Two kindergarten curricular resources, to guide teachers to develop children holistically and to nurture their love for learning their mother tongue languages, were launched by the Education Ministry on Thursday. They are part of a toolkit being developed to support teachers of children aged four to six.

The first is the Nurturing Early Learners (NEL) Educators' Guide, designed to help teachers put into practice teaching and learning principles spelled out in the NEL kindergarten curriculum framework which was revised early this year. It includes strategies to engage children more effectively, and ideas to observe and assess their learning.

The other new resource is a framework which sets out the guiding principles for teaching and learning of mother tongue languages. Learning goals that every child should achieve in this subject at the end of Kindergarten 2 are also spelled out.

Senior Minister of State for Education Indranee Rajah, speaking at the Early Childhood Conference at the Singapore Expo, said she hopes the resources will "provide a common understanding across the sector of the principles, practices and outcomes for pre-school education".