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Developmentally Appropriate Activity Planning

What Are My Responsibilities as a Planner?
Female teacher with red pen and paperwork sitting at desk.
Brand X Pictures / Thinkstock

Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

Describe factors that affect the planning context.
Describe important considerations for planning the environment.
Explain the types of resources available to teachers for planning.
Describe a continuum of approaches to planning and how they are similar and different.
Introduction
Now that you have met your children and their families, collected information, and considered many ways to connect with them in the context of your community, its time to begin planning curriculum activities and how you will set up the environment to support them. Remember from Chapter 2 that you have the printed material accompanying the comprehensive curriculum used in your school and the supplementary literacy program that specifically targets at-risk learners. You also have your administrators assurance that you will have a good bit of freedom to make your own decisions as long as they are consistent with the curriculums goals.

Your teaching space has some nice featuresnotably access to a lavatory for the children inside the room, plenty of natural light from windows along one wall, a door to the adjacent playground, a classroom sink with counter space, a variety of child-sized furniture and movable storage units, and a storage closet. It also presents challenges that will affect how you will arrange your space, including where some of the above features are located, a limited number of electrical outlets, and permanently installed carpeting in one part of the room. With all of this in mind, how might you begin making decisions about how to arrange the classroom?

In addition to thinking about how to organize the physical environment, you might ask yourself several additional questions as you begin to plan your curriculum activities. What approach will you take to organize your ideas? How will you plan curriculum activities in ways that are developmentally appropriate and flexible? How will you make sure you are addressing learning standards? This chapter focuses on practical strategies for effective planning.

From the Field

Preschool teachers Jennifer and Elise discuss the importance of communication between teaching colleagues.
Critical Thinking Questions

How do you feel about working with another teacher or assistant teacher?
What will you do to begin establishing an effective, professional relationship?
6.1Contextual Factors That Affect Planning
Regardless of where you teach, your circumstances (or context) will impact your planning. Among the most important factors that affect planning are the curriculum, the children, their families, your teaching colleagues, and the physical settingthe building and learning spaces.

The Planning Context
Whether you are given a curriculum to implement or expected to select or design curriculum yourself, planning should be a responsive process. You will need to balance planned activities with what you observe about the needs, interests, and characteristics of children. (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009; Gestwicki, 2011).

To varying degrees, the type of early childhood setting in which you work will influence how planning occurs. Home-care providers are typically independent and care for the widest age range of children in the same setting. They have to plan and implement care and activities for infants and toddlers as well as preschoolers and school-age children. Early childhood educators in child-care centers or preschools may have considerable flexibility or be expected to implement a particular curriculum. In primary classrooms, especially in the public schools, planning will likely be closely correlated with prescribed curriculum, state learning standards, and designated assessment procedures.

Context can also influence the planning tools you use and your accountability for them. Some teachers may be given or expected to use a planning book or specific forms on which to write their plans. You might be required to turn in plans weekly, monthly, or on some other schedule for review by a supervisor. Most state child-care licensing regulations also require that current/ongoing activity plans be prominently displayed and shared with parents. For example, the Pennsylvania Regulationreads as follows:

3270.111 Daily activities.

(a) A written plan of daily activities and routines, including a time for free play shall be established for each group. The plan shall be flexible to accommodate the needs of individual children and the dynamics of the group.

(b) The written plan shall be posted in the group space.

More From the Field

Program director Rita Palet explains the importance of professional preparation, chemistry, and give-and-take in teaching relationships.
Critical Thinking Question

What would you do if you were paired with a teacher whose views about learning and curriculum differ significantly from yours?
Even if you are wholly in charge of your class or group of children, you may have a coteacher or assistant, or you may be part of a bigger teaching team, which means that other individuals will influence or perhaps have some control over your planning. Teachers in a center or school, for example, often plan collaboratively, as a group, by grade or age level. Further, the extent to which your ideas are incorporated into plans may be influenced by the group dynamics or competing points of view. For example, if you plan with a team of two lead teachers and two assistants, one of those individuals may tend to dominate conversation or another may be reluctant to consider trying new strategies. These are issues that would have to be worked out as you developed a collaborative approach to sharing ideas.

Finally, the physical setting within which learning takes place will impact your planning. You will have to consider what space you have, how the classroom will be arranged, what space you must share with other classes, and so on. Your planning for both the physical environment and activities will certainly have to consider how to reflect the diversity and cultural characteristics, experiences, and interests of the children and families in your group.

Integrating Developmental Principles and Beliefs
In considering our opening vignette, you may have wondered how an open-ended, comprehensive play-based curriculum could be compatible with planning and scheduling for a teacher-directed supplemental literacy program. Curricular activities may be conceptually organized by developmental domains or by academic content areas, but the planning process for any curriculum should prioritize and integrate developmentally appropriate principles and strategies.

For example, you can plan a literacy activity that focuses on identifying beginning word sounds as small-group or one-on-one interactions at the beginning or end of a large block of free-choice time rather than as a whole-group lesson. This way, childrens play is not interrupted; you maximize opportunities for interpersonal interactions and control the time and frequency of these activities for the capabilities of each individual child. Likewise, a curriculum or program that requires a whole-group "circle time" for 3-year-olds should challenge you to plan a format for such a time that is interactive, enjoyable, meaningful, and no longer than the children can reasonably be expected to manage.

As the teacher, your thoughtful approach to planning will be based on your observations, record keeping, and interactions with the children, ensuring that:

Themes and topics of study support program goals and curriculum objectives but curriculum is not "one-size fits all," so that children have ongoing opportunities for activities and experiences that support their individual interests and developmental characteristics
Teacher-directed and child-initiated activities are balanced
The curriculum is flexible and adaptable to accommodate learning opportunities that arise unexpectedly
Children can offer questions and ideas that are incorporated in planning of future activities
The environment and curriculum reflect and honor the real lives of the children and their families
Planning balances active and quiet times and individual, small-group, and whole-group interactions
Exploratory play is supported as an important mode of learning
Effective planning integrates the key themes of this book: (1) understanding the theoretical and/or philosophical foundation of the curriculum; (2) knowledge of human growth and development; (3) coordinating integration of the roles you, as the teacher, families, and communities assume as curriculum informants; (4) identification of curriculum content that supports childrens needs and interests; and (5) choosing and enacting developmentally appropriate teaching and assessment strategies.

Table 2.7 in Chapter 2 provides a simple format for organizing your essential ideas and beliefs so that you can compare them with ideas represented in various curricula you may be interested in or asked to use. In planning, you apply these ideas as an action plan (Nilsen, 2010). For example, Mary, a kindergarten teacher in South Carolina, knows that one of the physical science standards relates to exploring matter, "Standard K.P.4: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the observable properties of matter." The indicator for this standard (K.P.4A.1) reads: "Analyze and interpret data to compare the qualitative properties of objects (such as size, shape, color, texture, weight, flexibility, attraction to magnets, or ability to sink or float) and classify objects based on similar properties" (South Carolina Department of Education, 2014, p. 10). She knows that this standard can be addressed through explicit teaching about the concept, but her constructivist belief that children learn science concepts through exploration of the environment and materials leads to intentional planning for that learning to occur naturally.

Table 6.1 represents what her broad plan for a given week might include to support open-ended inquiry about the observable properties of water. Shell build the activities around the use of a water table.

Table 6.1: Water Table Activities
Prompts and Facilitation Strategies Materials
Monday Generate and record ideas about why objects sink or float in water; examine a variety of materials for experimentation; chart childrens predictions Paper clips; marbles; recycled styrofoam packing peanuts trays and soda/water bottles; paper plates; bottle caps; wood scraps; aluminum foil; paper cups; play dough; small rocks and sticks; string; rubber bands; tooth picks; plastic straws
Tuesday Discuss ideas about how children could make a boat that will float in water; construct and test in the water table; record observations; photograph or videotape the water table as a work in progress
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday Construct a diagram (sink/float/both) with the children to organize observations made over the week; compare with their original predictions; begin a book with images or drawings of the boats and transcription of childrens tentative answers to the question of why a boat floats; generate new questions about sinking and floating to continue inquiry
6.2Creating a Physical Environment for Your Curriculum
A young boy stands at a water table and transfers water from one container to another.
Susan Woog-Wagner / Getty Images

Children use a variety of materials to explore concepts about water, including different-sized containers (in which they can pour the water back and forth) and objects that sink and float.
The physical environment is a powerful messenger, and "every environment implies a set of values or beliefs about the people who use the space and the activities that take place there . . . each environment also influences the people who use it in subtle or dramatic ways" (Carter & Carter, 2003, p. 13).

Thinking and making decisions about how to design and arrange classroom spaces has been influenced by many individuals. Friedrich Froebel introduced the idea of materials specifically created to support the way young children learn. Maria Montessori pioneered the use of child-sized furniture and the careful organization of materials. Rudolph Steiner promoted the use of natural materials and a homelike environment. Elizabeth Jones and Elizabeth Prescotts work in the 1970s also emphasized the importance of a homelike environment and the idea that teachers should look to the environment as a source for solving problems (Prescott, 2004). For example, if you observed that children in an activity area were not sharing, a comparison of the number of things to do with the number of children using the center might suggest that additional materials need to be added (Prescott, 2004, p. 35).

Diane Trister-Dodge and David Weikert applied all of these ideas to the Creative Curriculum and High Scope classrooms. Finally, the Reggio Emilia programs demonstrate how planning an environment is driven by respect for the rights of the child to a beautiful, welcoming space that promotes relationships and attention to detail.

This section of the chapter will address how your curriculum influences the indoor physical environment, principles of good design, and aesthetics. Considerations for planning the outdoor environment are addressed in Chapter 8.

Does Your Curriculum Dictate or Provide Direction?
Given the innumerable different kinds of locations, classroom shapes, sizes, and building designs, it would be almost impossible for a curriculum to dictate exactly what a classroom or care space should look like. Curricula do, however, to varying degrees, implicitly or explicitly suggest and guide decisions about what equipment and materials are needed and how activity spaces should support childrens play, learning, and development.

For example, Montessori programs are expected to have at least a minimal set of designated materials arranged in a defined sequence and according to particular design principles. Creative Curriculum identifies ten distinct activity centers and gives teachers guidance about suggested materials for each. High Scope and Creative Curriculum teachers are also expected to label shelves and materials with pictures and/or words. The literacy curriculum mentioned in the opening vignette might come with a particular set of books, manipulative materials, and teacher resources with directions to store or display them in a prescribed sequence or order.

Other curriculum approaches set forth desired goals for what the environment should be designed to achieve as well as the particular elements it should include, but they assume that each classroom will also have its own unique character. For instance, the atelier or miniatelier feature of Reggio Emilia programs and classrooms (introduced in Chapter 2) is expected to include art and an array of interesting recycled materials arranged in an organized and aesthetically pleasing manner (Edwards, Gandini, & Forman, 1998).

In Waldorf education, according to teacher Sarah Baldwin (2012), "A Waldorf kindergarten is typically furnished to look much like a home, with silk curtains, wool rugs, a rocking chair, and wooden tables and chairs. Teachers consciously choose playthings for the classroom that will nourish a young childs senses and sheathe them in beauty. Toys found in the classroom are made from natural fiber and materials."

Regardless of a curriculums specifics, the teacher will plan the environment according to generally accepted ideas about good design for developmentally appropriate spaces to be used by young children.

What General Principles Should Guide Environmental Planning?
More From the Field

Director Lucia Garay describes the elements of planning that result in an effective learning environment.
Critical Thinking Question

Lucia says, "the environment becomes the curriculum." What does she mean by that?
Early childhood space planning is guided by general principles adapted to the specific needs of children and curricular priorities at different ages. All early childhood classrooms need a balance of functional, formal, and informal spaces (Shalaway, 2012; Swim, 2012). The classroom or care space should include functional areas for greeting and departure, storage of childrens personal belongings, feeding/dining, and toileting; it should be clean and organized. Furniture and activity areas should be arranged to provide for visual supervision at all times. Early childhood spaces must include equipment appropriate to the size of the children, with visual materials posted or displayed at the childs eye level.

Variations by Age
In an infant classroom, you would expect to see furniture and designated areas for diapering, feeding, sleeping, and playing with babies. A mobile might be suspended over a crib or floor mat in the childs line of sight, as infants spend some of their time lying on their backs looking up. Furniture will include rocking chairs for feeding, holding, and soothing and floor items and soft toys that encourage crawling, grasping, and exploring.

Toddler spaces need access to a bathroom as well as diapering, and also equipment designed for children who are now vertical and active much of the time, with designated areas for exploring their emerging interest in gross motor activities, dramatic play, books, and sensory activities. Children may now be napping on cushioned mats or cots that can be stored until needed. Small tables and chairs are appropriate for feeding times but may have to include high-chair seating as well as small chairs. Pictures and mirrors can be mounted where children can see them on the walls, and selected materials may be arranged on low shelves where toddlers can reach them.

Preschool furniture will be slightly larger than that for toddlers, with additional areas and materials that support a wide variety of curricular activities, a longer attention span, more refined fine-motor skills, a growing interest in reading, writing, and collaborative play. Children at this age can tend to many of their personal needs independently, and their expanded field of vision allows for additional possibilities for visual displays.

Safety First
All decisions about how a classroom space is arranged should be made with safety in mind. Water-absorbing washable mats can be purchased that limit the risk of slipping or falling. Electrical cords or outlets should not be left exposed, taped to the floor, or used near water. Materials should always be approved for the age of children using them. We mentioned in Chapter 4 the use of a choke tube for infants and toddlers; this device alerts the teacher or caregiver to materials that are not safe for use.

Children with asthma or allergies may be especially vulnerable to things like powdered paints, chalk, or sprays. Every teacher should have a working knowledge of applicable child-care regulations and current access to consumer product safety announcements and recalls.

Controlled Movement
Well-thought-out spaces for young children are designed for controlled movement; they provide secure work/play spaces and reduce opportunities for conflict (Carter & Carter, 2003; Shalaway, 2005). Furniture and equipment are arranged to provide visible boundaries so that children know where different types of activities are expected to occur (Deviney, Duncan, Harris, Roday, & Rosenberry, 2010; Swim, 2012). Teachers use furniture, equipment, and floor coverings such as area rugs to define spaces. Because young children are not yet abstract thinkers, they must be able to see where one space ends and another begins.

The classroom is also designed to provide logical "traffic patterns" that promote efficient movement from one place to another and dont cause interference with normal activities. Imagine how upset a child setting up wooden train tracks would be if other children came charging through the space and ruined her work!

Early childhood furniture is child-sized, so that an adult scanning the room can see everything, while from the childs perspective, there are "walls," pathways, and "rooms." Look at the two room plans shown in Figure 6.1. Which one would encourage running or confuse children about where to play? Which one provides clear dividing lines between activity areas? Which space encourages whole-group activities vs. small-group or individual interactions?

Figure 6.1: Floor Plans
These two spaces represent contrasting approaches to design, one which encourages running indoors (Room A) and the other (Room B) with distinct pathways to direct children's movements.
Figure: Two floor plans. Room A, on the left, is a very open space with tables, shelves and easels lined up against walls to create a large open space in the middle of the room. Room B, on the right, uses shelves to define distinct spaces and limit the amount of open space to confined areas.
Sensitivity to Physical Features
Teachers should be aware of the major permanent features of the physical space and use common sense to arrange furniture and equipment accordingly. These features include the location of electrical outlets, doors, natural and artificial light and windows, access to water, and built-in storage spaces.

Potentially messy activity areas such as art, science, and sand/water stations should be located as close to the water source as possible and on a floor surface that can be mopped or cleaned easily. If there is no access to water in the classroom, then those areas should be close to the nearest exit to where water is located. Activities that require electrical power, such as a listening center with a plug-in tape recording/headphone station, should be adjacent to an outlet, limiting the need for extension cords.

Furniture or learning center placement should complement usage, such as storage cubbies for childrens personal belongings/outerwear adjacent to the classroom entrance, open shelving for blocks, and individual containers or small trays for implements such as crayons, glue sticks, or scissors.

Designated Activity Areas and Capacity Limits
The number and size of learning centers depends on curriculum priorities as well as classroom and group size. We want to maximize childrens opportunities to make choices and work/play independently but also minimize conflicts over materials and space (Gestwicki, 2011; Swim, 2012). Each learning center should be equipped and sized to accommodate a particular number of children, such as four in the art center, three in the manipulative area, two in the listening center, and so on. The number of children an area accommodates should also take into consideration the nature of the activity. For example, dramatic play and block building occur best with a small group of children, while a light table or sand/water table will be limited by the size and capacity of the equipment.

The total number of children accommodated by learning centers should at least equal the number of children in the group. Marking the center with a symbol/sign indicating the number of children per center helps children know if they may enter or need to make a different choice until space is available. You can also provide physical cues or signs (Figure 6.2), such as a small table with two sets of headphones and two chairs for a listening center, or a four-sided easel with one piece of paper and set of paints/brushes on each side.

Promoting Independence and Responsibility
Spaces for early learning are designed to encourage independence and maximize the amount of time you can devote to interacting or observing work/play in progress (Carter & Carter, 2003; Gestwicki, 2011). Carefully arranging sorted materials in open baskets or clear totes on accessible shelves helps children know where things belong and conveys our expectation that they will put them away properly when finished. Taping a picture or tracing of the material that belongs on each shelf or in each container promotes cognitive skills such as sorting and one-to-one correspondence as well as providing organizational guidance. Children can also learn to internalize procedures such as toothbrushing, handwashing, or self-serve snacks by posting a sequence of photo or prompts for each step in the process.

However obvious your system and organization might seem to you, children will still need direction and modeling to help them learn how it works. Early childhood teachers spend time orienting new children to the classroom, showing them how to select and use materials and activity areas and how to put things away when they are finished.

Figure 6.2: Sign for Easel Painting Center
"Crowd control" can be facilitated by providing picture/symbol signs that indicate the capacity for each learning center. In this picture, three children may paint in the easel center at one time.
Sign reads, "Easel Painting" and shows three children at easels painting.
Young children dont have a well-developed sense of time; they also become deeply involved in activities and may resist being asked to stop when they are in the middle of working or playing. So it also makes sense to provide them with several minutes advance warning and a signal such as a small bell or flipping the light switch before cleanup times and a reasonable amount of time to finish cleaning up.

Activity Area Compatibility
Some curriculum activities are naturally compatible and others are not, so balancing environmental factors such as quiet/noisy or messy/dry is important (Conant, 2012; Swim, 2012). In a typical learning environment, noise and interaction levels will naturally vary depending on the type of activity. For example, it is not unusual for dramatic play and block centers to be noisy, and children may transport props (small figurines, vehicles, animals, play food, and so on) back and forth depending on the theme of play. Therefore, in most early childhood classrooms, these centers are typically located in adjacent areas or at least in very close proximity. Conversely, children listening to audiotapes or sitting on an adults lap listening to a story need quiet to hear and concentrate.

Separating noisy and quiet activities can be challenging, especially in smaller spaces. When possible, carpets or other acoustically absorbent materials can considerably cut down on noise levels and should be used in noisy areas, but they must also not impede activity. Thus, for example, a rug in the block center should be flat and have a very low pile so that block structures will be stable. Curtains, soft furniture, and pillows can also cut down noise in quiet areas while also providing a cozy, comfortable feeling.

Aesthetics
Principles of design used to create aesthetically pleasing home or commercial environments can and should be applied to classroom or care spaces. Children and adults alike benefit from spaces that are soothing to the senses and inviting without being overwhelming or artificial (Deviney, Duncan, Harris, Roday & Rosenberry, 2010; Edwards, Gandini & Forman, 1998). Early childhood commercial catalogs tend to feature plastic, brightly colored materials in primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) that are cheerful but do not necessarily promote the warmth and familiarity of a more homelike setting.

In their 2010 book Inspiring Spaces for Young Children, Jessica Deviney and her colleagues identify seven principles of good design to consider for establishing environments that are not only functional and efficient but also calming and inspiring to children and adults alike:

Use natural items to bring the outdoors in, reflect the local climate, and promote a sense of tranquility. Elements such as plants, rocks, seashells, twigs, and flowers provide pleasant sensory connections.
Color establishes mood and generates interest, but overdoing it creates "visual clutter." A good rule of thumb is to focus on a neutral color scheme and use primary colors conservatively.
Use furniture positioned at 45- or 90-degree angles to define spaces and create cozy areas that remind children of home. Include authentic items such as lamps, pillows, upholstered furniture, and decorative/functional items that children recognize from the real world.
Texture adds depth and sensory stimulation. Items such as wall hangings, weavings, and mobiles made from natural materials provide visual interest. Natural or recycled materials such as pine cones, corks, bark, and stones can provide opportunities for observation and differentiating the physical properties of materials.
Displays, especially those that feature childrens collections and creations, personalize space. Items such as baskets, buckets, and interesting containers can be used for sorting, classification, and storage.
Lighting, scent, and sound dramatically influence the way the environment is experienced and perceived. Think about ways to minimize the "surgery" effects of fluorescent lights and balance low- and high-level lighting.
Focal points invite engagement and attract the childrens attention. It is very important from time to time to view the environment from their vantage point so you are aware of how they see the space.
Classroom on the left has no windows, the walls are covered with decorations, the shelves have brightly colored boxes, and the mat the children are sitting on is multi-colored. The classroom on the right has a large window, a more muted color scheme and there are plants.
Hutchings Richard / Getty Images (left); John Humble / Getty Images (right)

In these two photos of preschool classrooms, you can see that one is cluttered, crowded, and a kaleidoscope of colors; the other has natural light, natural elements such as plants, and a low-key color scheme. Which classroom better applies the principles described above?
6.3Identifying and Understanding Resources
Teachers and caregivers use many different kinds of resources and materials that help them select, organize, and evaluate activities to support curricular goals, objectives, and standards. Since early childhood curricular options (as discussed in Chapter 1) range from open-ended approaches to specific models, the types of materials teachers use to plan can vary widely as well. This section describes a variety of concrete tools and how you can use them in your planning.

Primary and Secondary Resources
Cover of the Early Childhood Research Quarterly journal.
Elsevier

Teachers must keep up with current research of all kinds but especially as it relates to the curricula they use.
Primary resources are works produced by the authors of a curriculum model or approach that describe the theoretical premises, philosophy, and tenets that guide the teacher to implement the curriculum with fidelity to its principles. For example, The Hundred Languages of Children, initially published in 1994 by Edwards, Gandini, and Forman (revised in 1998), and the writings of Loris Malaguzzi are considered essential resources for Reggio Emilia educators.

Secondary resources can also be very useful but do not originate from the founders or authors of a program. For example, secondary Reggio Emilia resources would include such things as books and articles published by authors outside of Reggio Emilia, and media such as blogs and program websites. These resources provide helpful insights into the ways in which teacher educators, program directors, and teachers interpret the Reggio Emilia approach for American schools and classrooms.

Waldorf educators rely on the writings of Rudolph Steiner to make sure that the classroom environment and activities they plan are consistent with the programs original vision and purpose. Similarly, officially sponsored training programs for Montessori teachers are based on and informed by the ideas expressed by Maria Montessori in the books she wrote over a span of many years.

Remember that planning for any curriculum includes keeping abreast of current studies (Chapter 2) and the ongoing development of the theories that support them. For example, in the second edition of their book, Bodrova and Leong (2006) described how Tools of the Mind was conceived from a Vygotskian perspective on social constructivism and continues to evolve. They have produced many subsequent publications and media presentations reporting on the achievement effects of implementation in various settings and how those results impact their ongoing conceptualization of the curriculum. Teachers using the Tools curriculum would certainly want to incorporate those evolving ideas as they plan activities.

The NAEYC publications describing developmentally appropriate principles and practices also serve as primary resources for early childhood educators (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009). Since DAP is not a specific curriculum but offers guidelines for how to think about curriculum, it provides the overarching frame of reference from which all planning decisions should be made.

Learning Standards
As explained in previous chapters, as part of the No Child Left Behind legislation, most states wrote developmental early learning standards and K-12 academic learning standards for each content area indicating what children are expected to know and be able to do by the end of each age or grade level. As of 2012, that initiative was expanded to adoption of uniform core standards for kindergarten through grade 12 math and language arts in all but five states (Virginia, Wisconsin, Alaska, Texas, and Nebraska).

Learning standards provide teachers with planning guidance, as standards are typically framed to describe (1) exit goals for high school graduates, (2) statements about what a child is expected to know or be able to do at incremental points in time between kindergarten and high school graduation, and (3) indicators or benchmarks that suggest what a teacher might observe that provides evidence a child is meeting standards. Table 6.2 displays information excerpted from the 2009 Colorado Social Studies Standards representing one example of how the standard for history is addressed from preschool through grade 1.

You can see that as this standard is worded, it does not specify what activities, themes, or lessons a teacher should plan or what books, resources, or materials to use, but it does provide direction about what should be accomplished. A standard does not dictate what to teach, when to teach it, how much time to spend on a topic, or even what teaching strategies or materials to use. Those are decisions and plans made by schools, programs, and teachers.

Early learning standards address what children in preschool should know and be able to do and are written in a format similar to K12 academic standards. The National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center provides extensive information about early learning standards for each state. Using standards to guide the planning and implementation of a curriculum is discussed in further detail in the last section of this chapter and in later chapters as they apply to different areas of curriculum.

Instructor Resources and Supplemental Materials
Published curriculum products may include multiple components that provide specific direction or guidance for planning, such as:

Teaching manuals that present essential information and guidance about curricular goals, activities, strategies, and assessments
Supplemental printed matter or masters for duplication (e.g., suggested unit or lesson plans, instructional support such as worksheets, picture charts, and so on)
Recording and reporting forms
On-line technical support
Materials and/or equipment specifically designed for use with children, such as books, toys, learning games, and math, science, music, or other items for learning centers
Table 6.2 Colorado History Standard for Preschool, Kindergarten, and Grade 1
Expectation for High School Graduates:
Develop an Understanding of How People View, Construct, and Interpret History
Grade Level Concept(s) to be mastered Benchmarks
Grade 1 Patterns and chronological order of events of the recent past

Students can:
Identify similarities and differences between themselves and others.
Discuss common and unique characteristics of different cultures using multiple sources of information.
Identify famous Americans from the past who have shown courageous leadership.
Identify and explain the meaning of American national symbols. Symbols to include but not limited to the American flag, bald eagle, Statue of Liberty, Uncle Sam, the Capitol, and the White House.
Family and cultural traditions in the United States in the past

Students can:
Arrange life events in chronological order.
Identify the components of a calendar. Among topics to include: days of the week, months, and notable events.
Identify past events using a calendar.
Use words related to time, sequence, and change.
Kindergarten Ask questions, share information, and discuss ideas about the past.

Students can:
Ask questions about the past using question starters. Questions to include but not limited to: What did? Where? When did? Which did? Who did? Why did? How did?
Identify information from narrative stories that answer questions about the past and add to our collective memory and history.
Use the word because correctly in the context of personal experience or stories of the past using words. Among words to include: past, present, future, change, first, next, last.
The first component in the concept of chronology is to place information in sequential order.

Students can:
Order sequence information using words. Among words to include: past, present future, days, weeks, months, years, first, next, last, before, after.
Explore differences and similarities in the lives of children and families of long ago and today.
Explain why knowing the order of events is important
Preschool Change and sequence over time.

Students can:
Use words and phrases correctly related to chronology and time. Among words to include: past, present, future, before, now, later.
Select examples from pictures that illustrate past, present, and future.
Sequence a simple set of activities or events.
Identify an example of change over time that may include examples from the child's own growth.
Source: Adapted from Colorado Department of Education, 2009
These resource materials may be accompanied by opportunities for training and professional development designed to assist teachers in planning and implementing activities. Head Start teachers might, for example, engage in several days of regional in-service workshops conducted by Creative Curriculum or High Scope trainers prior to implementation of the curriculum in their programs.

Four apples, two red, two green, arranged in an alternating pattern.
iStockphoto / Thinkstock

Early childhood educators believe that the use of materials from the real world provides more meaningful learning than the use of worksheets.
In consideration of developmentally appropriate principles, teachers should evaluate and incorporate with discretion all materials supplied by any curriculum. The widespread use of worksheets, in particular, is very difficult to justify, as they often represent or contain content or images disconnected from or not representative of childrens real-world ideas and experiences and dont point to a single "right" answer (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009).

For instance, the worksheet in Figure 6.3 intended for a cut-and-paste activity to reinforce the concept of a simple "a/b/a/b/a" pattern sequence, could certainly provide a child with practice in developing the fine motor skills needed to cut out the paper squares or serve as a simple assessment to determine whether the child recognizes an a/b/a/b/a pattern sequence. However, from a developmentally appropriate perspective, these kinds of materials should be set aside in favor of those that give children opportunities to observe patterns in the natural world and to manipulate real objects to replicate and create patterns of different kinds. Apples, leaves, and small toys are all examples of real-world materials that are easily found in or around early childhood classrooms and that children could use to develop their sense of the a/b/a/b pattern sequence.

Scope and Sequence
A commercial curriculum may contain a scope and sequence, a graphic in chart form that represents how and when particular concepts and skills are developed over time when the curriculum is implemented as intended. For example, the website for the Success for All Curiosity Corner preschool curriculum includes an excerpt for the scope and sequence of the reading program for kindergarten.

Teachers may find a scope and sequence useful as a planning resource but must always keep in mind that the needs, characteristics, and interests of their students are the primary priorities in planning (Copple & Bredkamp, 2009). Knowledge and skills represented in a scope and sequence are developed from assumptions about children in general; they may or may not accurately reflect the actual children in your care.

Pacing Guides
Similarlyespecially in public schools, including kindergarten and primary classroomssome districts and programs are developing and implementing pacing guides. These documents, in effect, prescribe or schedule when and how state learning standards are to be addressed in planning for each academic content area over the course of a school year. Theoretically, when they are implemented in the strictest sense, a principal or administrator could expect to visit five first grade classrooms on a single day and see all the children in all the classes doing exactly the same thing at the same time.

Figure 6.3: Worksheets
Worksheets are most often used in elementary school classrooms, but they can be seen in preschools or child-care programs as well. They are not considered to be developmentally appropriate.
Figure: Worksheet titled "Little Red Riding Hood Pattern Activity." The worksheet has two rows with five squares. The first row shows little red riding hood in the first and third squares, and a wolf in the second and fourth squares. The fifth square is empty. The second row shows a basket in the first and third squares and little red riding hood in the second and fourth squares. The fifth square is empty. There is a third row that has little red riding hood, the wolf, and the basket. Directions at the bottom of the worksheet read, "Teacher Directions: Have child point to pictures in each row from left to right, and say name: Red Riding Hood, wolf, Red Riding Hood, wolf...Ask the child what picture should come next. Have child cut out the three pictures in bottom row and paste correct picture to complete pattern in each row."
While the goal of pacing guides is to ensure that all children are experiencing the same curriculum, their use in the primary grades is widely discouraged by early childhood experts and professional organizations (Datnow & Castellano, 2000; David, 2008; David & Greene, 2007; Louis, Febey, & Schroeder, 2005; Sornson, 2016). From a practical perspective, however, a comprehensive pacing guide can be very helpful as a resource (Kauffman, Johnson, Kardos, Liu, & Peske, 2002). Pacing guides may include many ideas for activities, themes, and strategies that can be implemented in developmentally appropriate ways.

Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers are simple charts, diagrams, or templates that represent multiple concepts and the connections between them (Figure 6.4). They are useful with young children to help them visualize ideas. You will see several examples of different kinds of graphic organizers in this and later chapters. There are literally hundreds of examples on websites; these often provide free downloadable examples that teachers can use for planning and organizing activities. At the end of this chapter is a short list of online resources for graphic organizers.

Figure 6.4: Venn Diagram
A graphic organizer provides a visual representation of ideas or information. One example of such a device is a Venn diagram, which illustrates where ideas or facts about two separate things overlap.
Figure: A yellow circle and a blue circle overlap, creating a green section between the two circles.
iStockphoto / Thinkstock

6.4Approaches to Planning
You probably already know what kind of planning style might suit you best. Think about how you might approach planning a road-trip vacation. Your goal is to see places you have not visited before and your objectives are what you want to accomplish each day of the trip; there is more than one way, however to plan this journey. You might be the kind of person who would predetermine the places you will visit; research information about sights, attractions, and restaurants; map out your route to determine how far you will drive each day; and make hotel reservations ahead of time.

Or maybe you would prefer to pack the car with plenty of provisionsfood, drinks, snacks, your bike and camping gearwith a general starting direction but no destination in mind, mapping out your trip as you go, and stopping at places you find interesting. Either way, you may have fellow travelers and encounter other people, developments, or events that challenge your plan or cause you to modify it as you go along. But you may also arrive home feeling entirely satisfied that the trip was worthwhile and lived up to or exceeded your initial expectations regardless of which plan was followed.

Teacher planning is in many ways analogous to the road tripwe have common goals for what we want or expect children to ultimately accomplish but different ways of getting there. The first approach described above represents one end of the planning continuum, a linear (or "top down") sequential process that begins with identification of standards and objectives and determines how each step or stage of an activity or series of activities will be carried out. The second approach represents the other end of the continuum, a global (emergent or "bottom up") process, with anticipation and preparation for a range of possibilities, developing direction through facilitation and negotiation of child-directed explorations and documenting how standards are being met over time.

A father and daughter pack the trunk of their car with suitcases.
Flying Colours Ltd / Thinkstock

Teacher planning is like preparing for a road trip. You can approach it in a variety of ways.
Many teachers approach to planning will fall somewhere in between. While the planning styles represent different approaches, teachers planning both kinds of experiences will keep in mind the principles of developmentally appropriate practice, so that learning is meaningful and provides a balance between child-directed and teacher-initiated activities.

All approaches to teacher planning in early childhood should place a high value on structuring the environment and activities to integrate, or connect, learning across all areas of the curriculum. Good planning also relies on teacher flexibility to make ongoing decisions based on the knowledge and observation of children, adapting the curriculum to maximize learning opportunities. In this section, we will follow two long-term studies with preschool and kindergarten children to illustrate the planning continuum. This type of learning can be planned as a thematic unit or emergentstudy.

Long-term investigations offer the opportunity to focus on a topic in depth, especially if the teacher maintains an open-ended time frame rather than a rigid schedule (Katz & Chard, 2000; Pearlman, 2006). Topics can come from the children, teachers, supplied curriculum materials, or ideas that emerge from studying state standards and objectives. Planning for either a thematic unit or emergent study represents a comprehensive investment of time; therefore it is very important that topics be relevant to the cultural contexts and experiences of the children. A study of the ocean and marine life makes a great deal of sense for children who live in coastal areas. It may not be as relevant to the daily lives of young children who live in landlocked states like New Mexico or Colorado. However, children are interested in many things they have no hands-on experience with (dinosaurs, space travel, and so forth) and are exposed to a great deal of information vicariously through media sources; therefore any topic that captures their interest should be open for discussion.

Thematic Unit: Ladybugs, Butterflies, and Bees
As described above, a thematic unit is a long-term investigation of a topic intended to capture and engage childrens interest and provide opportunities to develop skills and knowledge in multiple areas. Typically, planning for a thematic unit represents a top-down approach, with the teacher making most or all of the decisions about how to proceed according to a general decision-making sequence that includes the following:

Identifying goals: learning standards and objectives to be addressed.
Identifying important considerations about childrens developmental and cultural characteristics, interests, and needs.
Selecting a topic or theme that provides opportunities to meet goals.
Brainstorming ideas for activities that support and connect different areas of the curriculum.
Creating and scheduling plans for lessons and activities.
Planning for a balance of individual, small-group, and large-group activities.
Planning for accommodations to address the needs of individual children.
Deciding on how to evaluate childrens learning to determine the extent to which the unit objectives and learning standards are met.
Preparing materials and resources.
Arranging the environment.
Making adaptations to the plan as the unit progresses based on observations about learning and interests.
Identifying goals: Learning standards and objectives to be addressed This unit was implemented by teachers of two groups of children between 3 (twelve children) and 4 years (fifteen children) of age at the time of the study. For this unit, one of the teachers (Phyllis) explained,

At this time of the year [late spring] I have been working on the early learning standards that support the childrens increasing interest in nonfiction books, beginning writing, and growing confidence as problem solvers. These kids are very good at patterns and we have been making graphs all year, so a couple of the math standards for 4s apply. Im building on their interest in friendships to create opportunities for them to work in groups. They also need practice with fine-motor skills to be ready for the increased emphasis on writing that they will be doing in their class next year.