Our school follows the Creative Curriculum which believes in following
developmentally appropriate practices. This means teaching in ways that match the
way children develop and learn so as to promote their optimal development and
learning. As early childhood professionals, we know and make decisions about the
education of the children based on the following information:
- Child development and how children learn
- The individual strengths, needs and interests of each child
- The cultures of each child’s family and community
The Creative Curriculum for Preschool is based on five fundamental principles which
provide the guidelines for operating a preschool program in particular ways. These
are the principles:
1. Positive interactions and relationships with adults provides a critical
foundation for successful learning.
2. Social-emotional competence is a significant factor in school success.
3. Constructive, purposeful play supports essential learning.
4. The physical environment affects the type and quality of learning
interactions.
5. Teacher-family partnerships promote development and learning.
Our school tries to provide an atmosphere that promotes a warm, loving and secure
environment with caring and responsive adults. We interact with each child one-onone,
and we demonstrate respect for their ideas and efforts to solve problems. We
also provide learning experiences that are challenging enough to promote children’s
learning but not so challenging as to frustrate them. We model “self-talk” that
supports children’s thinking and offer ideas about how to approach tasks
successfully.
Our teachers guide the social-emotional competence of our children by providing
various play materials that promote problem solving skills and appropriate risk
taking. We give them meaningful jobs in the classroom. We encourage them to see
tasks through completion and offer support if needed as well as helping them
express their feelings and deal with conflict in appropriate ways. Our teachers
always help those who need assistance finding play partners as well as entering
large group activities. We use positive strategies to guide our children’s behaviors
and help them learn how to cooperate with others. Modeling cooperation helps
them learn to take turns and share.
Purposeful, engaging play is an important vehicle for children’s learning. As they
play, children acquire language, learn to solve problems, learn to control their
behavior and feelings and explore social roles. We facilitate this learning and offer
our support where needed. We help children plan their play by providing many
different choices of materials and props that meet the interest of all our children.
The Creative Curriculum believes in at least an hour of free, unstructured play daily
in a half day program. Free play gives every child the opportunity to make choices
and decisions, solve problems, pursue their interests, build oral skills, discover
mathematical relationships, be scientists, and see themselves as competent
learners.
The environment of the classroom is set up to support all aspects of the child’s
development. We give the children opportunities to explore and expand on their
interests. The various centers provide many different choices which allow the
children to investigate and experiment. Our many centers include: blocks, dramatic
play, sand, water, science, art, music, writing, literature, etc.
Lastly, we strive to develop positive relationships with our Co-op families, both
formally and informally. We encourage communication and give many
opportunities for each and every family to feel a part of our Co-op by participating in
the many varied events that take place at our school throughout the year.