Curricula

Curriculum Description

Beautiful Beginnings: A Developmental Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers provides an approach that helps teachers build on children's strengths and interests, support emerging developments, and encourage progress in areas of concern. The curriculum provides "Experiences," organized by children's ages, in eight areas of development.

Last Updated: March 25, 2019

Summary of Curriculum Review

• Promotes interactions, routines, and learning experiences to support the development and learning of infants and toddlers in all Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) domains
• Offers sequences of learning experiences to progressively build children's concepts and skills in all domains
• Specifies measurable, developmentally appropriate learning goals
• Provides guidance on ongoing observation and documentation
• Offers an approach to individualize learning experiences based on children's interests, strengths, and needs
• Provides some opportunities for infants and toddlers to engage in movement, play, and active exploration
• Includes some guidance on setting up the learning environment
• Provides limited guidance in the ELOF sub-domain of Health, Safety, and Nutrition
• Gives limited guidance on how to integrate children's and families' cultures into interactions, the learning environment, and learning experiences
• Lacks guidance on standardized and structured assessment instruments
• Lacks strategies and resources for communicating with and engaging families
• Does not offer standardized initial training or ongoing professional development opportunities
• Lacks guidance on how to establish developmentally appropriate schedules for infants and toddlers
• Lacks guidance on how to ensure daily routines, learning experiences, and the physical environment are individually appropriate for children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs

Curriculum Description

Frog Street Infant features learning experiences and materials that support infants' development and learning. The curriculum is organized around age-appropriate Activity Cards, which can be used to create individualized plans for children.

Last Updated: March 25, 2019

Summary of Curriculum Review

• Offers sequences of learning experiences that progressively build infants' concepts and skills in all domains
• Specifies developmentally appropriate learning goals throughout the curriculum activities
• Offers comprehensive standardized training and materials to support implementation
• Promotes some research-based teaching practices to support infants' development and learning in all Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) domains
• Gives some strategies and resources to support family engagement
• Offers some opportunities for active exploration and interactions that extend infants' learning
• Includes limited guidance in the areas of Creativity, Imitation and Symbolic Representation and Play, and Health, Safety, and Nutrition
• Lacks comprehensive guidance on ongoing child assessment
• Lacks comprehensive guidance on designing indoor and outdoor environments
• Lacks direction on how to effectively support infants' development and learning during caregiving routines
• Provides limited guidance on how to fully integrate children's and families' cultures and home languages into interactions, the learning environment, and learning experiences
• Offers limited support on how to ensure the learning environment and experiences are accessible for infants with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs
• Lacks ample opportunities for child-initiated play based on children's interests

Curriculum Description

Frog Street Toddler offers learning experiences and materials to support toddlers' development and learning. The curriculum is organized around 13 thematic Activity Guides that include choices for weekly activities and learning centers.

Last Updated: March 25, 2019

Summary of Curriculum Review

• Aligns fully with the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF)
• Specifies developmentally appropriate learning goals throughout the curriculum activities
• Offers a process and tools for ongoing observation and documentation
• Provides strategies and resources to support family engagement
• Offers comprehensive standardized training and materials to support implementation
• Includes support on how to ensure the physical environment is accessible for toddlers with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs
• Promotes individualization based on children's strengths and needs
• Promotes some research-based teaching practices to support toddlers' development and learning in all ELOF domains
• Offers some guidance on how teachers can engage in interactions that extend children's learning
• Provides limited opportunities for child-initiated play, exploration, and activities based on children's interests
• Lacks a comprehensive sequence of learning experiences in some domains
• Lacks direction on how to establish a flexible schedule centered around toddlers' daily routines
• Lacks comprehensive guidance on how to integrate children's and families' cultures and home languages into interactions, the learning environment, and learning experiences

Curriculum Description

The HighScope Infant-Toddler Curriculum provides an approach characterized by positive attachment relationships, active participatory learning, responsive individual routines, and adult scaffolding. The curriculum includes a set of resources to support teachers in creating learning environments and experiences that reflect the curriculum's approach.

Last Updated: March 25, 2019

Summary of Curriculum Review

• Promotes research-based teaching practices to support infants' and toddlers' development and learning in all Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) domains
• Promotes ongoing observation, planning, and scaffolding based on children's interests and developmental levels
• Provides a range of strategies and resources to support family engagement
• Offers comprehensive standardized training and materials to support implementation
• Promotes opportunities for infants and toddlers to engage in movement, play, and active exploration
• Includes extensive guidance on how to design well-organized, engaging indoor and outdoor environments
• Offers multiple tools and a process to support teachers in planning daily schedules centered around individual children's caregiving routines
• Provides limited guidance in the areas of emotional functioning and emergent mathematical thinking
• Lacks comprehensive guidance for how to support children in moving through developmental progressions from birth to 36 months
• Provides minimal guidance on culturally responsive routines and learning experiences
• Lacks guidance on how to support the development and learning of infants and toddlers who are dual language learners (DLLs)

Curriculum Description

Innovations: The Comprehensive Infant and Toddler Curriculum provides an approach grounded in applying child development theory to everyday experiences. The curriculum is organized around major developmental tasks children experience as they learn and grow. Each developmental task includes "Possibilities Plans," characterized by webs of age-appropriate learning experiences.

Last Updated: March 25, 2019

Summary of Curriculum Review

• Promotes interactions, routines, and learning experiences to support infants' and toddlers' development and learning in all Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) domains
• Offers sequences of learning experiences to progressively build children's concepts and skills in all domains
• Provides guidance and tools to support ongoing observation and documentation
• Includes a range of strategies and resources to communicate with and engage families
• Offers comprehensive standardized training and materials to support implementation
• Encourages ample opportunity for infants and toddlers to engage in movement, play, and active exploration
• Provides limited guidance in the areas of Reasoning and Problem-Solving and Emergent Mathematical Thinking
• Provides limited guidance on how to integrate children's and families' cultures into interactions, the learning environment, and learning experiences
• Lacks measurable, developmentally appropriate learning goals
• Lacks guidance on standardized and structured assessment instruments
• Lacks guidance on how to ensure daily routines, learning experiences, and the physical environment are individually appropriate for children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs

The Creative Curriculum^® for Infants, Toddlers & Twos, 3^rd Edition provides a set of resources to help teachers plan and implement routines and learning experiences for young children. It includes three volumes that describe the curriculum foundation, routines and experiences, and objectives for development and learning. The curriculum also offers additional resources, such as activity cards, songs and rhymes, and books.

Last Updated: March 25, 2019

Summary of Curriculum Review

• Promotes interactions, routines, and learning experiences to support infants' and toddlers' development and learning in all Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) domains
• Provides scaffolding strategies within activities to support children as they move through the developmental progressions
• Specifies developmentally appropriate learning goals and guidance on how to use them for the individualization of learning experiences based on children's strengths and needs
• Describes a clear process for ongoing child assessment
• Provides a range of strategies and resources to support family engagement
• Offers comprehensive standardized training and materials to support implementation
• Encourages ample opportunity for infants and toddlers to engage in movement, play, and active exploration
• Includes extensive guidance on how to design well-organized, engaging indoor and outdoor environments
• Gives comprehensive guidance and resources to help teachers establish developmentally appropriate daily schedules centered around caregiving routines
• Includes specific guidance on how to support the development and learning of infants and toddlers who are dual language learners (DLLs)
• Offers specific adaptations for children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs
• Lacks guidance on how to provide learning experiences that build on children's cultural experiences at home