Connecting Emergent Curriculum and Standards in the Early Childhood Classroom: Strengthening Content and Teaching Practice

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 in the daily, action-based pre–K and Kindergarten classrooms, and explore ways to document it. 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, manipulatives, water and sand, drama, expressive arts, and literacy centers, and 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.