The Creative Curriculum^® for Preschool identifies the knowledge, skills, and concepts important for preschool children to acquire in each content area: literacy, math, science, social studies, the arts, and technology. We describe the key components of 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

Experts have developed standards defining what children should know and be able to do by certain grades. States and local school districts have adapted these standards.

Today, because of the standards movement, the knowledge base in each content area has become more systematic. Also, the emphasis on teaching content is greater than in the recent past. These changes have a set a new challenge for the preschool teacher--knowing what to teach and how to present it. The Creative Curriculum for Preschool explains how to teach content in ways that respect the development of preschool children.