Ron Moss, Elementary Supervisor

The Research on Pre-K

Areas of Developmental Focus

The first five years of a child’s life are fundamentally important. They are the foundation that shapes children’s future health, happiness, growth, development and learning achievement at school, in the family and community, and in life in general.

Recent research confirms that the first five years are particularly important for the development of the child’s brain, and the first three years are the most critical in shaping the child’s brain development. Early experiences provide the base for the brain’s organizational development and functioning throughout life. These experiences have a direct impact on how children develop learning skills as well as social and emotional abilities.

Children learn more quickly during their early years than at any other time in life. They need love and nurturing to develop a sense of trust and security that turns into confidence as they grow.

• Personal, social, economic and emotional development
• Communication talking and listening
• Literacy
• Mathematical awareness
• Creative development
• Physical development
• Physical health
• Play
• Teamwork
• Self-help skills
• Social skills
• Scientific thinking

Curriculum

The Creative Curriculum® for Preschool

The Creative Curriculum for Preschool is an award-winning curriculum for preschool success. Comprising The Foundation, five research-based volumes that provide the knowledge base of the curriculum, and the Daily Resources, which offer step-by-step guidance in the form of Teaching Guides and additional daily teaching tools, The Creative Curriculum for Preschool is fully aligned with the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework and state early learning standards.

Using exploration and discovery as a way of learning, The Creative Curriculum for Preschool enables children to develop confidence, creativity, and lifelong critical thinking skills.

The Creative Curriculum for Preschool

Is based on 38 objectives for development and learning, which are fully aligned with the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework as well as early learning standards for every state.

Presents knowledge-building volumes and daily practice resources in tandem, giving every educator the “what,” “why” and “how” of early childhood education

Offers daily opportunities to individualize instruction, helping teachers meet the needs of every type of learner

Addresses all the important areas of learning, from social-emotional and math to technology and the arts, and incorporates them throughout every part of every day.

Offers daily, built-in opportunities for observation, helping teachers and administrators clearly see the strong relationship between curriculum and assessment.

Offers complete support for working with English- and dual-language learners, including detailed guidance that helps to build teachers’ knowledge about best practices.

Contains guidance for working with all learners, including advanced learners and children with disabilities.

Building Blocks of Math

Building Blocks is one of a small number of projects (nationwide) that the National Science Foundation (NSF) has funded to create mathematics curriculum materials for young children. The Building Blocks project created exemplary mathematics materials designed to enable all young children to meet the new PreK-grade 2 standards developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (principal investigator Doug Clements was on the writing team for NCTM’sPrinciples and Standards for School Mathematics). These materials are a complete mathematics curriculum at Pre-K, and supplement and enrich existing curricula at K-2 (with extensions to grade 6). They use print, manipulatives, and computers extensively.

Our Pre-K teachers have been trained in the use of this curriculum by its developer, Doug Clements.

The Principles

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ Standards and the Building Blocks project emphasize a vision of mathematics for young children that

• (a) builds upon young children’s experiences with mathematics,
• (b) establishes a solid foundation for the further study of mathematics,
• (c) incorporates assessment as an integral part of learning events,
• (d) develops a strong conceptual framework that provides anchoring for skill acquisition,
• (e) involves children in “doing mathematics,”
• (f) emphasizes the development of children’s mathematical thinking and reasoning abilities,
• (g) includes a broad range of content, and
• (h) makes appropriate and ongoing use of technology, including calculators and computers.

These educational principles also are consistent with the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s recommendations for developmentally appropriate education. The need for appropriate, challenging, and effective preschool and Kindergarten mathematics programs is especially salient for low-income children at risk for later school failure.

Literacy

Along with the Creative Curriculum, our teachers use the Fundations Level Pre-K activity set to support students’ emerging understanding of alphabetic principal and writing.

Fundations for Pre-K

The Fundations® Pre-K Activity Set supports students’ emerging understanding of the alphabetic principles of letter-sound associations and alphabetical order, and the written language skill of manuscript letter formation.

The Activity Set provides an introduction, or “pre-dose,” to the letter-sound and writing skills that will be taught to mastery in the Fundations Level K program. It is not intended to provide a full pre-k literacy curriculum.

The skills taught align with those that the Report of the National Early Literacy Panel (2008) identified as strong and consistent predictors for the later development of literacy skills:

• Knowledge of the names and sounds associated with printed letters
• Ability to manipulate the sounds of spoken language
• Ability to rapidly name letters, numbers, objects, or colors
• Ability to write isolated letters or one’s name
• Ability to remember spoken information for a short time

The Pre-K Activity Set strongly supports the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (2015), which expects that a preschool child “recognizes and names at least half of the letters of the alphabet” and “produces the sounds of many recognized letters.”