Our Curriculum
Christ & Holy Trinity Preschool’s faculty work collaboratively to create a rich environment where each child’s unique interests are valued and explored. The curriculum of the Preschool is inspired by the educational philosophy of the preschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy, as it is appropriate and practical in an American school. This celebrated pedagogy is based on the emergent curriculum and includes a combination of topic studies and project work derived from both teacher-designed provocation and child-initiated interests.
The research supporting this curriculum model indicates that effective learning experiences for young children must have an element of tangibility and relevance in order for them to make sense to young minds. Children are encouraged to ask questions and to find the answers through research, experimentation, observation, and exploration. Creative problem solving, unique ideas, and thinking “outside the box” are highly encouraged and an integral component of the early learning process.
The daily life at Christ & Holy Trinity Preschool draws on each child’s unique and special abilities, creativity and interests while stimulating new learning and curiosity. Christ & Holy Trinity Preschool believes each child is an active, competent learner and recognizes the family and community’s important role in supporting this vision. We also understand that a child’s individual interaction with their immediate world serves as the perfect catalyst for early learning.
As research indicates, critical thinking skills develop through play-based learning where children are stimulated to explore, experiment, and discover using their own inherent style of learning. Children engage in investigations, which lead to longer term project work, using expressive languages such as painting, drawing, collage, blocks, dramatic play, movement and music and more to further their ideas and interests. An important aspect of the Reggio Emilia approach is to document this learning process. Documenting allows for a validation of the children's abilities and promotes continued assessment and idea creation. In addition, documenting connects the parents to the experience and extends the lessons beyond the classroom.
Christ & Holy Trinity Preschool collaborates with other practitioners and schools that use the Reggio-inspired approach. Members of our staff continually attend relevant professional development conferences and visitations to other schools.
Connecticut Early Learning and Development Standards
All learning experiences at Christ & Holy Trinity Preschool are planned to meet the goals and performance standards of the Connecticut Early Learning and Development Standards (“CT ELDS”). This document, with its guiding principles, is at the centerpiece of our curriculum as it provides standardized expectations for children across the eight key domains of development: social and emotional development, physical health and development, language and literacy, creative arts, mathematics, science, cognition and social studies. The CT ELDS is a publication of the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood and is designed to articulate with the National Common Core State Standards that are in place in all public and approved independent schools in Connecticut.
Each domain of the CT ELDS contains strands that specify broad outcomes for curriculum. Within each of these strands are learning progressions with age-appropriate performance indicators from birth through age five. Each indicator is coded by domain and age for easy reference.
To learn more about CT ELDS, please visit the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood Development at http://www.ct.gov/oec.
