There are numerous ways to document your early childhood curriculum. After establishing what parts of your curriculum are useful to document with a scope and sequence calendar divided into themes of units, your unit template creates focus and can articulate the key learning outcomes and experiences for children.
As is often the case, taking the first step can be challenging; but remember, schools have full flexibility in the layout of their mapping templates in Atlas, so you can revise at any time. These templates can be the same as other K-12 courses in your school or district or the templates can be different, depending on the goals of the teachers using them. It is also worth considering the organization and general expectations of these early grades and how they fit into your course alignment, as these will influence the way early learning curriculum is developed and used. Here are a few questions to consider are you begin or restart this work:
- What is the purpose of your curriculum in the early years and in K-12 courses?
- Is your curriculum aligned to a specific pedagogy?
- Are there external mandates for your curriculum?
- Is the early learning curriculum based on a schedule of the day or organized by physical spaces in the classroom?
- Within the larger school, do they follow a specific framework, such as a backwards design model?
- Where are other pieces of information about the early childhood grades found within your school or district?
Whether you are beginning an entirely new curriculum process or deep in the trenches of a current curriculum review, your unit template is integral to your work, and the work of your school or district.
Explore some of these common unit templates used by Atlas schools for early learning curriculum planning.