In Blueprint, early literacy skills, concepts and behaviors are taught in the context of 10 related monthly themes. The curriculum themes are intentionally structured and sequential, growing from an examination of children’s own lives, to their neighborhoods and communities, to the natural world around them, and then to the wider world.
Blueprint's Themes
- Welcome to School
- Families
- People & Places in My Neighborhood
- Seasons
- Food & Markets
- Daily Life in Many Lands
- Farms & Folktales
- Under Construction
- Seeds, Plants & Gardens
- On the Move
At the heart of each theme are 8 high quality children’s books carefully selected to address a range of genres and cultures including fiction and informational texts, folktales, ABC books and counting books. Model lesson plans help teachers make each book a launching pad for teaching essential early literacy skills in large, small group and individual settings.
In addition to helping children develop emerging reading and writing skills, Blueprint builds capacity in teachers. As a professional development organization, we develop and enhance teacher’s knowledge of best practices around literacy and we infused our expertise and knowledge throughout the curriculum. We understand how to create lessons that promote high quality instruction such as:
how to structure a lesson- how to balance teacher and children’s contributions
- how to engage children
- how to express ideas in child-friendly language
- how to make literacy accessible to children with all skill levels, background knowledge and language abilities
That’s why in our curriculum we built in varying levels of teacher support in each of our lessons. The objectives and general teacher moves for the veteran, the scripted teacher language and related activities for the new teacher. By strengthening their knowledge of early literacy skills and concepts, and supporting their implementation of key literacy practices, Blueprint serves as a professional development resource that will benefit teachers’ continued growth.