Cloud-Based Curriculum for Wisconsin Child Care Programs

Digital Curriculum Aligned to Wisconsin’s Model Early Learning Standards

Learning Beyond Paper puts an infant-to-pre-K curriculum online for Wisconsin child care. Every age group is crosswalked to the Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards across all five WMELS domains, and ELBY, a virtual instructional coach, sits inside each activity to help teachers adjust it in the moment.
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One WMELS-Linked Plan for Licensing, YoungStar and Get Kids Ready

Wisconsin’s group center rules call for a written daily program that is posted and suited to the developmental level of each child. YoungStar checks for developmentally appropriate environments from 3 Stars up, and the new Get Kids Ready program asks child care providers to use a curriculum that meets WMELS. LBP gives each classroom a dated weekly plan tied to WMELS, so one set of plans answers all three.

Our Partners

See How It Works

See a Wisconsin toddler teacher open the morning's activity, check the supply list and read ELBY's note before the group gathers on the rug.

Explore the Full Curriculum

Browse a year of weekly plans for infants, toddlers, 3s and 4s, each linked to the WMELS performance standards for that age.

Book a Free Demo

Meet with our team about your Wisconsin group center, family program or 4K partnership, your YoungStar goals and the ages you enroll.

Included in a Wisconsin LBP Subscription

Learning Beyond Paper brings curriculum, coaching and staff learning together on one cloud platform, with ELBY, a virtual instructional coach, built in. A Wisconsin subscription includes 52 weeks of plans for five age groups, 4,000+ activities, English and Spanish family resources, an observational assessment tool, 49.5 hours of LBP University courses and four WMELS crosswalks covering birth through age 5.

Four WMELS Crosswalks From Infancy to Age 5

Each Wisconsin crosswalk follows the WMELS structure: domain, then content standard, then performance standard, then the LBP progress monitoring skills that teach it. The four documents cover 0 to 12 months, 13 to 24 months, 25 to 36 months and 3 to 5 years, spanning Health and Physical Development, Social and Emotional Development, Language Development and Communication, Approaches to Learning, and Cognition and General Knowledge.

ELBY — A Virtual Instructional Coach for Every Teacher

ELBY travels with every Wisconsin lesson and offers quick coaching: a way to scale an activity down for a child still building a skill, a way to stretch it for one who is ready, and the behaviors worth writing down while children play.

Embedded Professional Development — 49.5 Hours Included

LBP University's 49.5 hours of on-demand courses come with every Wisconsin subscription. Teachers learn the curriculum at their own pace, apart from the 15 hours of continuing education Wisconsin group centers ask of full-year staff.

Weekly Plans by Age Group for Wisconsin Programs

Infants, young toddlers, older toddlers, 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds each have their own weekly plans, all under one Wisconsin account.

Infant (Ages 0–12 Months)

Young Toddler (12–24 Months)

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Older Toddler (24–36 Months)

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Preschool (Ages 3–4 Years)

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Pre-K (Ages 4–5 Years)

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After School & Camp

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Where LBP Fits for Wisconsin Directors

Wisconsin directors are working with a posted-program rule, YoungStar reviews, Get Kids Ready paperwork and families who speak Spanish at home. Here are four places LBP lightens the load.

A posted program in every room

DCF 251 asks group centers for a written program, posted and suited to each group's developmental level, with a daily balance of active and quiet, indoor and outdoor time. LBP lays out that week for each room and keeps a record of what was taught, ready for your next licensing visit.

Practice between continuing education hours

Full-year staff in Wisconsin group centers complete at least 15 hours of continuing education each year. ELBY's prompts and LBP's step-by-step plans give teachers daily classroom practice with the ideas those courses cover.

Spanish at no added cost

About one in 10 Wisconsin residents age 5 and older speak a language other than English at home, and Spanish leads at roughly 54% of that group, per 2024 Census data compiled by USAFacts. Every LBP activity and family resource has a Spanish version.

One yearly subscription, every classroom

A Wisconsin site uses one yearly subscription for all of its rooms, from the infant room to pre-K, with no charge per teacher or per child.

How Wisconsin Programs Get Started

Four steps move a Wisconsin center or family program from first login to WMELS-linked plans in every room.
Start a 30-day free trial

Open an account and every classroom gets full access for 30 days, so your infant teachers and your 4-year-old teachers can test real plans in the same week.

Teachers open the plan on any device

A Wisconsin teacher signs in on a phone or tablet, chooses the age group and finds the activity, the supplies and ELBY's coaching note, whether the class is in the block corner or bundling up for a winter walk.

WMELS links build your documentation
Every activity lists the WMELS performance standard it supports. Over a season those links add up to a record of curriculum and observation you can show a licensing specialist, a YoungStar coach or a school district 4K partner.
Bring in every room
The yearly subscription covers every classroom at your Wisconsin site. Running more than one location? Our team will help you line up the start dates.

Get Kids Ready, 4K and YoungStar: One Curriculum Underneath

Wisconsin now has several paths for 4-year-olds. School districts run 4K, and through 4K Community Approaches many contract with child care centers, Head Start programs or private schools, which helps families who need wraparound care. Starting in 2026, the state-funded Get Kids Ready initiative pays licensed and certified child care providers to offer at least 437 hours a year of school readiness instruction, free to families, using a curriculum that meets WMELS. Meanwhile YoungStar, the DCF quality rating and improvement system, counted 4,091 participating providers in May 2026, and every provider that accepts Wisconsin Shares must take part. Learning Beyond Paper gives each of these settings the same footing: WMELS-crosswalked plans from infancy to pre-K, observation tools and bilingual family resources in one online home.

Wisconsin Directors' Questions, Answered

What directors ask us about WMELS, YoungStar, Get Kids Ready, 4K partnerships, Wisconsin Shares and training hours.

The Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards. LBP publishes four Wisconsin crosswalks, for 0 to 12 months, 13 to 24 months, 25 to 36 months and 3 to 5 years, built on the 2017 update of WMELS. Each one traces WMELS domains and performance standards to the skills LBP lessons teach, and every band is also aligned to the Head Start ELOF. Download them from our curriculum alignments page.

Get Kids Ready asks participating child care providers to use a curriculum that meets WMELS, offer at least 437 hours of school readiness instruction a year and have lead teachers with an associate or bachelor’s degree. Providers show the curriculum piece through YoungStar, accreditation, Head Start status or answers to DCF’s WMELS questions. LBP’s 3-to-5 crosswalk maps each pre-K activity to WMELS, which gives you concrete material for those answers. DCF reviews each application.

YoungStar is the DCF rating system that awards up to five stars, and programs accepting Wisconsin Shares must participate. From 3 Stars up, ratings include a Developmentally Appropriate Environments indicator, and YoungStar offers a WMELS template for documenting learning standards. LBP’s WMELS-linked plans, observation tool and family materials support that documentation. Your star level comes from YoungStar’s own review, and we make no promise about it.

Under DCF 251, a group center needs a written program that is posted and suited to the developmental level of each child and group, with a flexible daily balance of active and quiet, individual and group, and indoor and outdoor activities. For infants and toddlers, activities should emphasize play as a learning experience. LBP’s weekly plans give each room that written program, built around play for the youngest groups.

4K Community Approaches let a district contract with a child care center, Head Start program or private school, and those 4K classrooms are led by DPI-licensed educators. Because the 4K day runs under your district contract, settle that classroom’s curriculum with your district partner. Your infant, toddler, 3-year-old and wraparound rooms can run on LBP, and its 3-to-5 band follows WMELS and the Head Start ELOF.

Yes. Wisconsin Shares helps eligible working families pay part of their child care costs. Families are found eligible by their local agency, with MECA serving Milwaukee County, and providers must be licensed or certified and take part in YoungStar. Choosing LBP has no effect on authorizations or payments. It gives children in Shares-funded seats the same planned day, observation notes and English and Spanish family pages as everyone else.

We do not claim it will. DCF 251 asks full-year staff in group centers for at least 15 hours of continuing education a year, and The Wisconsin Registry is the state’s recognition system for that training. LBP University’s 49.5 hours of professional learning come with your subscription and focus on teaching the curriculum well. Ask your licensing specialist before counting any of them.

One yearly subscription covers your whole Wisconsin site: every classroom from infants to pre-K, every teacher, ELBY, LBP University, the observational assessment tool, Spanish and English content and the four WMELS crosswalks. Adding a room or a teacher does not change the price. You can start with a 30-day free trial, Lakeshore Learning supplies hands-on materials kits, and our team helps customers with grant writing.

Yes, at no extra cost. Every activity and family resource has a Spanish version next to the English one. In 2024, about 545,000 Wisconsin residents age 5 and older spoke a language other than English at home, and 54% of them spoke Spanish, according to Census data compiled by USAFacts. Teachers can send home the week’s activities in the language a family reads while the classroom plan stays the same.

Yes. Licensed family child care centers in Wisconsin care for 4 to 12 children, and from August 1, 2026 a provider can go above eight once their licensing specialist approves it. Certified providers care for fewer children. Family programs often mix babies, toddlers and preschoolers, and LBP’s five age bands let one provider plan for all of them from one login. See our family child care page.

Complete Curriculum Coverage for Every Classroom

Infant room to pre-K: one Wisconsin login, one yearly subscription and WMELS crosswalks for every age.
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Crosswalked to WMELS From Birth to Age 5

LBP maps each band to the Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards, so an ordinary teaching week leaves the posted plans and observation notes that licensing specialists and YoungStar coaches may ask to see.

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Free 30-Day Trial for Every Room

Every Wisconsin classroom can use the full curriculum for 30 days before you decide.

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Trusted by 3,000 Programs in 50 States

Centers and home programs nationwide plan their days with Learning Beyond Paper.

See LBP in a Wisconsin Classroom

Let's Get You the Right Information

Share the ages you serve, your YoungStar goals and whether you take part in Wisconsin Shares, 4K or Get Kids Ready. We will show you where LBP fits.
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Start Your Free 30-Day Trial

30 days of full access for every Wisconsin classroom, starting today.

Book a Personalized Demo

A live walkthrough shaped around your Wisconsin program.

Explore the Full Curriculum

Infant through pre-k — one platform, one price, complete coverage.