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Curriculum Philosophy
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The educational philosophy and approach at CCCC is based on the best practices for preschool children as determined by the National Accreditation Commission for Early Care and Educational Programs, and aligned with The Head Start Education Framework, ECEAP Performance Standards, and the Washington State Early Learning Guidelines. We maintain a holistic view towards children’s development with an emphasis on school readiness and success skills in children.

 

Creative Curriculum is our foundational curriculum and is based on sound educational theory and child development principles in a clear educational approach.  Teaching Strategies Gold (TSG) is our on-going assessment tool used to gather and present child assessment data that helps teachers, parents, and programs understand children’s learning and development.  Teacher training and on-going professional development is central to our educational approach. 

 

 

Our curriculum approach, values, and practices specify that curriculum implementation

Supports each Child's development by:

  • Being child focused and comprehensive towards all learning domains.

  • Providing a comprehensive framework of child development, developmental stages, and explanations and examples of how children learn (hands on experiences, peer interactions, relation to home and daily life experiences)

  • Acknowledging each child is a unique individual and therefore learns in a unique manner and approach to learning.  All learning stems from this understanding of individual appropriateness.  The curriculum and daily lesson plan must have the flexibility to allow for individual differences, and build on each individual child’s skills and knowledge

  • Promoting the children’s self-awareness and positive self-concept

Defines the role of the teacher and classroom environment by:

  • Explaining that curriculum development is an ongoing creative process that develops as the teacher interacts with children and responds to the changing interests and needs of the community. 

  • Understanding that learning occurs when an activity is child-initiated and child-directed.  This does not minimize the role of the teacher.  Rather, it redefines the teacher’s job.  Children learn best when they are actively engaged, having concrete experiences (hands-on) and are making their own decisions. 

  • The role of the teacher is to understand each child’s developmental level, plan daily activities which support individual and group development, guide and actively engage with children, and support and observe children.

  • Helping to identify the developmental levels of children to develop individual school readiness learning goals. These developmental levels are accepted as foundational to all children and their school readiness.  Teaching staff must always be aware that each child progresses through these stages at different times and at different rates.  For learning to occur, the curriculum must reflect sensitivity to these growth patterns.        

  • Assisting the teacher to create an appropriate individual context for learning, by helping to create a rich, interactive environment with a variety of materials, for both indoor and outdoor play.  Materials and activities must be consistent with developmental stages of growth and allow for flexibility, reflecting the child-directed nature of the curriculum.  The teacher becomes a facilitator who can help the children find the necessary resources to learn and grow.

  • Planning intention daily activities and planned experiences for children which support development 

Supports the role of parents by:

  • Reflecting and responding to the community and cultures represented in the group

  • Recognizing and promoting the role of parents through an open classroom policy and systematic communication and relationship building activities; including the identification of individual learning styles of and interests of their child throughout the year, and working together with parents to identify the child’s individual strengths and needs.

  • Working together to develop an initial developmental level of the child, creating individual learning goals, and incorporating on-going parent observations and home activities to support each child’s individual learning goals.

Creative Curriculum

  • The Creative Curriculum is based on the philosophy that children learn best by doing. Its framework is divided into five basic components:

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  1. How Children Develop and Learn

  2. The Learning Environment

  3. What Children Learn

  4. The Teacher’s Role

  5. The Family’s Role

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  • The Creative Curriculum for Preschool features exploration and discovery as a way of learning, enabling children to develop confidence, creativity, and critical thinking skills and currently includes 18 subjects for study. The Creative Curriculum for Preschool is based on 38 objectives for development and learning. The Creative Curriculum sets goals for each child to reach, identifying what students need to work towards and assisting teachers in lesson planning. Teachers utilize a ‘scaffolding’ approach to learning by identifying what students know and what they want to learn. Teachers create partnerships with families to enhance a positive learning environment, offering opportunities for parents to be involved.  Additional curricula are utilized to supplement The Creative Curriculum, enhancing the core program utilized in our centers.

TSG On-Going Assessments and Developing Individual Child Educational Goals

  • We use a program called Teaching Strategies Gold (TSG) to gather and aggregate assessment data that helps teachers, parents, and programs understand children’s learning and development.  This assessment data is used on multiple levels to:

  • Communicate with parents, develop individual school readiness goals, and improve individual child outcomes

  • Improve the program’s success in moving groups of children towards school readiness by evaluating and improving curriculum implementation.

  • Drive the planned curriculum and daily classroom activities, both for the individual child and the whole group. 

  • Communicate and demonstrate the program’s effectiveness with stakeholders and funders. 

  • Informing Individual Child Outcomes – Our Teachers monitor the children’s development using observations and assessment data.  Teachers are able to determine a child’s baseline development early in the year.  This assessment helps to identify areas of strengths and where children need additional support, individualize and plan curriculum, track the child’s progress of development towards the learning objectives over time, and partner / communicate with parents to further define and promote the child’s learning goals.  

  • Teachers meet with parents after the first assessment checkpoint is completed.  Teachers share baseline results, and both teachers and parents share perspectives and observations of the child at home and at school. Together they develop the child’s individual school readiness goals and learning objectives, and discuss what activities and experiences can happen both in the classroom and at home to support progress towards goals.  This conversation and process continues through the year after each assessment checkpoint, during parent teacher conferences and home visits. 

  • Children are assessed and progress is tracked in the following learning areas:

  1. Social & Emotional Development

  2. Physical Health and Development

  3. Language Development

  4. Cognitive Development

  5. Literacy

  6. Mathematics

  7. Science and Technology

  8. Social Studies

  9. The Arts

  10. English Language Acquisition

  • Individualized curriculum planning and instruction occurs as teachers develop daily / weekly classroom experiences which intentionally support individual children’s development.  Teachers use multifaceted information to individualize:

  • The Child Profile form and other parent input about the child’s background, culture, likes and dislikes, strengths and areas of need.  

  • Parent ideas from curriculum input form at conferences

  • Screening results and on-going TSG assessment data

  • Classroom observations and notes

  • School Readiness Goals (Individual Learning Goals), written behavior plans

  • Team meetings and child staffing’s

  • Children’s work samplings and portfolios

  • Lesson plans will reflect what children will benefit from which specific activities and teachers guide and encourage participation of children into those activities

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