Jubilee JumpStart offers a high quality early childhood education program that will
provide reflective, thoughtful, and responsive care for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers
in nurturing relationships with caring adults. The program focuses on two key research
findings that support children's education and development:
- Consistent nurturing relationships with one or a few caregivers are the most crucial
foundation for both the intellectual and the social-emotional growth of children,
and
- A carefully structured curriculum that begins in infancy and continues up to kindergarten
has a dramatic impact on the capacity of a child to perform well in school and live
well in later life.
These core beliefs will be supported by implementation of the following program:
PRIMARY CAREGIVING
The center will implement a primary caregiver system in which a primary caregiver
is assigned to each child in the center. In the infant and toddler programs, each
primary caregiver will serve three children or less, remaining with the children
through their first three years. In the preschool program, the primary caregiver
will serve no more than 8 children. The primary caregiver plays the role of caregiver,
teacher, child and family advocate, communicator, observer, and evaluator of child
and family experiences. While primary caregiving does not mean exclusive care, the
expectation is that the primary caregiver becomes the "expert" on each of his/her
assigned primary children.
THE CREATIVE CURRICULUM® (www.teachingstrategies.com)
From Teaching Strategies, this comprehensive, research-based curriculum for children
birth to age 5 is linked to an ongoing assessment system and to professional development
resources for classroom staff and administrators. Jubilee JumpStart will use The
Creative Curriculum for Preschool (Dodge, Coker, & Heroman, 2002) and The Creative
Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers, and Twos, 2nd edition (Dodge, Rudick & Berke,
2006).
With a strong foundation in child development theory and scientific research, the
following five components lead to high-quality learning experiences for young children:
How Children Develop and Learn: what children are like in terms of their social/emotional,
physical, cognitive, and language development and the characteristics that make
each child unique.
The Environment: how to set up the physical environment, establish schedules and
routines, and create a classroom community where children develop the skills to
get along with others and work cooperatively.
What Children are Learning: how responsive relationships with children, the interactions
between child and adult, and the materials and experiences that are offered become
the building blocks for successful learning. The Creative Curriculum for Preschoolers
identifies the knowledge, skills, and concepts important for preschool children
to acquire in each of these content areas: literacy, math, science, social studies,
the arts, and technology.
Caring and Teaching/The Teacher's Role: how teachers observe children and use a
variety of instructional strategies to guide their learning through play, during
daily routines, in small and large group activities, and by engaging children in
studying topics of interest.
Building Partnerships with Families: developing a respectful relationship with all
families to support children's optimal development and learning. Emphasis is placed
on the importance of consistency for children between their home and program settings.
The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers, and Twos focuses on how children
learn and develop through daily routines and experiences. It emphasizes that the
focus of curriculum for infants and toddlers is all about caregivers building responsive
relationships with children and families. The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers,
and Twos describes how a variety of experiences support children's development and
learning and suggests appropriate learning materials for each age group. Such experiences
provide young children a strong foundation for learning in Preschool and in later
school years.
The Creative Curriculum for Preschool is a comprehensive, scientifically based early
childhood curriculum that has been shown to improve cognitive and social/emotional
outcomes in young children. At the core of the Creative Curriculum lie well planned
learning centers that allow for child choice and self-directed play, small groups,
and supportive teaching designed to ensure future academic success. The development
of language, mathematical reasoning, and scientific thought are emphasized throughout
the centers. Changes to the learning environment, activities, and projects reflect
emerging interests. Interest areas provide preschool children multiple opportunities
to explore, discover and learn. Teachers are trained on ways to teach skills and
concepts in the content areas that respect how preschool children best learn and
develop. The Creative Curriculum is based on the latest research on how children
learn best and has been shown through experimental and quasi-experimental studies
to improve classroom quality and promote the school readiness of preschool children.
The Creative Curriculum meets all of the standards put forth for effective early
childhood curricula by the National Association for the Education of Young Children
(NAEYC) and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments
of Education (NAECS/SDE).
THE CREATIVE CURRICULUM LEARNING GAMES®
Individualized, game-like activities are used by both teachers and parents. How
adults interact with children is central to their healthy growth and development
and their success as learners. The Learning Games are 200 experiences or activities
that are simply described but contain deep thought and important content. Each is
presented on a single page with easy to read text and colorful, informative pictures.
The test tells how to play the game why it is important, and how to vary the game
to fit the needs of individual children. Aligned with The Creative Curriculum Developmental
Continuum, Learning Games make it possible for teachers and visitors to readily
know which games are appropriate for each child.
BUILDING LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SKILL
Jubilee JumpStart offers a strong foundation in building children's language and
literacy skills. Teachers read to children several times a day, in large and small
groups, as well as one on one. They use specific techniques to engage children in
the story, enhance vocabulary, and promote conversation. Among researchers this
is referred to as "Interactive Reading". Jubilee JumpStart will offer families Creative
Curriculum's Conversation Books (Sparling, 2005), as a resource for supporting their
children's language and literacy skills.
DUAL LANGUAGE PROGRAM
Jubilee JumpStart seeks to support second-language learners through a dual-language
(English-Spanish) immersion program. Interactions and instruction will be offered
in both English and Spanish, supported by a diverse staff of caregivers, with at
least one caregiver in each classroom being a Spanish dominant speaker.