Children create understanding by building upon their prior knowledge and forming connections between the old knowledge and the new knowledge. For teachers to design instruction that is relevant to students’ lives and meets rigorous learning goals, they must have a strong connection to the child, the child’s family, and the community in which they are teaching. Having close relationships with families also allows teachers to understand the goals the family has for their child. Building these relationships can help teachers and families form a united front which allows for consistency in a child’s life. Learning best occurs for a student when they are placed in their zone of proximal development. This is a term coined by the theorist Vygotsky who believed students learned best when they were placed in an area between what they can do by themselves and what they can do with assistance from a more knowledgeable source (Bredekamp, 2019). Vygotsky’s learning theory, social constructivism, essentially means that students learn through one another and social interactions support learning content and they build off one another along with building upon their prior knowledge. Scaffolding was another key idea Vygotsky proposed. Scaffolding is a teaching strategy that promotes moving students towards a stronger level of understanding through a variety of ways. Such as asking probing questions to deepen and extend their thinking, offering different materials, and so on. Rather than giving students the answers, he supported the ideology of giving students tools and letting them solve them with their peers