preschool-age children from low-income families. The aim is to help policy-makers and administrators integrate this emerging knowledge more rapidly into their decisions to support teachers. This resource is available on the Web at www.nccp.org/pub_pes06b.html.

  • Head Start Impact Study: First Year Findings (2005), by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, discusses difference in use of a curriculum in center-based child care and Head Start with 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds. It notes that more than three-fourths of children in Head Start classrooms were in classrooms using either The Creative Curriculumor High/Scope compared to about half of the children in other center-based classrooms. This resource is available on the Web at www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hs/impact_study/reports/first_yr_finds/first_yr_finds.pdf.
  • “Three Approaches From Europe: Waldorf, Montessori, and Reggio Emilia” (Spring 2002), in Early Childhood Research & Practice Vol. 4, No. 1, by Carolyn Pope Edwards, provides a brief comparative introduction of the Waldorf, Montessori, and Reggio Emilia approaches to early childhood education and highlights several key areas of similarity and contrast. This resource is available at http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v4n1/edwards.html

Updated September 2008

 
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