Reflective Analysis of Portfolio Artifact

Rationale/Reflection
NAEYC Standard:
STANDARD 5. USING CONTENT KNOWLEDGE TO BUILD MEANINGFUL CURRICULUM
Candidates prepared in early childhood degree programs a) use their knowledge of academic disciplines to
design, implement, and evaluate experiences that promote positive development and learning for each and every
young child. Candidates understand the importance of developmental domains and academic (or content)
disciplines in early childhood curriculum. They b) know the essential concepts, inquiry tools, and structure of
content areas, including academic subjects, and can identify resources to deepen their understanding.
Candidates c) use their own knowledge and other resources to design, implement, and evaluate meaningful,
challenging curriculum that promotes comprehensive developmental and learning outcomes for every young
child. (NAEYC, 2010)

Brief Description of Evidence:

During the summer semester of 2014, in my ECED 243-Cognitive Curriculum, I created 15 developmentally
appropriate activity kits for children ages 2-8. I chose to work with the Rain Forest. I gathered materials, chose
objectives to work with and then created my kits to successfully teach the given objective. Each kit contains
materials for the activity, a material list, the objective accomplished, the appropriate age level, directions for
completing the activity and the subject covered. I enclosed all of these essentials in a Ziploc bag for each
activity to easily be transported home for practice. I laminated all of the materials to make them durable.

Analysis of What I Learned:

Through completion of this project, I became familiar with developmentally appropriate objectives for each
subject and age group for Early Childhood. I learned the importance of making the materials available for the
children to use independently in the classroom as well as something they could easily transport home. While
observing the children manipulate each activity, I was able to get an understanding of the types of learning
styles I have in my classroom and when they are excited or bored by an activity.

How This Artifact Demonstrates my Competence on the NAEYC Standard:

By watching the children use the activity kits I was able to evaluate experiences that promote positive
development and learning for each and every young child in my classroom. Locating objectives for each
subject and age group shows I am understand the importance of developmental domains and academic
disciplines in early childhood curriculum. Even further, I was able to find resources to access and deepen the
learning experience for each child in my class at an appropriate level. I was able to research and use the
knowledge I acquired pertaining to the Rainforest in order to design and implement challenging curriculum that
promotes comprehensive developmental and learning outcomes.