We believe that young children are very intelligent, social people who construct knowledge through actively experiencing the world around them. A well-qualified staff working with parents can enhance and enrich the child’s learning environment to provide opportunities for the child to develop more fully their interest potentials.
Kind Hearts Day Care curriculum believes it is important that children learn by doing and we encourage hands-on experiences. Teachers and caregivers are required to know where a child is developmentally and where he/she should be in order to plan an enriched, stimulating curriculum around this knowledge.
The Creative Curriculum has been selected for Kind Hearts Day Care because it provides the children with hands-on, concrete, active learning experiences. The curriculum provides children with experiences that promote choices and opportunities to plan, as well as to problem solve and develop language skills.
The use of learning centers is another integral part of the preschool program. Important behaviors that children develop during this time are how to plan, follow through on a plan, problem-solve, and interact with other children.
The curriculum is developed around the four significant areas of all children’s development: social, emotional, physical, and cognitive. These are the four concepts that guide all adult interactions with children, whether formal or informal.
Social
Children learn through interaction with adults and other children. At Kind Hearts Day Care, children are provided opportunities to develop social skills such as cooperating, sharing, helping, negotiating, and communicating with others.
Emotional
Children learn best when their physical needs are met and they feel psychologically safe and secure. Adults facilitate the development of self-control in children by using positive guidance techniques, such as modeling, redirecting children to acceptable behavior, and providing positive reinforcement. Physical
Children are provided daily opportunities to develop large muscle and small muscle skills through a variety of indoor and outdoor play activities. Children gain physical knowledge through having their needs met and through learning to meet their own needs. Cognitive
As Piaget has noted, “From infancy, children are mentally and physically active, struggling to make sense of the world…children construct their own knowledge through repeated experiences involving interaction with people and materials.” The Creative Curriculum encourages using this inherent curiosity to motivate children to become involved in learning activities.
KIND HEARTS DAY CARE CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION
Developmentally Appropriate
The curriculum is implemented by each teacher and Head Start in a manner that is developmentally appropriate for the children in the classroom. For example, activities for three year old children may be different than the activities planned for five year old children preparing to enter kindergarten.
Individualized
Teachers plan to meet the needs of all children in the classroom at each child’s own developmental level. They may plan preschool activities and routines because it is appropriate for the entire group of children. A teacher and Head Start may, however, plan a different activity for a child who may have lower skills in one area.
Builds on Children’s Interests
Teachers develop lesson plans that consider what the children are motivated to explore. If children are curious about dinosaurs, that topic becomes part of the curriculum.
Child-Oriented
Activities are designed considering children’s cognitive and emotional development. We focus on concrete things that are important to children: falls leaves, morning frost, visiting the grocery store. We do not focus on abstract concepts, like holidays, that are beyond the comprehension of young children.
Invites Family Involvement
Each room is unique because of the families and staff in that room. We encourage that uniqueness becoming part of the curriculum. Teachers can guide families on how to become involved in developmentally appropriate ways. For example, children may enjoy tasting a food that is special to your family or children may enjoy a parent reading a book during Community Readers Week.
Indoors and Outdoors
Curriculum is not limited to the child’s classroom. It may be walks outside, playing in the sandbox on the playground, painting on the floor, or a picnic on the grass in the playground area. Children will not be taken outside when the temperature drops below 10º F or rises above 90º F. Air quality, heat index, wind chill, and age of children are always considered in making decisions to play outside. Indoor spaces are used as an extension of the classroom and as an alternative to outdoor play when weather is inclement.
Encourages Active Participation
Activity choices are based on encouraging children to become actively involved with classroom materials, how their bodies move, and the physical properties of the world.
Teaching Strategies Gold Child Assessment Portfolio
Kind Hearts Day Care is currently trained to offer the Teaching Strategies Gold Child Assessment Portfolio. We use this tool for Head Start evaluations that I conduct three times a year. This Teaching Strategies Gold Child Assessment Portfolio is the place we record and preserve important information about your child's progress. Evaluating a child means deciding what level each child has reached on the progressions shown in the Teaching Strategies Gold assessment system. This tool can be used for children ages birth to age 5. When we conduct the evaluation, Julie will then set up a time to do a conference with you and show you the results.