Introduction

This book is a Pressbooks published version of the open textbook
Introduction to Curriculum for Early Childhood Education by Jennifer Paris, Kristin Beeve, & Clint Springer originally published in LibreText under a CC BY license.

Cover image: Roller Painting by Gautam Arora published in Unsplash under a free to use Unsplash license.

Welcome to learning about how to effectively plan curriculum for young children. This textbook will address:

• Developing curriculum through the planning cycle
• Theories that inform what we know about how children learn and the best ways for teachers to support learning
• The three components of developmentally appropriate practice
• Importance and value of play and intentional teaching
• Different models of curriculum
• Process of lesson planning (documenting planned experiences for children)
• Physical, temporal, and social environments that set the stage for children’s learning
• Appropriate guidance techniques to support children’s behaviors as the self-regulation abilities mature.
• Planning for preschool-aged children in specific domains including
  • Physical development
  • Language and literacy
  • Math
  • Science
  • Creative (the visual and performing arts)
  • Diversity (social science and history)
  • Health and safety
• How curriculum planning for infants and toddlers is different from planning for older children
• Supporting school-aged children’s learning and development in out-of-school time through curriculum planning
• Making children’s learning visible through documentation and assessment