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Policy

Education staff make decisions in the curriculum planning process to help children gain knowledge, skills and confidence. The curriculum decisions will encourage children to be actively involved in the learning process, to experience a variety of developmentally appropriate activities and materials, and to pursue their own interests in the context of life, their community, family culture and world. The curriculum plan integrates the various Head Start components. Curriculum will be developmentally and linguistically appropriate while recognizing each child’s rate of development, interests, temperament, and cultural background. 

Family information and input is a required component of curriculum planning and implementation. Parents will be given opportunities to contribute to curriculum plans. Weekly curriculum plans are developed in advance to document the sequence, times, and use of all required program curricula.

Procedure

  1. The Creative Curriculum is the program curriculum
    1. Supplemental curriculum resources are available for educational staff to enhance learning experiences across all developmental learning domains. These supplemental resources include but are not limited to:
      1. 2nd Step
      2. Child Protection Unit
      3. Coordinated Approach to Child Heath (CATCH)
      4. Anti-Bias Curriculum
  2. Educational staff will use individual child and family information when creating their weekly curriculum plan. This information may be gathered from
    1. Parent, family and child information from:
      1. Getting to Know your Child & Family (Funds of Knowledge) form.
      2. Parent/Teacher conferences and home visits
      3. Parent input or suggestions about classroom curriculum
    2. Assessment information
  3. Educational staff will document their weekly curriculum plan in “My Teaching Strategies”. The weekly plan will provide a balance of child initiated and adult directed activities through individual, small, and large group activities, routines and transitions. The weekly plan will include the following areas
    1. Plan for Choice Time & Interest Areas
      1. Educational staff will document changes, planned activities, and/or assessment related skills that are being focused on in each interest area
    2. Daily activities
      1. Educational staff will document the following daily activities: whole group time (aka “circle” or meeting time), music/movement, story time, transitions, outdoor experiences, and other special planned activities.
    3. Individualization
      1. Educational staff will document how they will promote specific opportunities for children to practice goals and objectives in routine, planned and child-initiated activities by noting children within planned activities or in the Individual Child Plan.
      2. Individual Child Plan may also be used to document supports or modifications needed to meet specific needs.
    4. Emergent activities
      1. Educational staff will document emergent changes or additions to the weekly plan based on children’s interests and ideas. Emergent changes may be handwritten on the curriculum plan posted in the classroom. These may be carried over into following weeks or incorporated into a class study based on children’s continued level of interest.
    5. Family engagement
      1. Educational staff will document parent contributions (ideas, in class participation, etc.) on the weekly plan.
      2. Educational staff will document the activities and experiences that are planned for linking classroom learning to home.
  4. In addition, the curriculum plan will include at a minimum, activities that address the following areas:
    1. Cooking/nutrition project (1x month)
    2. Math (daily)
    3. Fine motor (daily)
    4. Gross motor (daily)
    5. Health: safety, nutrition, general health (each needs to be planned 1x month)
    6. Language (daily)
    7. Literacy (daily)
    8. Science (1x week)
    9. Social emotional development (daily)
  5. Weekly curriculum plans will be submitted to the Regional Manager (RM), Assistant Regional Manager (ARM), and ECEC for review and/or feedback.
  6. Current curriculum plans must be legible and posted in an accessible and visible place in the classroom for reference and notation of changes.
  7. At the end of the week, curriculum plan will be placed in a binder/folder with all other past plans. The curriculum and individualization plans will be kept for the entire program year.

This policy complies with Head Start Performance Standard 45CFR Section 1302.30, 1302.21,1302.32, 1302.35
It was approved by Policy Council on September 9, 2003. December 2012. August 2013
Updated July 7, 1999. August 17, 2000. November 15, 2000. July 10, 2002,August 20, 2003, January 13, 2004; June 2008, September 2009. November 2010. August 2011. November 2012. August 2013. August 2017. June 2021

REVIEWED: June 2021

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