Emergent Curriculum In Early Childhood Settings

Helps providers implement proven child-centered curricular practices while meeting early learning standards.

Develop a curriculum inspired by children's emerging interests. Create an environment where children learn through play, inquiry, and exploration. This book explores the components of emergent curriculum and how its practices can improve the educational culture of early childhood programs. The updated edition includes new information on exploration of inquiry-based practice; reexamination of circle time and scripts for routines; expansion of invitations, including invitations for children learning a second language; new photos and documentation, and inclusion of Reggio Emilia. Susan Stacey has worked in the field of early childhood for over thirty-five years, as an early childhood educator, director, and practicum advisor. She obtained her Master's degree at Pacific Oaks College, Pasadena, California. Stacey frequently presents across North America about emergent curriculum, reflective and responsive practices, inquiry, documentation, and the role of the arts in early childhood education. She teaches adult early childhood education students at the Nova Scotia College of Early Childhood Education, and belongs to several professional organizations such as National Association for the Education of Young Children and the Canadian Childcare Federation. Stacey has presented frequently at NAEYC conferences, and has been published in Young Children, Young Exceptional Children, and Exchange. Her books with Redleaf include Emergent Curriculum in Early Childhood Settings, The Unscripted Classroom, and Pedagogical Documentation in Early Childhood.

Vignettes focusing on emergent curriculum

Inspires early childhood educators to use innovative practices through stories from real teachers who use emergent curriculum in their classrooms.

The most pressing challenge in early childhood education today is to find a way to meet the standards within a developmentally appropriate approach. In this book, two active early childhood educators provide teachers with resources to bring content alive and document it in every-day, action-based pre–K and Kindergarten classrooms. The book includes lists of key content ideas—coordinated with learning standards in science, mathematics, social studies, and the communication arts—to guide teacher observations of, and interactions with, young children. Chapters focus on ways to extend children’s emerging use of content in the block, manipulative, sand and water, drama, expressive arts, and literacy centers, as well as link to the development of themes. Book features include: Lists of key ideas in the content areas. Examples of conversations that nurture children’s emerging content understandings. Vignettes from the field illustrating teachers’ experiences of embedding content into center activities, along with photographs. Sample forms for documenting children’s learning as they meet the standards in a variety of contexts. Sydney L. Schwartzis a Professor Emerita of Queens College of the City University of New York.Sherry M. Copelandis an experienced early childhood teacher, teacher trainer, advocate, and director of early childhood programs.

Emergent curriculum in early childhood education refers to the process of using the spontaneity generated in the daily life of the children and adults in the program, along with teacher planning, to develop the curriculum. This book presents a story about a year in the life of a fictional child care center as a context for the discussion of emergent curriculum in 22 chapters arranged to cover events sequentially throughout the school year. Chapter 1 introduces the fictional child care setting. Chapters 2 through 21 alternately provide staff meeting topics, ideas, and examples of guided discussions; and ideas and discussions of class activities, field trips, and visits to various sites. Chapter 22, "Epilogue: Talking It Over," contains reflections on the activities and learning during the year by staff and students. Contains a section of notes for each chapter and 23 suggestions for further reading. (DR)

The traditional role for teachers in children's play was to structure it, setting rules and interrupting if things got "out of hand". However, for children three to five, sociodramatic play is a way to invent and make familiar the rhythms and actions of everyday life. This text describes why play is a fundamentally important part of children's development and shows how adults can support and promote play. The authors offer systematic descriptions and analyses of the different roles a teacher adopts toward this end, including those of stage manager, mediator, player, scribe, assessor, communicator, and planner, and describe both highly interactive and inhibited children from different economic backgrounds. The authors integrate cognitive and psycho-dynamic theory as well, regarding the scripts children play in both cognitive and affective terms, and they discuss the importance of fantasy and reality play themes, demonstrating the implications of play for literacy learning.

An inspiring step-by-step guide to documenting children's ideas, questions, and learning in a way that enhances teacher's thinking and understanding