Chapter 5

Curriculum and The Child Expanding World

Curriculum Development in Early Childhood Education

Charisse May P. Dela Rosa

 Chapter 5
Curriculum and The Child Expanding World
5.1 The Child’s Identity , things around him
5.1.a Self/Gender/Sex
5.1.b Family/Preschool/Community
5.1.c Peer Relationship
5.2 Getting Along Together
5.2.a Who am I? Who you are?
5.3 Special Celebrations: Parts of Life
5.3.a A families in the life of ECE school
5.4 Building for future academic competencies for young children
The Child’s Identity, things
around Him
Your self is your basic personality
or nature, especially considered in
terms of what you are really like as a
person.
Gender refers to the characteristics of women,
men, girls and boys that are socially
constructed. This includes norms, behaviors
and roles associated with being a woman, man,
girl or boy, as well as relationships with each
other. As a social construct, gender varies from
society to society and can change over time.
Sex
either of the two main categories (male and
female) into which humans and most other
living things are divided on the basis of their
reproductive functions.
 Family
The basic unit in society traditionally
consisting of two parents rearing their children
The purpose of families is to maintain the well-being
of its members and of society. Ideally, families would
offer predictability, structure, and safety as members
mature and participate in the community.
Family
In most societies, it is within families that children
acquire socialization for life outside the family, and
acts as the primary source of attachment, nurturing,
and socialization for humans.
Pre school
A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary
school, or play school, is an educational establishment or
learning space offering early childhood education to
children before they begin compulsory education at
primary school. It may be publicly or privately operated,
and may be subsidized from public funds
Community
A community is a social unit (a group of living
things) with commonality such
as norms, religion, values, customs, or identity.
Communities may share a sense of place situated
in a given geographical area (e.g. a country,
village, town, or neighbourhood) or in virtual
space through communication platforms.
Peer Relationship
• Peer relationships provide a unique context in which
children learn a range of critical social emotional
skills, such as empathy, cooperation, and
problem-solving strategies.
Peer Relationship
Fostering positive relationships among classroom
peers is important for creating a classroom
environment conducive to social-emotional
development and academic learning.
Peer Relationship
Positive peer relationships are associated with better
school engagement – including increased
attendance and classroom participation – and can
help build students’ sense of belonging in school.
Peer Relationship
Supporting peer relationships can provide students
with the opportunity to learn and practice both
intrapersonal skills and interpersonal skills crucial
for whole child development.
 Getting Along together
Who am I? Who are you?
Childhood is a time for children to learn about the world-and
that includes learning how to get along with others.
Parents play a crucial role in helping children figure out how
to form satisfying relationships and develop into socially
competent people.
Social competence allows children to be cooperative and
generous, express their feelings, and empathize with others.
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDENTS WHO HAVE
TROUBLE GETTING ALONG WITH OTHERS
AT SCHOOL
MODEL THE BEHAVIOR.
When you are with other adults or children, model
good manners by not interrupting, taking turns and
sharing.
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDENTS WHO HAVE
TROUBLE GETTING ALONG WITH OTHERS
AT SCHOOL

PRAISE CHILDREN.
Catch them when they are cooperating and praise them
for the good behavior. Be specific. Instead of saying
“good job” say “I like how you waited your turn” or “I
am proud of you for sharing your favorite
toy.
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDENTS WHO HAVE
TROUBLE GETTING ALONG WITH OTHERS
AT SCHOOL

LET THE CHILDREN PROBLEM SOLVE.

Whenever able, let the children work it out themselves
without interfering. This teaches independence with
problem solving and critical thinking
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDENTS WHO HAVE
TROUBLE GETTING ALONG WITH OTHERS
AT SCHOOL

USE SOCIAL STORIES.

You can write social stories with pictures to help teach
children who to get along with others.
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDENTS WHO HAVE
TROUBLE GETTING ALONG WITH OTHERS
AT SCHOOL

PRACTICE COOPERATION.
If necessary, try different role playing activities so that the
children can actually learn to share, wait their turn, be polite,
etc in a non threatening environment.
Use pretend play props and themes to encourage learning to
get along with others at school through play.
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDENTS WHO HAVE
TROUBLE GETTING ALONG WITH OTHERS
AT SCHOOL

TEACH SELF REGULATION SKILLS

Many children need to be taught self-regulation skills
and allow for ample practice time to develop these skills
further. When children can exhibit self-control and
display emotional regulation it helps everyone to get
along.
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDENTS WHO HAVE
TROUBLE GETTING ALONG WITH OTHERS
AT SCHOOL

PLAY GAMES THAT ENCOURAGE GETTING

ALONG WITH OTHERS AT SCHOOL.
Keep it fun when teaching how to get along with others
at school.
 Families in the life of ECE school

Family engagement during the earliest years of a child’s

life is one of the most powerful predictors of a child’s
development.
Families are children’s first teachers and it is the quality of
parent-child relationships and interactions that create the
foundational skills that children need to be successful in
school and in life.
 Families in the life of ECE school

The positive outcomes of engaged parents are

powerful: increased support for children’s learning at
home, empowered parents, and improved family
well-being. Children see benefits like improved
cognitive development and academic performance,
better social-emotional development, and improved
health.
 Families in the life of ECE school
It is no surprise, then, that family engagement is an
essential component of high-quality early childhood
care and education.
Engaging families as partners early in the educational
journey allows parents to establish strong home-school
connections that support their children’s achievement
long-term.
 Building for future academic
competencies for young children
Competence is the ability to
effectively accomplish our goals. A
competent person is able to stay on
track, notice what's needed in a
given situation, and respond
accordingly.
Competent people act with feeling, even
with inspiration, but don't let emotions derail
them.
In other words, they overcome internal and
external obstacles to stay on task and
accomplish the goals they set for
themselves. That means they're able to
read other people and respond
appropriately to new situations.
Children who see themselves as
competent feel capable and powerful.
They're more likely to be resourceful, to
believe in themselves, to attempt difficult
challenges, and to exhibit resilience in
the face of setbacks.
 How can you help your child
develop competence?

a mix of confidence, resourcefulness,

perseverance, mastery, emotional intelligence
and other traits?
1. Let him try to do it himself from the earliest age.

That doesn’t mean abandoning him to it. Stand by,

smiling, ready to be helpful in whatever way actually
helps your toddler -- BUT keep your mouth shut and
your hands to yourself except to give appropriate
encouragement, unless you REALLY need to help
physically.
 2. Help her build confidence by tackling
manageable challenges with your assistance.
"scaffolding," -which could be defined as the
framework you give your child on which she builds.
You demonstrate one step at a time, or use
questions to suggest each step, or simply spot her,
which helps her to succeed when she tries
something new.
 3. Don't test him.
When you say "What's this color?" and your toddler
answers correctly, you get excited. But then you keep
asking about the next color and the next, and sooner
or later you get to a color that he can't identify. To
you, that's just one more color you're teaching him.
But to him, that's a failure. He's disappointed you. You
think you're teaching him colors. But you aren't. You're
teaching him that he isn't good enough.
 3. Don't test him.
Do it just like you do anything else, by using the names
in everyday life. "Let's get the purple one.") There is
never a reason to test your child. And lecturing, drilling
and testing aren't the most effective ways to teach.
Children learn when they discover for themselves.
 4. Empathize with your child's excitement about
achievements, instead of evaluating her.
If you call Grandma in front of your child to report
on your child's latest achievement, you're setting
your child up to worry that unless she's brilliant
and precocious, she's a disappointment. That
creates a child who worries that she always needs
to impress those around her.
 4. Empathize with your child's excitement about
achievements, instead of evaluating her.
If you tell her she's smart, that makes it worse,
because she knows that she isn't always smart, and
she doesn't know how to get smarter -- it isn't
something she has control over. When we make a big
deal about kids' achievements, they feel evaluated,
and they often worry so much about performance that
they refuse even to try new things.
 4. Empathize with your child's excitement about
achievements, instead of evaluating her.
Comment on what she did that was successful: "You kept
trying until you got it. I love how you never give up!"
Empathize with the excitement she feels about her discovery
or her achievement: "Wow! You figured out how to do that!"
Encourage: "That's a hard puzzle piece, but I see you trying
every space to see where it fits. Sooner or later, you'll find
the right spot!"
 5. Praise effort, not results.
"I see you worked so hard on this."
"Tell me about your painting."
Notice you aren't telling him what a great artist
he is. That's an evaluation, bound to make him
freeze up or turn him into a praise junkie, looking
outside him for someone to tell him he's good
enough.
 5. Praise effort, not results.
Even if his painting is objectively great, the point
is never the product - you don’t want him resting
on his laurels at the age of six, or sixteen. And you
don't want him to think he has to live up to some
previous pinnacle of achievement. What you
want is for him to keep trying, practicing,
improving, and to learn that hard work pays off.
 6. Encourage mistakes.

As Ms. Frizzle of the Magic School bus famously

said, "Get messy! Take chances!" Children who get the
message that spilled milk is a problem and there's one
right way to do things often end up with less initiative
and creativity. Just smile, hand her the sponge and
say "We always clean up our own messes. I'll help."
 7. Teach self-encouragement.
Research shows that children who "talk" themselves
through challenges stay calmer and are therefore able
to persevere when the going gets tough. So model
maxims to repeat as mantras. "Practice makes
perfect!" and "If you don't succeed, try, try again!" and
"I think I can, I think I can!" work remarkably well to
manage ourselves in the face of frustration.
 7. Teach self-encouragement.

When your son goofs a piece on the piano and has to

start over, or your daughter strikes out with the bases
loaded, they need an automatic internal comforting
voice to encourage and motivate them, not that harsh,
self-disparaging voice. The good news is, the tone they
hear from you will become their inner voice.
 8. Model positive self-talk.
If something negative about your child -- or, equally
important, about yourself -- starts to come out of your
mouth, bite your tongue. Most parents know better than to
say "What an idiot!" to their child (and most of them are
able to stop themselves), but a surprising number see
nothing wrong with berating themselves that way in front of
their kids. Whatever you model, your child will learn and will
emulate. Just train yourself not to do it. (It certainly isn't
good for you, either. Would you let anyone else talk to you
that way?)
 9. Manage frustrating circumstances.
There’s a trend in child-raising philosophy that
maintains that children learn best with reasonable
doses of frustration. It’s true that we all learn from
overcoming challenges, but we always need to ask,
what is a reasonable dose? We also learn best when
we experience success, which motivates us to tackle
more difficult challenges. Mastery begets mastery.
Failure sets up a cycle of lack of confidence, giving up
and more failure.
 9. Manage frustrating circumstances.
Your child will naturally develop the ability to handle
increasing amounts of frustration and anxiety as he attempts
more difficult challenges. But those frustrations are inherent
in growing up and are guaranteed aplenty in life. There is no
benefit whatsoever to setting your child up for extra
frustration or negative experience. In fact, he will see your
doing so as evidence of your lack of caring (which is always
translated in his mind as his lack of value.)
 9.Manage frustrating circumstances.

So when your child is facing a challenge that feels daunting,

from cleaning up the spilled milk to starting his history
report, see yourself as his companion. Don't do it for him,
but go with him, the same way you would if your three year
old was afraid of a dark room. And when your child does
encounter frustration, remember that your empathy will be
a critical factor in his overcoming it.
 10. Affirm your child’s ability to impact the world.

Minimize the number of times your child gets the

message that her actions don't matter. Competence
and feelings of mastery are about power and derive
from a child's experience of herself as having an effect
on the world. "If I stand on the stool, I can flip this light
switch and light up the room!"
 10. Affirm your child’s ability to impact the world.

All children will experience reasonable limits to their

power (“I can't make the rain stop, and neither can
Mommy"), but the more your child has opportunities
to make a difference in the world, the more she will
see herself as capable.
 Foster Responsibility, Good
Judgment, Optimism and Persistence
...all related traits that increase your child's
competence.
Five steps to developing students' skills
for tomorrow's challenges
 1. Teach collaboration as a value and
skillset

Young people need new skills for the current and

future workplace that will make them ready to
collaborate with others, not only in their own
classroom or workplace but potentially with others
across the planet.
 1. Teach collaboration as a value and
skillset
Encouraging students to work together on a
creative challenge, and allowing them to reflect on
the learnings they take from the exercise, will help
them better understand what it means to be a part
of an increasingly collaborative and connected
world.
 2. Build on evaluation and analysis

Students need to know not only how to find accurate

information, but also how to critically analyze its
reliability and usefulness. Building research-based
tasks and projects into your teaching will provide a
basis to develop this essential 21st century skillset for
work.
 3. Teach tolerance and resilience

To successfully work in a growing collaborative

and global community, employers will be looking
for candidates who show an ability and openness
to communicate with unfamiliar cultures and
ideas.
 3. Teach tolerance and resilience

To build these skills, students will need exposure

to open discussions and experiences that can
help them feel comfortable communicating with
others.
School trips, debating sessions, visits to a
workplace or Q&As with a local employer are all
good ways of showing students open mindsets in
action.
 4. Help students learn through their
strengths

We are all born with brains that want to learn.

We’re also born with different strengths, and by
growing the strengths we best identify with we
can better feed that appetite for learning.
 4. Help students learn through their
strengths
One size certainly doesn’t fit all when it comes to
developing young minds! It can be challenging to tailor
the curriculum for each individual, but by looking
ahead you can start to pinpoint elements of your
classes which will appeal to particular students’
strengths and interests. By using “front-loading”
techniques to bring these particular topics to the
forefront of your teaching, you can start to tap into
students’ natural curiosity.
 5. Use learning beyond the classroom

By using what they learn repeatedly and in

different, personally meaningful ways,
students will find it much easier to retain and
retrieve what they learn in the classroom.
 5. Use learning beyond the classroom

It will also help them better understand the importance

of certain skills in their everyday and future lives. Try
providing opportunities for students to "transfer" school
learning to real-life situations – for example, when
looking at solving a problem, ask students how they
would approach a scenario that could happen to them,
and the steps they would go through to solve it.
Question

How do you deal with students

who have trouble getting along
with others at school?
https://illinoisearlylearning.org/ielg/self-concept/#:~:text=Self%2Dconcept%20involves%20children's%2
0thoughts,development%20of%20their%20self%2Dconcept.
https://www.who.int/health-topics/gender#tab=tab_1
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sex
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/family
https://www.classroominterpreting.org/Interpreters/children/Fostering/peerinteraction.asp
https://www.startearly.org/post/importance-of-family-engagement/
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/sel\
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community
https://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/2019/12/11/getting-along-with-others-at-school-2/
https://barclayslifeskills.com/educators/blog/five-steps-to-developing-students-life-skills-for-the-future/
https://www.pbs.org/wholechild/parents/getting.html
https://www.ahaparenting.com/read/competence