Early Childhood - Connecticut State Department of Education

Curriculum Chapter 2
HELPFUL TERMS
Early Childhood An organized approach incorporating specific theory into a
Curriculum Models design for interactions with children and families, teacher planning,
assessment and classroom experiences
Emergent Curriculum An alternative to theme-based curriculum where topics are
developed based on the interests of children
Integrated Curriculum Learning experiences that are planned to encourage learning in more
than one content area, and across several domains of learning
(personal, social, cognitive, physical)
Learning Goals Four categories of learning defined in Katz-Chard, 1989
Knowledge: facts, concepts, ideas, vocabulary, stories and other
aspects of children’s culture
Skills: small units of action, such as physical, social, verbal, counting
and drawing skills
Dispositions: habits of mind or tendencies to respond to certain
situations in certain ways
Feelings: emotional states, some are innate (e.g., fear), while others
are learned (e.g., flexibility or perseverance)
Project An in-depth study of a topic that one or several children are
interested in investigating
Scaffolding Providing support and challenging the child to try something a little
more difficult by breaking it down into smaller components. For
example, a child is trying to tell a story using puppets. The teacher
listens and provides ideas and questions that support the child’s
efforts. “So why is the monster angry? What will he do next? How
will you end this story?”
Seeding the Environment/ The teacher provides materials, equipment and questions to
Provocation of Ideas encourage and sustain children during problem solving and inquiry.
Thematic Units Integrating projects and experiences that develop skills and content
knowledge around a unifying topic, such as “investigation of birds
around our school”