By Kirsten Hansen, Roxane Kaufmann, and Kate Burke Walsh

Creating Child-Centered Classrooms for 3-5 Year Olds describes classroom methods that promote the philosophy of active, engaging, individualized learning in the mode of progressive education. Teachers are provided with clear, concrete ideas on how to create and implement a child-centered classroom that promotes democratic principles and practices. The curriculum is divided into three sections:

Part I, Child-Centered Thinking, presents the philosophical rationale and theoretical underpinnings of the curriculum and the goals and developmental guidelines for children. Part II, Child-Centered Teaching describes the roles of teachers and families in implementing the curriculum, with a strong emphasis on the meaningful involvement of families. This section also addresses the importance of observing and recording children’s behavior to promote individualized activities and instruction through integrated learning. Part III, Child Centered Learning, provides an overview of the learning environment and discusses each of the ten activity centers in great detail. The activity centers include literacy, mathematics, cooking, blocks, science, music, outdoors, sand and water, art, and dramatic play.