Tiny DOTs Early Education Center

In our classrooms teachers and children work together as co-learners and co-constructors of curriculum – the teachers are learning about the children, their needs, and learning styles through observation and documentation, as the children are learning through play, interaction with others and engagement with materials. This process of children’s learning is called Emergent Curriculum. This community style of learning is built on the development theories, research, and work of Erik Erickson, Arnold Gesell, Maria Montessori, John Dewey, and Louis Malaguzzi. Emergent Curriculum allows the early educator to respond to children’s interests in a developmentally appropriate manner which best meets young children’s ever-changing needs and builds on children’s strengths and passions.  

The purpose of the written curriculum plan is two-fold: it documents the learning as it progresses, and it ensures that the educator is intentional in planning the week’s activities. Those activities should, by definition, maximize children’s acquisition of desired knowledge and skills and offer opportunities for children to learn through play. Structured activities, whether tailored to an individual or to the group, are to be designed according to the particular children’s developmental needs and interests.  

Emergent curriculum comes from (1) Children’s interests; (2) Teachers’ interests; (3) Developmental tasks; (4) Things in the physical environment; (5) People in the social environment; (6) Curriculum resource materials; (7) Serendipity – unexpected events; (8) Living together – conflict resolution, caregiving, and routines; and (8) Values held in school and in the community, family, and culture.