The question of what to look for when visiting early childhood classrooms can be addressed on the basis of a set of fundamental developmental principles. In this article, the author outlines five developmental principles that can be invoked when seeking answers to the question every educator must address when creating a curriculum, namely: What should be learned?: (1) Strengthen children's understanding of their own experience; (2) The younger the children, the more they learn from direct firsthand experience; (3) The younger the children, the more they learn through interactive rather than passive processes; (4) The younger the children, the more important it is that what they are learning has horizontal versus vertical relevance; and (5) Children's dispositions to seek in-depth understanding of experience and events is strengthened when they have early experience of in-depth investigations. She also discusses another important goal of a curriculum of special importance during the early years which is the development of communicative competence.