Curriculum Planning for Early Childhood

Course Description

Curriculum Planning for Early Childhood develops competencies in lesson planning, curriculum design, record keeping, diagnostic and evaluative procedures, and teaching techniques in preschool settings. Daytona State notes that it satisfies one educational requirement for Florida's Advanced Level Child Care and Education Administrator Credential.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, CHD is the Child Development prefix. Daytona State publishes this at 3 credits, offered spring, giving approximately 45 contact hours.

Curriculum in early childhood is a genuinely contested subject, and the course sits inside that contest. The professional consensus in the field favours play-based, developmentally appropriate practice in which children learn through investigation and interaction; policy and parental expectation frequently push toward earlier academic instruction. A teacher who can plan intentionally within the first framework — and explain why — is doing something considerably harder than following a workbook.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Describe theories of learning and development that underpin early childhood curriculum.
• Describe developmentally appropriate practice and apply it to planning decisions.
• Describe major early childhood curriculum models and their distinguishing features.
• Apply Florida's early learning standards to curriculum planning.
• Write measurable learning objectives appropriate to young children.
• Plan individual activities with clear purpose, materials, and procedure.
• Design integrated units and thematic or project-based studies.
• Plan across developmental domains: physical, cognitive, language, social, and emotional.
• Plan curriculum in the content areas: literacy, mathematics, science, social studies, and the arts.
• Design the physical environment and learning centres to support the curriculum.
• Plan and manage the daily schedule, including routines and transitions.
• Select and evaluate materials and equipment for developmental appropriateness and safety.
• Differentiate and adapt curriculum for individual children, including children with disabilities.
• Adapt curriculum for dual language learners.
• Apply observation and authentic assessment methods with young children.
• Use assessment data to inform planning rather than to rank children.
• Maintain records and documentation to programme and regulatory standards.
• Describe screening, referral, and the distinction between screening and diagnosis.
• Involve families in curriculum and communicate children's learning to them.
• Evaluate curriculum implementation and revise based on evidence.

Optional Outcomes

• Describe curriculum for infants and toddlers specifically.
• Describe outdoor learning environments and nature-based curriculum.
• Describe anti-bias and culturally responsive curriculum.
• Describe technology use with young children and its limits.
• Describe curriculum supervision and coaching as an administrator.
• Compile a curriculum portfolio.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Theoretical foundations of early childhood curriculum
• Developmentally appropriate practice
• Curriculum models and approaches
• Florida early learning standards
• Writing objectives for young children
• Activity planning
• Integrated units and project work
• Planning across developmental domains
• Content areas in early childhood
• Environment and learning centres
• Daily schedule, routines, and transitions
• Materials selection and safety
• Differentiation and inclusion
• Dual language learners
• Observation and authentic assessment
• Using assessment to inform planning
• Record keeping and documentation
• Screening and referral
• Family involvement and communication
• Curriculum evaluation and revision

Optional Topics

• Infant and toddler curriculum
• Outdoor and nature-based learning
• Anti-bias and culturally responsive curriculum
• Technology with young children
• Curriculum supervision and coaching
• Curriculum portfolio

Resources & Tools

• Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs (NAEYC) — the field's foundational position statement and the reference this course is built on.
• The Intentional Teacher (Epstein) — the best short treatment of the balance between child-initiated and teacher-directed learning.
• Basics of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (Copple & Bredekamp) — accessible and practical.
• NAEYC (naeyc.org) — free position statements, including DAP and the Code of Ethical Conduct; student membership is inexpensive.
• Florida Early Learning and Developmental Standards (fldoe.org / Office of Early Learning) — free, and what you plan against in this state.
• Florida DCF Child Care (myflfamilies.com) — free: licensing standards, required training, and the credential structure.
• The Pyramid Model Consortium and the former CSEFEL materials — free, evidence-based social-emotional and behaviour support resources widely used in Florida.
• Head Start ECLKC (eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov) — free and excellent: the Early Learning Outcomes Framework, planning tools, and family engagement material.
• CDC "Learn the Signs. Act Early." — free milestone and referral material for the screening content.
• Observation and documentation tools — anecdotal record forms, running record templates, and portfolio systems supplied by the programme.

Career Pathways

• Preschool and VPK teacher — the direct destination; Florida's Voluntary Prekindergarten programme is a large employer.
• Lead teacher and curriculum coordinator — programme-level curriculum responsibility.
• Child care centre director — this course counts toward the Advanced Level Director Credential; see the credential note below.
• Head Start and Early Head Start — teaching and education coordinator roles.
• Family child care provider — curriculum planning applies at any scale.
• Early intervention support — working alongside Early Steps and district programmes.
• Curriculum and materials development — publishers and early learning organizations.
• Bridge to a bachelor's — Florida institutions offer B.S. degrees in early childhood education leading to state certification.
• SOC codes 25-2011 Preschool Teachers and 11-9031 Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare.

Special Information

⚠ Play is the curriculum — and defending that is part of the job

The professional position this course teaches, and it requires an argument rather than an assertion because it is genuinely contested.

The evidence supports play-based, developmentally appropriate practice for young children — children build language, executive function, self-regulation, and conceptual understanding through investigation, interaction, and sustained play far more effectively than through direct instruction and worksheets. NAEYC's position statement summarizes the research base.

The pressure runs the other way. Academic expectations have moved downward, parents frequently equate worksheets with rigour, and administrators face accountability measures that reward measurable early academics. A new teacher will be asked why the children are "just playing."

The answer worth being able to give:

• Play is not the absence of curriculum; it is the method. Intentional play-based curriculum is planned, resourced, and assessed — the teacher's work is in the environment, the materials, the questions asked, and the extensions offered.
• "Intentional" is the key word. The Intentional Teacher framing — knowing when to follow the child's lead and when to teach directly — is the professional skill, and it is a false choice to treat play and instruction as opposites.
• Name the learning. Documenting what a child did in the block area and what it demonstrates about spatial reasoning, planning, or negotiation is how you make invisible learning visible to families and administrators.
• Academic pushdown has costs. Developmentally inappropriate expectations produce disengagement, behaviour difficulties, and — for the children who cannot yet meet them — an early experience of failure.
• Know Florida's standards. The Florida Early Learning and Developmental Standards are broad and developmental rather than narrowly academic; planning to them is both compliant and defensible.

⚠ Assessment of young children: authentic, ongoing, and not for ranking

The methodological content, and it differs sharply from assessment at any later level.

• Young children cannot demonstrate what they know on a test. Standardized testing of preschoolers is unreliable, and the field's assessment methods are correspondingly different — observation, work samples, and documentation over time.
• Observe and record objectively. "Maya stacked six blocks, then rebuilt after they fell" is data; "Maya is persistent" is an interpretation. Record the first, then interpret.
• Assess in context. Watching a child during ordinary activity produces a truer picture than pulling them aside for a task.
• Portfolios and documentation panels make learning visible to families and are genuinely persuasive in a way a checklist is not.
• Assessment informs planning. The purpose is to decide what to offer next, not to sort children — and the distinction matters because sorting young children has documented, lasting effects.
• Screening is not diagnosis. A developmental screen flags a possible concern warranting referral; it does not identify a condition. Know the referral pathways — Florida Early Steps for under three, district Child Find for three and over — and refer promptly, since early intervention effects are strongest early.
• Watch for bias in your own observations. As this repository's EEX1600 guide documents, exclusion and referral in early childhood fall disproportionately on Black children and children with disabilities. Objective recording is the practical corrective.

⚠ Florida's child care credentialing ladder — know where this course sits

Florida regulates child care staffing through a defined credential structure administered under Chapter 402, Florida Statutes and the Department of Children and Families, and early childhood coursework maps onto it directly.

• The Florida Child Care Professional Credential (FCCPC) and the national CDA are the entry-level credentials for classroom staff.
• The Director Credential has tiers — commonly a foundational level and an advanced level — and is required to serve as a licensed child care facility director in Florida.
• College coursework counts toward these credentials, which is why DSC's catalog states explicitly which courses satisfy which requirement. That mapping is the practical value of these courses beyond the degree.
• DCF-required training and background screening are separate tracks from college credit — the 45-hour introductory training, the annual in-service requirement, and Level 2 screening are compliance obligations that coursework does not replace.
• Ask your programme, in writing, which credential requirement each course satisfies, and keep the transcript — credential applications require documentation.

Rule 11 applies — Florida's credential structure, required training hours, and licensing rules are amended. Verify with DCF and the credentialing body rather than relying on this or any other guide.

⚠ Only about three Florida institutions carry this number — hedge accordingly

This course appears at roughly three institutions statewide. Content, credit value, and emphasis vary more than they would for a widely taught course. Read your own institution's catalog description and syllabus rather than assuming this guide describes your section exactly, and have any transfer evaluated in writing.

How Florida course levels affect transfer

The first digit of an SCNS number denotes the year of offering, not transferability. Courses at the 1000 and 2000 levels transfer transparently between Florida public institutions, and 3000 to 4000 is unproblematic since both are upper division. The boundary that actually matters is 2000 to 3000, where lower-division credit generally cannot satisfy an upper-division requirement.

CHD2320 is a lecture course, 3 credits and approximately 45 contact hours, offered spring. Expect applied planning deliverables — activity plans, an integrated unit, an environment design, and observation and documentation exercises — which are directly usable in a classroom and in a credential portfolio.

Early childhood A.S. degrees are applied and do not carry the A.A.'s guaranteed junior-status transfer. Keep the transcript and the syllabus: credential applications require documentation of which courses satisfied which requirement, and reconstructing that later is difficult.