New Curriculum Brings Best Educational Practices to Infant Classrooms

Part of a series: Where Education Begins

Not many people think of the words “infant” and “curriculum” together, but Ellis takes education of infants as seriously as the word curriculum implies. The new Infant curriculum, collaboratively developed with Neighborhood Villages (NV) and five early childhood programs in Boston, will take the excellence of Ellis’s programs for its youngest learners to a new level. It will provide guidance for teachers, educational enrichment for infants, and ideas for families. Infant classrooms at all five programs began a pilot in August 2025 that will run through June 2026.

The new curriculum represents continuous improvement, putting best practices into a meaningful context that is easy for teachers to use. It will promote the Ellis philosophy of learning that is play-based, exploratory, holistic, and anti-bias. In an often hectic and fast-changing Infant classroom, the curriculum will offer teachers tools and ideas to make play experiences more developmentally stimulating for babies and teachers alike.

NV, a local nonprofit that supports innovative and collaborative solutions to early education challenges, has partnered with Ellis even before the pandemic. More recently, NV worked with Ellis and other local programs to develop a free and open-source Toddler curriculum. The partnership is following the same process now to develop the Infant curriculum.

Pamela Thompson, the NV Director of Teaching and Learning, is overseeing the project, working alongside group members Kalicia Sears, Ellis’s Director of Infants and Toddlers at 58 Berkeley Street, and Kalicia’s counterparts at four other early education schools. The team also includes the NV Curriculum Project Manager, NV Coaches, Infant educators, and other experts in the field of early childhood.

The curriculum treats Infant teachers as the important educators they are. It recognizes that teachers are crucial to the healthy development of infants through consistent and meaningful interactions, know the children they work with, and that they engage them in enriching experiences.

For this reason, teachers are involved in every aspect of the new curriculum development. The highly collaborative process began with classroom observations to reaffirm best practices and to understand what resources and guidance can best help teachers engage with infants. Through an iterative process, the writing team takes many of the teachers’ practices and ideas to create a format that is easy for them to use in the classroom. Feedback continues throughout the process and includes families’ ideas and feedback. As Pamela says, “The resulting curriculum will elevate current practices to bolster infants’ learning in all developmental areas.”

The curriculum is organized into five overarching topics called explorations that address fundamental aspects of infant development. Each exploration includes a variety of activities and other materials to support teachers’ interactions. During the pilot, NV coaches visit bi-weekly to help teachers implement ideas and modify experiences to meet the needs of individual infants. Coaches then use teachers’ feedback to make further revisions, improving the resource before it is released publicly.

For example, in an experience called Mirror Play, teachers help infants recognize themselves and others in their reflections. Teachers extend this experience by using descriptive language such as “I see Li waving! I see Li’s nose, where is her nose? I am smiling, can I see Li smiling, too?” When teachers make Mirror Play part of regular routines, they help infants to develop a sense of self and object permanence and to recognize emotions. In this way, the curriculum deepens the significance of each small interaction.

The curriculum encourages both structure and flexibility. Teachers work together to create lesson plans for each week knowing that, when the week doesn’t go as planned, they have prepared ideas for the quiet times when babies can focus. Teachers are also free to explore and use what works for them and the children in their care. “A teacher can repeat one experience again and again, making changes to follow a child’s lead,” Kalicia explains. “We simply want to give them many ideas that are responsive to infants' needs and development and that teachers can explore over time.”

Each Ellis Infant classroom also receives carefully selected books to enhance each exploration. Reading these well-curated books with infants reinforces the learning goals while giving great pleasure to readers and listeners alike. “Teachers are so grateful for the books,” Kalicia says. “They can hardly believe what a rich resource we’re giving them!” There will be 75-100 books per classroom at the end of the pilot.

Families are also a key element in this process. Pilot classrooms send families written information at the start of each new curriculum exploration, and teachers encourage families to ask questions and share ideas. “When school and home share experiences, vocabulary, and questions, we expand children’s learning experiences, recognize and celebrate families as teachers, and foster connections that promote growth and development,” Pamela says.

Kalicia, the teachers’ supervisor and advocate, says, “I know what teachers want, and I know what I wish I’d had when I was in the classroom. This new curriculum is special in the way it touches every aspect of an infant’s development – how to move, how to listen, how to observe, and in the end how to feel safe and loved.”

Read more on Where Education Begins: A Day in Ellis’s Infant Classroom and Parents' Perspective