Scholastic Early Childhood Program
The Scholastic Early Childhood Program (SECP) is a comprehensive, integrated, and bilingual yearlong curriculum that actively involves children and addresses all domains of child development and self-expression. This program is aligned with federal, state and local guidelines and standards, ensuring Head Start children enter public school with the knowledge they need to succeed.
 

A theme-based curriculum provides daily lessons for subjects including math, science and music. The three learning areas the program focus on Circle Time, Story Time and Learning Centers. SECP includes take home activities for parents.
 

Activities in Circle Time include games, songs and fingerplays. Story Time builds literacy by a variety of read-aloud books including picture books, rhymes and nonfiction book. Learning Centers provide children time to interact with different materials, classmates and teachers and focus on activities such as art, technology, writing and scientific observation.
 

Head Start of Greater Dallas has used SECP for eight years in all of its classrooms across Dallas County. Results are monitored yearly through the LAP-3 assessment with the goal being to increase children’s language and literacy skills. Each year Head Start children have made significant gains in their skills in these areas.

Little Scientists is a hands-on, minds-on, inquiry-based method of teaching science to young children. Currently utilized in 60 Head Start classrooms, this unique curricula excites children about science while encouraging them to explore, investigate, discover and understand the natural world around them.
 

Students learn in collaborative groups that encourage communication skills and enhance learning and cognitive development. Teachers integrate the subject material into the daily curriculum in language, arts and math. Through this program, students are encouraged to think outside the textbook and think more creatively and ask more inquiring questions.
 

Children are observed and assessed at the beginning and end of the year to evaluate the affects of the program. Results have steadily shown that children make significant gains in math and science subjects because of their interactions with the Little Scientist program. Head Start is hoping to expand the program to reach all of the children in our centers within the next five years. Currently the program reaches more than 1,100 of the 4,000 children enrolled in Head Start centers.

Early Head Start

Creative Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers

Head Start of Greater Dallas’s Early Head Start program provides free childcare, extended social services, preventative health and prenatal education services to the parents of infants and toddlers. If needed, we assist teenage parents in obtaining a medical home for herself and her child for healthcare. There are currently five Early Head Start centers that provide services to nearly 250 infants, toddlers and pregnant women in Dallas.

These very young children are also given a head start through the Creative Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers, a research-based program specifically for children ages 0 –3 years. The program helps teachers build relationships with the children by showing them how to create meaningful daily routines and experiences that respond to individual children's strengths and interests. These early, positive interactions with caring adults give young children the confidence they need to explore their surroundings and take delight in their day-to-day discoveries.

Children who were enrolled in Early Head Start enter our regular Head Start programs comfortable in a group setting, active in the learning process and part of family units that have access to resources to keep them healthy.

Caring for Toddlers

Head Start teachers and staff are continually looking for the best information to give parents in our community about caring for their young children. Here are some tips about how you can better care for your infant or toddler from Janet Gonalez-Mena’s article Compassionate Roots Begin with Babies.

1. Compassion can’t be taught to babies, it must be shown through touch.

2. Predictability helps build trust and gives the baby a sense of security.

3. Slow down and wait for some kind of sign that the child has heard and understands what will happen next before proceeding.

4. The optimal time for relationship building is during care-giving activities: these activities daily living that meets the infant’s physical needs.

5. Meet aggression in infants and toddlers with gentleness.

Dual Language

Currently, more than 40 percent of Head Start of Greater Dallas students are dual language learners. Because of this, Head Start and all of our teachers are committed and involved in trainings and learning best practices for these students. Part of this process is fostering the child’s home language while they learn English. Studies have shown, including a recent study from Scientific American Mind that children who know two languages are able to process certain words faster than others leading to their being able to solve problems with misleading clues more quickly. This skill and others emphasize the importance of maintaining the child’s home language. Head Start also works with the parents of these children to ensure better communication and partnership.