Infant/Toddler Curriculum
How We Teach
At Children’s Treehouse Learning Center we focus on creating trusting and supportive relationships between teacher and child. Children’s Treehouse practices HighScope’s Infant/Toddler Curriculum which includes defined teaching practices that enable adults to create effective early childhood programs. HighScope’s curriculum is research based and child focused.
Taking care of very young children involves more than just meeting their physical needs. Our teachers and caregivers see themselves as responsive professionals concerned about all aspects of your child's development. Caregivers develop close, supportive relationships with the children in their care. They cuddle, hold, play, and talk with children in a warm, unhurried, give-and-take manner.
At Children’s Treehouse our program and teachers support children's natural desire to be active learners. Creating an active learning environment for infants and toddlers means consciously considering all their needs — their social and emotional, physical, cognitive, and sociolinguistic needs. During active learning, caregivers encourage infants and toddlers to discover the world around them by exploring and playing. Learning and development are anchored by long-term, trusting relationships with caregivers, who are close at hand to support children as they play.
Our teachers and caregivers are guided by HighScope’s Infant/Toddler Principles of Active Learning:
· Infants and toddlers learn with their whole body and with all their senses.
· Infants and toddlers learn because they want to.
· Infants and toddlers communicate what they know.
· Infants and toddlers learn within the context of trusting relationships.
What We Teach
A Comprehensive Curriculum Children’s Treehouse Learning Centers Infant/Toddler Curriculum, is a comprehensive curriculum focused on the following six Learning Domains.
Approaches to Learning – Our teachers and caregivers help to support children as they initiate their wants, needs, and emotions. They guide children to solve problems, issues, or obstacles that come about while they’re exploring and playing and encourage children to try and do things on their own or for themselves. Teachers are the cheerleaders for our children.
Social & Emotional Development – Through playing, cuddling, and caring for our infants and toddlers we help them to develop a good and trusting relationship with their teacher and understanding of themselves.
Physical Development& Health – Learning to understand strengths and limitations of their own bodies is especially important for our infants and toddlers. We use age specific activities to promote this, for example; moving with objects, crawling while holding a ball, or carrying a block while walking. We also use our M&M time to start teaching rhythmic skills.
Communication, Language & Literacy - From day one young children are communicating with you or their caregiver through non-verbal and verbal forms of communication. Your child’s teacher will enhance these communication skills by working on their listening, speaking, singing, and exploring skills. Young children enjoy exploring picture books, rhymes and songs.
Cognitive Development - Our teachers and classrooms give your child the opportunity to explore objects with their hands, feet, mouth, eyes, ears and nose. Children learn to take things apart and fit them together. Children learn cause and effect to make something happen again.
Creative Arts – Children love to imitate and pretend play through building and art materials and music and movement. Each day your child will read, play, create, explore, sing, discuss, observe, and move. These six main learning domains, which parallel the dimensions of school readiness identified by the National Education Goals Panel, organize active learning in our infant-toddler programs.
Theme Based Topics of Learning
Our curriculum revolves around theme-based topics of learning. The child-related themes such as At the Zoo, Big Blue Sea, or Backyard Science provide a meaningful context for learning and foster a cohesiveness throughout our school.
Your child explores these interesting topics through reading and technology. Your child writes about facts that he learns, creates related art projects, sings theme-related songs, and pretends with creative movement and free play.
The weekly themes provide the “glue” that joins the learning domains of our well balanced curriculum.
Key Developmental Indicators (KDIs)
Our curriculum is based off these six Learning Domains and guided by the HighScope’s Infant/Toddler Curriculum 42 key developmental indicators (KDI’s) that meet all state standards.
Each KDI is a statement that identifies an observable behavior reflecting a child's knowledge and skills in these six areas.
How We Evaluate
Why Is Assessment So Important in Infant-Toddler Programs?
Research tells us that the best programs constantly measure how well caregivers do their jobs and whether children are developing as they should be. They use the results to continue what is working and improve what is not; for example, to decide whether to provide more training to caregivers or to redesign infants' and toddlers' play areas.
Child Assessment
Children’s Treehouse Learning Center uses HighScope’s (COR) Advantage birth-to-kindergarten child assessment, which evaluates children's learning in all nine content areas. The tool assesses children's learning in every leaning domain.
Each day, teachers or caregivers generate brief written descriptions, or anecdotes, that objectively describe these very young children's behavior. They use these notes to evaluate children's development and then plan activities to help individual infants and toddlers and the center as a whole make progress.
Program Assessment
Children’s Treehouse Learning Center uses HighScope’s Program Quality Assessment (PQA) to evaluate our teachers and program and ensure we are using the most effective classroom and program management practices. Every area of classroom teaching and program operations is rated to identify strengths and areas for improvement.