12 Introduction DOUBLE TAB TO ZOOM ON PHONE OR TABLET • Standard 5b: Knowing and using the central concepts, inquiry tools, and structures of content areas or academic disciplines. • Standard 5c: Using their own knowledge, appropriate early learning standards, and other resources to design, implement, and evaluate meaningful, challenging curricula for each child. (2009b, 11, 13, 14, and 16) NAEYC’s position statement Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8 specifies that “all the domains of development and learning—physical, social and emotional, and cognitive—are important, and they are closely interrelated. Children’s develop- ment and learning in one domain influence and are influenced by what takes place in other domains” (2009a, 11). The position statement instructs teachers to “plan curriculum experiences that integrate children’s learning within and across the domains (physical, social, emotional, cognitive) and the disciplines (including language, literacy, mathematics, social studies, science, art, music, physical education, and health)” (2009a, 21). Implementing the Program In truth, the term lesson plan, as it is used in this program, is not technically correct, but I have used it because a suitable substitute does not seem to exist. Typically, a lesson plan specifies details for teaching one class period of a learn- ing unit. But it was my intention that teachers using this book would be able to create as many lessons as they wanted—or deemed necessary—from each of my plans. Because I purposely built a great deal of flexibility into the book, there are probably as many ways to use these lesson plans as there are teachers! In other words, the fact that there are four activities per plan does not mean that you must complete all four every time you schedule a movement session. Similarly, you should not feel as though you have to use the lesson plans exactly as they are laid out. Although I certainly hope you will keep the developmental progression of the activities and their extensions in mind as you go through them, I realize that nobody knows your toddlers better than you do. So you should not hesitate to adapt the lesson plans, perhaps abbreviating activities or COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL