Introducing The Creative Curriculum for Transitional Kindergarten: California

In 2022, California legislators announced the expansion of transitional kindergarten to ensure every 4-year-old child in the state had a seat in a transitional kindergarten program by the 2025-2026 school year. We welcomed the announcement with enormous optimism for the children of the Golden State.

For more than four decades, we have been creating early childhood curriculum materials and resources that honor, uplift, and celebrate young children and the adults who care for them. But this is the first time we’ve created a curriculum focused solely on the unique strengths, needs, and interests of 4-year-olds only. We loved every minute of it and are pleased to introduce to you The Creative Curriculum for Transitional Kindergarten: California.

Developed for and in Partnership With California Educators

When developing the new TK curriculum, it was important that we hear from educators and implement their suggestions so we could provide the highest quality experience for teachers, children, and families. We partnered with over 30 educators to test the content and user experience of this comprehensive TK curriculum that is aligned to the California Preschool Learning Foundations, and we created a curriculum that

• is whole-child focused;
• harnesses the power of play through hands-on, project-based studies;
• creates seamless connections for families to what their children are learning; and
• includes planning and teaching tools built to take tasks off teacher’s plates and make their lives easier.

You will see their feedback come to life in its pages, and we think you’re going to love it. But don’t just take it from us.

Five Reasons Why School Districts Love Our TK Curriculum

Oakland Unified School District is among the growing number of school districts that have invested in the new curriculum for their transitional kindergarten program.

“We decided it should be whole-child focused, honor the needs of teachers, engage their families, and provide equitable and inclusive experiences for both children and families. After evaluating four different early childhood curriculums, we selected The Creative Curriculum.”
—Dr. Bernadette Pilar Zermeño, PreK/TK English Language Learner and Multilingual Achievement specialist, Oakland Unified School District

1. Respects and Nurtures Individual Skill Progress for the Whole Child  

With The Creative Curriculum for Transitional Kindergarten: California, the skills children need to be successful in school and in life are incorporated daily. Teachers are provided embedded guidance and the support they need to individualize instruction for every child with the only progressions of learning and development from birth through age 8—unlike any other transitional kindergarten curriculum in the market. Teachers can truly meet each child where they are, honor multilingual learners, and fully support children with disabilities.

At the heart of our curriculum are 38 California-aligned objectives for development and learning that are focused on development of the whole child and based on current research and best practices. These objectives cover all areas of development and learning: social–emotional, physical, language, cognitive, literacy, math, science and technology, social studies, the arts, and English language acquisition.

2. Harnesses the Power of Play Through Studies  

Children will learn by exploring and investigating STEM- and social studies-based study topics that allow them to be at the center of their own learning as they explore percussion instruments, seeds, the grocery store, light, cameras, and architecture. They will measure, categorize, chart and graph, collect data, test, hypothesize, and more. In short, they will learn how to ask big questions, have big ideas, and develop a love for learning with a defined and CA-aligned scope and sequence.

To ensure you, the children, and their families are off to a great start in your program, ours is the only curriculum that includes a Teaching Guide focused on the first six weeks of school. It supports teachers in establishing classroom routines, creating confidence, and building a classroom culture to ensure children feel safe, secure, and loved.

3. Provides Daily Experiences for Language, Literacy, and Mathematics 

Skill development is a sequential and scaffolded ladder of learning, where skills build upon each other over time. The latest research tells us that children learn best through play. To teach children in the ways they learn best, The Creative Curriculum for Transitional Kindergarten: California includes play-based experiences in phonological awareness, shared writing, mathematical, and STEM concepts, including activities that can help children learn even if teachers only have a moment during transitions.

For example, to help children become successful readers, the curriculum provides guidance and resources for teachers to incorporate a daily, four-step approach:

1. 1. literacy learning opportunities in every center/interest area,
   2. playing with pre-reading,
   3. loving and learning through literature, and
   4. sequential and individualized skill instruction.

Our Intentional Teaching Experiences are hands-on and make individualized learning an everyday occurrence with color-coded adaptation guidance for teachers. These 262 experiences will soon include video modeling of the activity so you’ll be able to see them in action before or while you teach it.

4. Connects School to Home 

Becoming part of a classroom community is a big step for children. When families are invested, included, and connected to what their children are learning, children will flourish. Here are a few ways we facilitate this seamless connection:

• • playlists of videos, books, and activities directly tied to the daily classroom instruction are sent automatically to families each week and
  • a family mobile app that allows families to communicate with teachers, view resources, and find videos modeling activities to do with their children at home if they want to focus on developing a specific skill.

5. Makes Teachers Lives Easier With Intentional Support for Every Teacher, Every Day 

The Creative Curriculum for Transitional Kindergarten: California includes access to The Creative Curriculum Cloud, where teachers from novice to expert are provided access to tools that save them time by streamlining their planning and teaching.

More than just a digital curriculum, it connects curriculum, assessment, family engagement, professional development, and reporting tools, right at your fingertips. Here is just a snapshot of the tools created to give you more time to focus on the important work you do with children that no technology could ever replace:

• • the ability to plan your year, month, or week in moments;
  • access to daily resources to facilitate the day and adjust on the fly;
  • embedded video modeling for each focused learning experience;
  • a built-in online professional learning community; and
  • a new teacher app for essential daily tasks.

Included is our Teacher Membership, which caters to the unique needs of all learners with access to courses, including all training requirements needed for CDA and CCDF credentials.

What’s Included in Our Comprehensive TK Curriculum?

The Creative Curriculum for Transitional Kindergarten: California is available in English and Spanish and includes these five components:

1. print resources,
2. smart planning and teaching tools,
3. classroom materials for teachers and children,
4. assessment, and
5. professional development.

The product is now available for purchase. Read the full press release here.