Traditional education does not believe in an integrated curriculum. Each subject in a traditional classroom is separated from each other. Math is taught as the math subject, science is science, reading is reading etc. Art is usually copycat arts and crafts projects that are made to commemorate a holiday.

Integrated curriculum, in this case integrated preschool and kindergarten curriculum ties all subject matter into a cohesive whole. (imitating life I guess)

There are a few ways that this is done.

If you doing the project approach you would begin by listening to the children as they are playing and follow their interests in choosing the topic or theme.

You would then tie all of the subject matter into the theme that you have chosen from the children’ s interests.

If you are following the Emillio Reggio apporaach, art is what is the connecting force of the whole curriculum.

Bank Street College which espouses the developmental approach to learning does it similarly.

Bank Street school usually begins with a social studies concept. The children will go on a trip as simple as going to the fruit and vegetable market. Sometimes  their beginning trip will be a bit more elaborate, but they use a social studies based curriculum and use which is what is most familiar to children. Local studies.

Based on this trip an entire curriculum is woven around it.

If they are doing a market study, after their trip to the market, they will create their own market in school, incorporating reading,writing, math, the arts etc into their market  by planning and creating it.

Math comes into play as they measure for the size of their stalls, buy the food to sell, tally up purchases and figure out what their profit is.

Science : Ass they discover the various fruits and vegetable, what happens to them, what can be done with them, predictions and observations.

Reading:  Making signs for advertising their market, signs for the market itself, reading other books about markets,  writing about the market.

Of course art ties it all together as they create the stands and the posters for their market and draw and paint about their experiences.

The whole curriculum comes alive as they pull their market together and sell fruits and vegetable to the other children in the school.

This is actually the most exciting and relevant way of learning as it brings learning close to home and extremely relevant for children.

When children learn in the traditional manner, where everything is compartmentalized, their learning is separated from life and does not have as much meaning.

Using real life experiences of the children and tying it to learning makes learning very meaningful, fun, exciting and enriching.

An integrated curriculum can start at many different points, however the basis for it, includes ALL skills and subjects into the theme or unit at hand so that the children can integratete their learning into a  whole.