Child recognizes and develops the ability to explain how material objects change and how they remain stable.
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Set up activities such as mixing color stations or watercolors over ice cubes to show how things change properties
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Plant bean or grass seeds and watch them grow
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Notice and respect children’s feelings about puppets and costumes
Child uses symbolic thought to represent.
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Provide fabrics and props for the child to use in dramatic play so they can create scenarios
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Encourage child to talk about or point to specific parts of their drawings, paintings, and sculptures by saying, ”Tell me about your…” or “Oh, you are pointing at a red tree!”
Child develops the ability to store, retrieve, and share information about past experiences.
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Provide the child with photographs or objects to bring home to inspire family conversations about what the child did at school
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Discuss previous events if the child brings them up, such as a trip to the grocery store or a bus ride to school
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Provide props so that the child may reenact their experiences
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If multiple children are remembering a past experience, acknowledge each story, but also point out details such as the time of day, or who they were with
Child becomes a scientific thinker by manipulating objects, asking questions, making observations and predictions, and developing generalizations.
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Engage in multi-sensory activities that invite investigation
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Cooking in the classroom
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Mixing and stirring natural materials in buckets
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Walks in the neighborhood, woods, or park
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Floating scarves in the wind
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Freezing objects in ice and watching them thaw
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Digging holes
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Ask “wh” questions, such as “What is that?” “Who is that?” “What if...?” “What do you think?” and “What happened?”
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Listen to children’s questions and provide descriptive answers
Child understands and explores the causes and effects of actions and events.
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Narrate what may be happening during an event that the child is curious about
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Use the phrases, “I wonder...” and “Let’s see what happens if…”
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Allow child plenty of time and repetition to explore an event or item; add materials to extend learning such as different size balls to roll down a ramp
Child plans and uses hands, tools, and technology to solve problems with materials.
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Allow child time to figure out problem for themselves, instead of intervening immediately; for example, build time into the schedule for child to try and get their shoes on before going outside
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Encourage child to try doing a task, or suggest ways that they may be successful, such as getting a stool to reach the sink
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Ask if the child needs help and acknowledge and respect the response
Child recognizes some similarities and differences between familiar and unfamiliar people, objects, or experiences.
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Provide puzzles and toys that encourage matching, such as shape sorters
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Incorporate categorization into games with children; for example, make up a story together in the block area about a family of goats and a family of sheep
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Label the same objects in a group in different ways (“mommy, child, baby” and then “big, small, tiny.”)
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Encourage child to group toys and compare similarities and differences between them (e.g., “Let’s find all the toys with wheels.”)
Child understands and explores numbers and quantity.
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Encourage children to set the table for snack or lunch with one cup, one plate, and one napkin at each chair
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Use language to describe quantity throughout the day (“We have a lot of apples for snack! We have many more apples than we can eat.”)
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Incorporate counting into representational play with children (“There are three bears in the house. One, two, three.”)
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Provide egg cartons, ice cube trays, and muffin tins with small blocks so children can practice one-to-one correspondence
Child develops the ability to identify, describe, extend, and create patterns.
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Look for patterns in the natural and built environment with the child
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Encourage the child to help set the table at mealtimes
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Engage children in cooking activities where patterns are reinforced (e.g., when taking turns mixing, chant, “Stir, stir, stir, pass! Stir, stir, stir, pass!)
Child understands how objects, points, lines, and shapes fit in space.
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Outline shapes on the floor using string or tape, and encourage the children to go inside
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Provide different sized boxes, wagons, and wheelbarrows that the children can climb in and out of and can use to move objects or other children
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Talk about the shapes of blocks with children; compare the blocks with one another
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Emphasize words describing where objects are in relation to one another (“beside” and “between”)
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Help the child to find themselves in space (“Where is your pinky finger? Where is your elbow?”)
