PreK Lending Library Resources in Great Use Showing Collaboration at Its Best
September 26, 2024
CCSA’s Durham PreK Program (DPK) in collaboration with Durham’s Partnership for Children (DPfC) are providing Creative Curriculum Resources and more to DPK & NC PreK Early Childhood Educators.
“I love the study about Balls but I love many studies! Balls was one of my favorites, And I love when I ask Susannah (Technical Assistance Specialist at DPfC), and she brings me the hard copies because it helps me. I am a person, I’m old and I need that. So, for me it’s very important and I’m very thankful!” - Juliana Reis Ribeiro, PreK lead teacher at Brown’s Early Learning School
The Creative Curriculum (CC) for Preschool sixth edition is the designated curriculum for DPK & NC PreK. The curriculum is organized into long-term, project-based investigations called studies, which last 3 to 6 weeks and cover topics that 3, 4, & 5 year-old children are most interested in learning about. Topics such as: Balls, Exercise, Water, Tubes & Tunnels, Insects, Making Music, and Pets to name a few.
The State’s Early Educator Support (EES) Unit for licensed teachers highly recommend utilizing the CC in-depth studies with students.
CC helps teachers:
- Build children’s confidence, creativity, and critical thinking skills through
hands-on, project-based investigations - Promote discovery and inquiry with opportunities for children to think
critically and develop process skills with rich, hands-on investigations of
relevant and interesting topics in the classroom - Reinforce learning with family-friendly activities designed for home
CCSA has all 20 kits in-depth CC studies developed by Teaching Strategies. The
Durham Partnership for Children (DPfC) has additional copies of the CC materials to loan out along with a variety of other resources.
Each kit contains:
- A Teacher Guide to the investigation
- Intentional Teaching Experiences
- Children’s Books related to the topic with some Book Discussion
Guides - An assortment of Mighty Minutes (transition activities).
“I did the exercise study last year with the kids. I actually did it almost at the end of the year because you know how the kids get really, really busy. That also helped me too, because I was working on my health. It tied into being healthy, and keeping the kids busy.”- Tina Mangum, PreK lead teacher at Primary Colors Dixon
The best part of course is that when a teacher requests a kit, their Quality Enhancement Coach (who typically will be visiting soon to provide technical assistance), will gladly bring it out to them and pick it up when the class is finished using it. Data from our lending library inventory over the past year shows that many programs are using the resources on a variety of topics. When a teacher electronically requests a CC Kit from CCSA, if it is currently in use by another program; we will have the teacher request it from the DPfC and then we make arrangements to get that out to them. This is DPK/NC PreK collaboration at it’s best!
Although all of the resources are made available to teachers electronically through Teaching Strategies Gold (TSG); now named SmartTeach, best practice recommends teachers read a specific story related to the topic aloud a minimum of three times during a week!
Click below to explore topics of interest with your students!