Problem Solvers curriculum: Purposefully integrating learning trajectories in math and music to support pre-school children’s holistic learning

Zero to Three’s Problem Solvers project is a curriculum supplement featuring early math and music activities for toddlers and pre-schoolers. This effort embraced a commitment to equity from its inception, including design of activities, approach to instruction and ways in which we connect with families around curriculum. The driver behind the Problem Solvers proposal concerned data showing that children whose families live in poverty arrive in kindergarten with significantly lower math scores than their more affluent peers. However, we know these data do not represent ability. Rather, the data tell a story about access: to rich curricula, to resources and to challenging learning experiences and to early math concepts and language. By increasing access, we can shift the trajectory of children’s early skills (starting in toddlerhood) and disrupt these early disparities. The development of the free Problem Solvers curriculum was designed to democratize access to rich curriculum on early math with 22 activities appropriate for children aged 30–48 months. Likewise, we understand the importance of early childhood music development and its power to engage and connect learning across disciplines. By integrating mathematics and music learning trajectories in play-based activities, this curriculum provides the beginning of a new pedagogy, where each content area is valued for its unique contributions to children’s development and skilfully and purposefully aligns in a holistic curriculum that fosters equity and access. In this article, we outline the process used to map early mathematics learning with early music learning objectives and develop the 22 original songs composed for the curriculum.