New Jersey Preschool
The Creative Curriculum
At Smart Start Academy, our lessons are tailored to fit the different developmental needs and ages of the children in our programs as our students range from infants to preschoolers. Since we feel it’s important for children to have opportunities to learn in different ways, our experienced and qualified teachers engage students with a variety of structured and free-play activities.
At Smart Start Academy our curriculum of choice is the Creative Curriculum. The Creative Curriculum is an early childhood curriculum that focuses on project-based investigations as a means for children to apply skills. This curriculum addresses four areas of development: social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and language. Our educators create thematic units designed to support children’s natural curiosity and stimulate their creativity. Our teachers offer their students the opportunity to work in depth, giving them the time they need to reflect, consolidate and transfer their learning.
The Creative Curriculum for Preschool is based on five fundamental principles. These principles include:
- Positive interactions and relationships with adults to provide a critical foundation for successful learning.
- Social and emotional competence is a significant factor in school success.
- Constructive, purposeful play supports essential learning.
- The physical environment affects the type and quality of learning interactions.
- Teacher–family partnerships promote development and learning.
Parents can click here to learn more about the Creative Curriculum for Preschool.
Representational Development/ Seven Multiple Intelligences Theory
In addition to the five principles of the Creative Curriculum, our New Jersey preschool also implements the Representational Development/Seven Multiple Intelligences Theory. This theory implies that there are multiple ways of learning. At Smart Start Academy we believe that no one set of teaching strategies will work best for all students at all times. Therefore, we also follow the seven multiple intelligences theory when designing our lessons and teaching our students. The seven multiple intelligences are:
- Linguistic: through verbal communication and thinking in words
- Logical/Mathematical: through reasoning
- Spatial: through images and pictures
- Kinesthetic: through somatic sensation
- Musical: through rhythms and melodies
- Interpersonal: through bouncing ideas off other people and cooperating in groups
- Intrapersonal: through digging in deeply within oneself
Last, but not least, all work and no play makes learning harder, especially for young children. Our emergent teaching includes providing meaningful experiences for students through many opportunities, including through play and exploration. These experiences contribute to our learning environment by using different methods to give variety that ultimately help each student to reach his or her highest potential.