Pre-Kindergarten - Gateway 3

The Creative Curriculum for Pre-K materials meet expectations for supporting a classroom system and physical environment that are developmentally appropriate, child-centered, and engaging (3.1a). It provides a well-developed, research-based rationale for how the classroom environment and daily schedule promote developmentally appropriate, child-centered, and engaging learning experiences. In Volume 1: The Foundation (Learning Environment section), the curriculum draws on developmental research to explain how intentionally designed physical spaces support autonomy, curiosity, self-regulation, and cognitive growth. Teachers receive clear guidance on arranging child-accessible shelves, organizing defined learning centers, and using visual cues to create predictable, safe, and engaging environments. The curriculum grounds these recommendations in research showing that well-organized spaces foster a sense of belonging and allow children to deeply engage in exploration, play, and collaborative learning.

TThe Creative Curriculum for Pre-K materials meet expectations for including a range of manipulatives, resources, tools, and suggested “found” materials to enhance learning (3.1b). The materials provide a comprehensive, well-developed system for selecting, organizing, and using manipulatives, tools, and accessible materials to support children’s learning across developmental domains.

The Creative Curriculum for Pre-K materials meet expectations for intentionally leveraging a mixture of direct instruction, open-ended, experiential, and play-based learning experience ( 3.2a). The materials consistently integrate direct instruction, open-ended inquiry, experiential learning, and play-based experiences across studies and daily routines. Across studies the materials include hands-on investigations, open-ended questioning, and daily opportunities for child-initiated play. Intentional Teaching Experiences (ITEs), Book Discussion Cards, and Mighty Minutes further reinforce skill development through modeling, practice, and playful routines. These structures provide children the opportunity to learn through both teacher-led instruction and meaningful, exploratory, play-based activities.

Direct instruction is present throughout the curriculum, particularly within focused project learning (large group) and focused language, literacy, and mathematics experiences (small group). Teaching Guides provide teachers with instructions for how to engage children during these lessons, and ITEs include examples of teacher modeling with guidance for what to say and do. These experiences support concept introduction and shared learning, but they do not consistently emphasize intentional, systematic instruction of specific skills. Instead, skills are often addressed implicitly through participation rather than through explicit, targeted teaching.

The Creative Curriculum for Pre-K materials meet expectations for including a range of engaging and developmentally appropriate experiences that build on and advance student learning (3.2b).

The curriculum’s Studies approach, as outlined in the Curriculum Guide, is organized around a three-phase design—Exploring the Topic, Investigating the Topic, and Celebrating Learning—that supports children in building understanding over time (Curriculum Guide, pp. 24–25). This structure intentionally encourages children to activate and share prior knowledge while connecting new content to their lived experiences. During the Exploring the Topic phase, teachers create “What We Know” and “What We Want to Learn” charts, prompting children to reflect on what they already understand and to generate questions that guide inquiry. Daily lesson plans further support this process by providing teacher prompts that elicit children’s ideas and help connect new learning to familiar experiences.

The Creative Curriculum for Pre-K materials meet expectations for including opportunities for diverse instructional settings and structures (3.2c). The materials include an instructional framework that integrates whole-group, small-group, and individualized learning experiences to engage all children in meaningful and developmentally appropriate ways. Daily lesson plans embed interactive and inclusive whole-group activities that bring the class together through shared inquiry, discussion, music, and storytelling. Whole-group routines such as Focused Project Learning, Read-Alouds, and Large Group Round-Up are consistently included in daily plans across studies. Building Your Classroom Community further establishes strong whole-group structures through six weeks of daily meetings where children greet one another, sing inclusive songs in English and Spanish, and collaboratively develop classroom rules.

Small-group learning opportunities are also embedded throughout the curriculum during Focused Language & Literacy, Focused Mathematics, and Guided Discovery allowing for instruction supported by teacher guidance and peer interaction. Individualized learning opportunities are woven throughout daily routines and instructional experiences. The Intentional Teaching Experiences cards (ITEs) include teacher-planned experiences that can be implemented throughout the day in small group, large-group, outdoor, and one-on-one experiences. Each ITE provides guidance on what to do, steps to follow, materials to gather, preparation that may need to be done in advance, additional ideas for adapting the activities for different developmental levels, questions to guide observations, QR Codes that links to videos of a subject-matter expert sharing information and strategies related to the experience, and a teaching sequence that explains how to individualize the activities and scaffold children’s learning.

The Creative Curriculum for Pre-K materials meet expectations for being educative, developing teacher understanding of program design and providing guidance for implementation support (3.4a). The materials provide a clear and robust explanation of its learning design and curriculum approach through a comprehensive, connected set of print and digital resources. The Curriculum Guide (pp. 24–25) explains the Studies approach, which uses a three-phase structure—Exploring the Topic, Investigating the Topic, and Celebrating Learning—to support project-based learning grounded in children’s curiosity, prior knowledge, and authentic problem-solving. This approach invites children to take the lead in asking questions, researching topics, solving problems, and sharing learning, while teachers support exploration through intentional activities and guided instruction. The Year Ahead: Scope and Sequence provides an overview of learning across the year. There are videos and QR codes that deepen teachers’ understanding of instructional materials.