This workshop will introduce participants to a comprehensive, child-centered approach to preschool education called The Creative Curriculum.

The Creative Curriculum is a framework that helps teachers incorporate several critical elements into their work with young children:

• The theories and research that support Early Childhood appropriate practices
• Knowledge of how children develop and learn
• Aspects of the learning environment
• The content of what children learn
• The teacher’s role
• The family’s role

Objectives
As a result of this workshop, participants will:

• Understand the theories and research that underlies The Creative Curriculum;
• Increase their working knowledge of the developmental progression children move through between the ages of three and five;
• Recognize environmental structures that facilitate both learning and teaching;
• Be aware of appropriate curriculum content in literacy, math, science, social studies, the arts, and technology;
• Improve their skills as observers, guiders, and assessors of children’s learning; and
• Expand upon their knowledge of strategies for building partnerships with families.

Outline
Day 1:

• What is Curriculum?
• An Overview of The Creative Curriculum
• Foundation and six components of The Creative Curriculum
• Theory and Research behind The Creative Curriculum
• How Children Develop and Learn – The first component of The Creative Curriculum
• Examine how knowledge of developmental and individual characteristics of children influence the preschool program
• The Learning Environment – The second component of The Creative Curriculum
• Setting Up and Maintaining the Classroom
• Messages that environment sends to children
• Reflection

Day 2:

• The Learning Environment
• Establishing a Structure of Each Day
• Creating Classroom Community
• Relationship between learning and a positive social environment in classroom
• What Children Learn – The third component of The Creative Curriculum
• Literacy and Math
• The Arts and Technology
• Using Studies to Learn About Science and Social Studies
• The Teacher’s Role – The fourth component of The Creative Curriculum
• Observing Children
• Guiding Children’s Learning
• Reflection

Day 3:

• The Teacher’s Role
• Assessing Children’s Learning – The Creative Curriculum Developmental Continuum Assessment System.
• The Family’s Role – The fifth component of The Creative Curriculum
• Reflections and developing individual action plan for implementation
• Working With All Families
• Closing

Trainer’s Profile
Charlotte is a trainer, consultant, and author. She has been active in the field of Early Childhood Education for more than 30 years. She began teaching after receiving a Masters Degree from Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1973. Over a span of 25 years, she taught children ranging in age from 18 months to 8 years in varied settings, including Head Start, a college-based child development center, and public schools.

Currently, she works with preschool and elementary school teachers in the areas of developmentally appropriate curriculum, instruction, and assessment. She is a senior member of The Work Sampling System’s national faculty and The Creative Curriculum’s staff development network. She has been a contributing author of Building the Primary Classroom (Dodge, Jablon, and Bickart; Teaching Strategies Inc.) and Work Sampling in the Classroom (Dichtelmiller, Jablon, Dorfman, Marsden, and Meisels; Pearson Early Learning). She co-authored Winning Ways to Learn, a two-volume set of parenting guides. (Pearson Early Learning)

She is the principal author of three children’s literature-based curricula published by the Vermont Center for the Book: You Can Count on Mother Goose, Mother Goose Cares About Math and Science, and Mother Goose Cares About Social Studies.

Methodology
This workshop includes many opportunities for small group activities that enable participants to practice, discuss, and apply what they already know to The Creative Curriculum framework.

Target Audience
The target audience for this workshop is teachers and administrators in programs that teach children between the ages of 3 and 5.

Duration: 3 days, 21 hours
Closing Date: 1 May 07