The Creative Curriculum approach has been used widely in Head Start programs throughout the United States. Its stated mission is "to enhance the quality of early childhood programs by offering the highest quality curriculum materials, training programs, parenting resources, and staff development services that are practical, developmentally appropriate, responsive to the needs of the field, and reflect the most innovative thinking". The Creative Curriculum materials are directed to programs for infants and toddlers, preschool age children (3 to 5 years) and children in the primary grades.

The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers & Twos - helps teachers appreciate and find joy in the everyday discoveries that delight a child-the sound a rattle makes; the leaves blowing in circles by the wind; the ball that unexpectedly rolls across a child's path; the ants marching across the pavement. It is a comprehensive curriculum that helps teachers achieve the very best program for children under three. If the interactions children have are nurturing, consistent, and loving, and the experiences they have are appropriately challenging, then infants, toddlers, and twos grow and flourish. In such an environment, children learn to trust and joyfully explore their surroundings, making discoveries and developing a sense of themselves as competent learners and caring human beings. This curriculum addresses language and literacy, math, and science, because very young children are already exploring ideas and developing important skills that become the building blocks for future learning.

The Creative Curriculum for Preschool – Is a comprehensive curriculum, linked to an assessment system, that fully meets the criteria for appropriateness and effectiveness. It addresses teachers’ need to know what to teach and why and how children learn best. With such a curriculum, teachers can respond to the individual needs and learning styles of all of their children. It is one of the only curriculum and assessment systems that is inclusive of all children – those developing typically, children with disabilities, and English language learners. This curriculum specifies the literacy, math, science, social studies, arts, and technology content to be taught, based on published standards.
The Creative Curriculum for Preschool identifies the knowledge, skills, and concepts important for preschool children to acquire in each content area:

• Literacy: vocabulary and language, phonological awareness, letters, words, print, comprehension, books and other texts, and sources of enjoyment.
• Mathematics: numbers; patterns and relationships; geometry and spatial awareness; measurement; and data collection, organization, and representation.
• Science: physical science, life science, and earth and the environment.
• Social Studies: spaces and geography, people and how they live, people and the environment, and people and the past.
• The Arts: dance, music, drama, and the visual arts.
• Technology: awareness of technology, basic operations and concepts, technological tools, and people and technology.