EARLY LEARNING GUIDELINES
The Beatrice Community Preschool uses the Nebraska Early Learning Guidelines for Ages 3 – 5 to assist our teachers, parents, and caregivers to promote the development of our youngest children. These guidelines were created to be “used as a framework to guide decisions about curriculum, materials, and the classroom environment. Use of the Guidelines promotes continuity and consistency across all settings and promotes successful transitions across environments.” (pg. 2). These guidelines are also an important tool for identifying interventions when supporting families in collaborative efforts with other early childhood specialists, and they support the Creative Curriculum by providing guidance for appropriate preschool learning activities.
These guidelines provide information about:
1) what children ages 3-5 can typically be expected to know and do; and
2) what adults can do to provide experiences and environments that support learning across domains.
The Early Learning Guidelines address seven domains of development and learning:
* Social and Emotional Development
* Approaches to Learning
* Health and Physical Development
* Creative Arts
* Language and Literacy
* Mathematics
* Science
These Guidelines also contain the following 5 Guiding Principles About Young Children’s Growth and Learning:
- Children are active learners.
- Each child learns in unique ways.
- Learning is most meaningful when it is integrated across all areas of development.
- Learning is continuous and sequential.
- Development and learning are rooted in culture and supported by the family.
