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To ensure developmentally appropriate practices in caring for and educating enrolled children, we use The Creative Curriculum®. A standardized curriculum package and assessment tool published by Teaching Strategies and the Illinois Early Learning Standards.

The Creative Curriculum® includes child-initiated and teacher-directed activities and experiences offered to young children that support and enrich their development socially, emotionally, physically and cognitively. OUAT uses the Creative Curriculum® for Infants, Toddlers and Twos and the Creative Curriculum® for Preschool as guides for planning the curriculum in each of its classrooms. Each of these curriculum programs is built upon a solid foundation of developmental theory and early education research, and the belief that each activity, routine, or experience is a chance to educate and expand upon what your child already knows about his or her world.

Infant & Toddler programs has four goals for your child: to learn about himself and others; to learn about moving; to learn about the world; and to learn about communicating. Each of these goals has several objectives that include regulating own behavior, learning to be a member of a group, learning and understanding how objects can be used, and developing language skills. Our teachers use these goals and objectives to measure your child’s development and provide you with feedback.

2-year-old program has four main goals and 21 objectives for your child to master before entering the preschool program. The goals include learning about self and others, learning about moving, learning about the world, and learning to communicate. The objectives are a way for our teachers to monitor your child’s development and include managing emotions, using personal care skills, showing a basic understanding of cause and effect, engaging in pretend play, participating in conversation, and experimenting with drawing and writing.

The Creative Curriculum® for Preschool allows our teachers to provide a rich classroom environment where children are encouraged to explore and are challenged to learn. The content areas emphasize are social-emotional development, physical development, cognitive development, language development, literacy, mathematics, science and technology, social studies, and the arts. The Creative Curriculum® strives for a full classroom learning experience and incorporates hands on learning in conjunction with teacher/child interaction.

Preschool & Prekindergarten programs goals focus upon four main areas of child development, including:

•Social/Emotional Development: This area includes goals for recognizing feelings and managing them appropriately, respecting the rights of others, and using thinking skills to solve conflicts.

•Physical Development: The goals for this area of development include balancing while moving, coordinating eye-hand movement, and using tools for writing and drawing.

•Cognitive Development: Exploring cause and effect, applying knowledge to a variety of experiences, and using numbers and counting are some goals from the cognitive area of development.

•Language Development: This area includes goals for understanding and following oral directions, expression of wants and needs using words, participating in back and forth conversations, and demonstrating knowledge of the alphabet.