At Lighthouse Preschool we use The Creative Curriculum by Diane Trister Dodge, Laura J. Colker and Cate Heroman. This curriculum is the road map that we use to guide our daily activities and routines. The Creative Curriculum is an emergent curriculum that is backed by years of research and modifications based on research.
I know and believe that each child is unique and special. Every child learns at a different rate and in many different ways. I believe that hands on and active learning is how young children learn best. At Lighthouse Preschool an observer will see that not all children in a classroom will be learning the same thing at the same time. One child may be working on recognizing his/her name while another child is learning to write his/her name. I observe carefully to determine where each child is on the Teaching Strategies Gold Objectives for Development and Learning I plan activities that will help each child continue to grow and develop.
I pay close attention to the interest of the group of children in their classroom. I use these interests to create activities related to their interest and that will help the children move on the developmental continuum. When children are interested in something such as animals they will be more excited to count seven toy elephants than seven dots on a worksheet.
The Teaching Strategies Gold Objectives for Development and Learning focuses on nine areas of development.
The nine areas of development are:
-
Social/Emotional
-
Physical
-
Cognitive
-
Language
-
Literacy
-
Mathematics
-
Science and Technology
-
Social Studies
-
The Arts
