The Creative Curriculum^® for Preschool is a comprehensive curriculum with a clear organizational structure and a particular focus on interest areas. Additional resources from Teaching Strategies expand upon targeted areas within the Curriculum to enable you to implement a richer, more integrated program.

The Creative Curriculum for Preschool has two parts:

Part 1: The  Curriculum Framework (chapters 1-5)
Part 2: Interest Areas (chapters 6-16)

Part 1. The Curriculum Framework

The Curriculum Framework presents the five components of The Creative Curriculum for Preschool and gives you all the information you need to set up your program. The five components are:

• How Children Develop and Learn
• The Learning Environment
• What Children Learn
• The Teacher's Role
• The Family's Role

How Children Develop and Learn

Knowing how children develop and learn is the basis for planning your program, selecting materials, and guiding children's learning. By knowing, we mean appreciating general patterns of growth in all children as well as the differences you will certainly encounter among individual children.

The Creative Curriculum^® enhances social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and language development. Goals and objectives for each of these developmental areas are organized into The Creative Curriculum^® Developmental Continuum for Ages 3-5.

Because children do not master a skill all at once, each objective has three steps that illustrate the typical sequence of development. A special category called forerunners helps you look at emerging behaviors for each objective and enables you to assess all children's learning and development, including those with disabilities or developmental delays.

You'll find that The Creative Curriculum Developmental Continuum for Ages 3-5 is an effective way to focus your observations of children and document their progress in relation to the goals and objectives. This tool has been proven valid and reliable in a wide range of research studies.

The Learning Environment

The learning environment is the structure of the classroom that sets the context for teaching and learning. The Creative Curriculum shows you how to

• set up the physical environment and maintain interest areas
• establish a classroom structure that includes the daily routine and schedule, choice times, and small- and large-group times
• create a classroom community that promotes positive relationships and where children make friends and learn social problem-solving skills

What Children Learn

On the basis of scientific research and state and professional standards, The Creative Curriculum 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

Most importantly, we explain how to teach these subject areas in ways that respect how preschool children develop and learn.

The Teacher's Role

The Creative Curriculum for Preschool describes the teacher's role as an ongoing cycle of observing children, guiding their learning, and assessing their progress. We show you how to 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.

You'll find out how to 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. If home and school are connected in positive and respectful ways, children feel secure. However, children suffer when the two worlds are at odds because of apathy, lack of understanding, or an inability to work together. 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 with families.

The Creative Curriculum for Preschool provides you with guidance on getting to know families, welcoming and communicating with them regularly, partnering for children's learning, and responding to challenging situations.

Part 2: Interest Areas

The second part of the book applies the five components of the Curriculum to 11 areas:

• Blocks
• Dramatic play
• Toys and games
• Art
• Library
• Discovery
• Sand and water
• Music and movement
• Cooking
• Computers
• Outdoors

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.