Essay Example: Curriculum Unit Plan

The backbone of an effective and organized classroom is a well-thought-out and thoroughly planned curriculum. Development of a curriculum is vital for children to attain their goals from a younger age and it ensures instructors will learn their classrooms smoothly. Curriculum plans also assist in assessing children behavior especially when a child's parents or guardians play a role in the plan. This curriculum plan will be developed for preschoolers and contains four sections that are; my professional curriculum, family plan connection, content and development domain assessments and lesson programs, and the final part will include the center plans.

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Developmental Age

The groups I will be working with are the preschoolers of 3 - 5 years. Children at this stage are curious about things that happen around them, and they want to learn and know how the world around them operates. They mostly learn from free play and creativity. The creativity they possess allows them to solve various puzzles they face using problem-solving techniques. Free play, on the other hand, allows this group of children to learn by enhancing their social, fine motor, gross motor and language skills.

Classroom management

To manage my classroom efficiently, I plan to have a learning environment that is caring, loving, fun and most importantly safe for my students. To attain this, I will instill my students with all classroom rules that they must all follow without fail. Another key tool I plan to use as motivation. Jaruszewicz (2013) states that "Many factors motivate children's behavior and the decisions they make, and a one size fits all approach to classroom management is neither universally effective nor considered developmentally appropriate." I plan to encourage and motivate my students by using a creative approach such as hands-on learning.

Additionally, I plan to meet with the families of all my students to get to know the children better, and the parents' perception since the family has lived with these students longer than I have. In doing so, I hope students and their parents will get comfortable and trust me as we continue to work together. The unique needs of each student will be considered since children are not all the same.

Theoretical Alignment

Hands-on learning is one technique that I believe is efficient when it comes to learning in preschoolers children. Children use their problem-solving skills and experiences to learn and retain the things they have seen around them. What enables children to be good problem solvers is when they use their brain to approach problems they face, and this determines if their learning will be a success or not. Preschoolers gain these tools when they interact with their instructor, fellow students in the classroom and their families back at home. For instance, when preschoolers are playing, they tend to act as a truck driver, a cowboy, a teacher, doctor, soldier or any other character they admire and observe in adults. This kind of plays is beneficial as it increases their imagination and better their communication. According to Elango et al. (2015), "When pretending, children can be other people or objects and look at the make-believe roles being portrayed." Children equipped with hands-on experiences can be able to practice the various lessons created for them.

Curriculum Approach

When developing a curriculum, my thoughts are in favor of a creative approach. The primary goal of an innovative curriculum is to assist the children to become keen learners by engaging in positive activities. Additionally, this approach will support the children in the cognitive development and help them develop their social, emotional and language skills. The primary goal is to allow the children to learn while playing. To understand the most suitable learning style of every student under my care, I will develop four approaches that are child development, lesson planning, plan assessment, and open communication between the children's family and me.

Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP)

When planning an appropriate practice for youngsters, some unique factors must be considered. The main factor being that the methods to be implemented to the children have to suitable for them in all aspects. DAP (Developmentally Appropriate Practices) is a viewpoint in the early childhood education whereby the caregiver (teacher) promotes the child's cognitive, physical, emotional and social development (Estes & Krogh, 2012). Generally, DAP is intended for learning development in children. For my classroom, I aim to observe the distinctive features of every child including their background such as family history. By doing so, I will be encouraging all students to respect the culture of their peers as we grow together. Another way I will adopt Developmentally Appropriate Practices for my classroom is by ensuring that enough centers. Creating enough centers allows students to have freedom and learn in their space since not all children are the same. According to Beaty (2009) "centers allow students to become part of a classroom community where they can progress at their rate and choose activities that are purposeful to them individually since."

Conclusion

In conclusion, the content I have developed above explains deeply the activities that will take place throughout this curriculum plan development. I will work with preschoolers the children of three to five years and who are naturally very curious and eager to learn about their surroundings. The proper classroom will be a top priority in this plan, and I will use hands-on learning tool to promote learning among the children. When it comes to curriculum approach, I will use a creative approach to make sure children develop proper problem-solving skills. Furthermore, the use of Developmentally Appropriate Practices DAP is vital to ensure learning development in children occurs.

Letter to parents

Dear parents and or guardians,

First is to welcome to the learning journey that we plan to embark together. I also would like to inform you how excited I am to know that your children will be part of my class this new year. I want you to know that I have looked up to this moment for so long and what I look forward to is how the children grow, adapt and learn in our class throughout the year. My primary concern is to ensure that each child felt comfortable, safe and welcomed every time they enter my classroom. Furthermore, I will focus on your youngster's capability of identifying alphabet letter when the school year being and as we start our class. Moreover, not only will they be learning how to identify the letters of the alphabet, they will be practicing and recognizing the different sounds that every letter make. They will also practice writing each alphabet letter independently using both lower case, and upper case writing as they enhance their writing skills.

The goal of this curriculum is that its conclusion will see to it that your child has been able to familiarize with all the letter of the alphabet. To achieve this, I will illustrate to the children how each letter can compare to something they see around them. For instance letter "C" for Cat making them remember quickly since it is an animal they always see. Putting in mind that they are creative and curious children, this will be fun for them to learn. Additionally, I have already prepared some category songs that I plan to teach to your children. I will combine these songs with letters and some numbers to make sure that they also familiarize with numerical tasks as they venture to the knowledge-gathering world. Therefore, dear parents, I apologize if the children keep on signing unfamiliar songs back at home.

I also plan to introduce the children to some simple addition sums whereby I will be encouraging them and involving them in some mathematics related activities such as counting objects. These activities will happen openly in class as all children count the objects loudly while I pay attention to any child not paying full attention or is left behind by other. This will go a long way to ensuring that these children have proper learning development. However, I would like to notify you dear parents that for us to make sure that these children have the best learning development, you as the caretakers have a significant role to play. Your youngster learning does not necessarily have to stop after school. It is key that they continue to learn even at home, and hence I encourage you to continue with the various learning practices when the children return home. For instance, you can ask your child to tell you what they learned in school or even sing for you different songs I will have taught them. This will ensure that they do not forget and you also get a chance to correct and improve them where necessary.

Once again, it is my joy to a part of your children's lives, and I look forward to having an exciting learning experience.

Sincerely,

First Name;

Content Lesson Plan and Assessment

Content Area or Developmental Focus: Diversity and Character

Age/Grade of Children: Preschoolers - Ages 3 - 5

Length of Lesson: One Week

Goal The goal of this lesson plan is to provide the children with an opportunity to learn the letters of the alphabet and also the different sounds they make.

Objective To inspire the students to learn comfortably about the alphabets and the sounds they make. This will help them when it comes to reading stories in books and other written materials.

Standards Included

Age-related standards include according to the state of Louisiana;

1) Social or emotional development 2) Motor development and physical health 3) Literacy and language development 4) cognitive development 5) Approaches to learning.

Materials Crayons

Audios

Charts

Models

Introduction

"Morning class! Today and throughout this week, we are going to learn new and exciting things. Who would want to learn how to read all the best stories in different books? Would it not be fun? Here I would allow the children to answer this question. This week we also listen to some song that helps us understand different sounds letters make. To start us up, let put on some interesting song am sure you have never heard and please note some unique sounds I the song."

Lesson Development:

Familiarize the youngsters with all alphabet letters

Familiarize the youngsters the sounds made by different alphabet letters

Play alphabet audio song

Use Crayons to color various alphabets.

Differentiation In case where some children need special attention, I will personally attend to each of them making sure all students understand what I am teaching.

Assessment

(Practice/ Checking for

Understanding)

To develop an assessment plan, I will observe each child progress regarding how they recognize alphabet letters, and if they understand, the different sounds made from the letters.

Closing

To assess children understanding, I will randomly select each student to pick a letter and show the class the object which represents it from the chart. I will prefer animals or things the children can easily relate to.

Content Area or Developmental Focus: Fine-Motor Skills

Age/Grade of Children: Preschoolers - 3 to 5 years

Length of Lesson: one week

Goal Through the guidance of the teacher, the children will move throughout the classroom in all directions enabling them to develop various skills. They will move right, left, down, up, back and front.

Objective By moving successfully right, left, down, up, back and front, children, will show skills of understanding various commands given to them.

Standards Included

Motor development is composed of two types according to standards set by the state of Louisiana they are:

Fine motor skills; minor muscles movement

Gross motor skills; major muscles movement

Materials Bro...