Child recognizes and develops the ability to explain how material objects change and how they remain stable.
What educators might observe
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Plays hide-and-seek, fully hiding body, but laughing or otherwise staying in touch with playmates through sound
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Plays with their shadow, trying to step on it or get away from it
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Has difficulty imagining that their adult family members were once children
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Investigates the permanence of death through observation of insects and animals and in dramatic play; will ask questions about where the insect or animal may go
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Provide concrete examples of changes that occur
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Document the growth of a caterpillar into a butterfly
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Collect different colored leaves (green, red, and brown)
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Watch a pumpkin decompose
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Trace their shadows at different times of the day
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Observe patterns of change in weather conditions, daily and seasonally
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Allow the children to have a ceremony when a classroom pet has died; answer their questions about death factually
Child uses symbolic thought to represent.
What educators might observe
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Constructs and experiments with longer, complicated storylines in dramatic play
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Invents storyline and initiates play with a peer (e.g., “Are you coming to my restaurant? Can I take your order?”)
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Negotiates roles with peers (e.g, “I’ll be the papa and you are baby bear.” “NOOO. I’m the sister bear. And you are my brother.”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Invite families to visit the class to share a folktale or family story
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Encourage the child to add details; for example, build a fort to represent an animal’s home, and then discuss what would be needed in the fort to make it more cozy
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Support the development of children’s understanding of gender roles in representation (“What does it mean to look like a girl? Does a girl have to look like that?”)
Child develops the ability to store, retrieve, and share information about past experiences.
What educators might observe
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Reenacts multiple sequential scenes from personal experience, books, and media
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Includes specific details of events when recreating them (e.g., pretending to add turmeric and paprika when cooking in the sand box)
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Knows significant events from their family history (e.g., “Abuelito came from the Dominican Republic.”)
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Describes significant changes in their own lives over time (e.g., “I used to live with my Auntie. Now I live in Mommy’s house in Buffalo.”)
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Understands that things were different a very long time ago, but is unsure how long ago this was (e.g., “When grandma was little, were dinosaurs alive?”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Observe and reflect on children’s dramatic play; what personal histories are they are re-enacting?
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Invite children to use drawing and dictation to tell about recent experiences
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Create a schedule of the day and support discussion about what comes first and what comes next during the day, as well as what usually happens on what days of the week
Child becomes a scientific thinker by manipulating objects, asking questions, making observations and predictions, and developing generalizations.
What educators might observe
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Uses feelings and imagination to understand the results of a science experiment (e.g., “Maybe the caterpillar just felt like becoming a butterfly.”)
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Uses sources other than the adult to gather information, such as books and peers
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Brainstorms solutions based on background knowledge (e.g., “Be quiet so the birds will come!”)
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Asks a series of questions about their observations (e.g., when observing a worm on the sidewalk the child asks, “Where did it come from? Why doesn’t it have eyes? How will it find its way home to its family?”)
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Asks “why?” but then rejects answers not to their liking
Ways educators might support the child's development
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When a child asks a question, encourage the group to hypothesize what the answer may be; chart their responses and invite them to explain their thinking
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Show children how to look for the answer to a question in a book or online
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Provide opportunities for children to use polls (“Do you think it will rain today?’ “Which item will weigh more-a book, a leaf or a pencil?”)
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Make big graphs to capture this “data” so that children can see and interpret it
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Provide tools to explore the environment (magnets, magnifying glasses, light table)
Child understands and explores the causes and effects of actions and events.
What educators might observe
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Uses clues and background knowledge to find causes (“She’s wearing a coat so it must be cold outside.”)
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Identifies objects or conditions that affect other objects (“The food coloring makes the water blue” or “The cold turned the water to ice.”)
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Makes predictions, sometimes using unrelated information (“I think the gold car will win. Gold is for winners.”)
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Uses the word “because” to show relationship between past and future events
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Distinguishes between some magical and scientific causes, but still believes in magical causes
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Engage children in extended back-andforth conversations about the reasons for things
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Use phrases such as
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What do you think will happen when…?
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What happened last time?
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What made that happen?
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Why do you think that?
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Observe and record children’s hypotheses about causes, and revisit predictions with children to reflect on how their thinking has changed over time
Child plans and uses hands, tools, and technology to solve problems with materials.
What educators might observe
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Uses blocks or boxes to build bridges
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When using materials, compares results to initial predictions and tries again (e.g., after discovering that the slime breaks if stretched quickly, stretches it more slowly)
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Support children in thinking of themselves as engineers by asking questions such as
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“How can you use these materials to make..?”
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“What do you think would happen if…?”
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“Why do you think that happened?”
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Help children see that mistakes teach us important things
Child recognizes some similarities and differences between familiar and unfamiliar people, objects, or experiences.
What educators might observe
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Sorts by a given attribute, forming categories
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Uses comparative words (e.g., faster, slower, louder)
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Identifies the measurable attributes of objects such as length or weight and describes them using the appropriate vocabulary (e.g., small, big, short, tall, empty, full, heavy, light)
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Lines up objects in order to determine which is longer
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Fills large containers with cups of water and counts how many cups fit in each container
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Make a simple Bingo game with 9 squares of colors, shapes, or animals; the cards from this game can also be used for a simple matching game
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If children are comparing objects, offer them a standard or non-standard tool for measurement
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Play “duck, duck, goose” using different categories, such as “train, train, car”
Child understands and explores numbers and quantity.
What educators might observe
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Attempts to count to 20 by ones
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Recognizes the number of objects in groups of four without counting
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Accurately counts five to 10 objects in a line and answers the “how many” question with the last number counted
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Can match a number of objects with a written numeral 0 to 5 (0 representing a count of no objects)
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When asked for five of something, counts out five objects
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Compares groups of one to six objects by matching (e.g., gives each child a bagel and says that there are the same number of bagels as children)
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Counts the number of objects in a group so they can compare and say which has more, up to five objects; however, if the objects in one group are larger, may say that group has more (e.g., says three large trucks are more than five small cars
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Observe children’s use of counting, oneto-one correspondence, estimating, and simple arithmetic in their play; connect to and extend this learning
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Offer games that ask children to match a numeral to a number of things
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String six beads on a pipe cleaner
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P ick a card and fill the basket with that number of objects
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Roll a dice and do a movement that many times
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Jump, clap, or stomp one to five times and ask the children to hold up the number of fingers that matches the number of movements
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Include books related to number and quantity in the learning environment
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The Doorbell Rang , by Pat Hutchins
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Anno’s Counting Book , by Mitsumasa Ann
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Ten Black Dots , by Donald Crews
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City by Numbers , by Stephen Johnson
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Fish Eyes , by Lois Ehlert
Child develops the ability to identify, describe, extend, and create patterns.
What educators might observe
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Describes simple AB patterns (e.g., when the teacher claps then stomps, child names whether to clap or stomp next)
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Extends visual patterns; continues building a line of blocks that an older child has begun (e.g., triangle, triangle, square, triangle, triangle, square)
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Identifies repeating patterns in numbers ( “10, 20, and 30 all end in 0.”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Invite children to join you in creating a pattern of music using simple instruments such as a tambourine and a triangle
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Ask children to notice patterns in the world, such as in seasons or daily schedules
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Provide materials such as pattern blocks and color tiles that suggest creating AB patterns
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Use songs and games to teach patterns:
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Red Light, Green Light
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Duck, Duck, Goose
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Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
Child understands how objects, points, lines, and shapes fit in space.
What educators might observe
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Uses blocks to build in multiple directions, with multiple points of contact between components
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Builds arches, enclosures, corners, and crosses
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Follows a model to create simple shapes out of lines (e.g., organizes sticks to make a triangle or rectangle)
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Slides and turns pieces to make them fit in a simple puzzle
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Calls a shape a rectangle because it “looks like a door,” rather than naming sides and angles
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Calls a variety of open or closed pointy shapes “triangles”
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Experiments with combining shapes to make a new shape (e.g., in the block area, accidently puts two triangles together to make a square, and then repeats this action intentionally)
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Include materials in the classroom environment that develop geometric concepts
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Blocks
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Jigsaw puzzles
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Magnetic shapes
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Shape puzzles
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Pattern blocks
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Unit blocks
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Legos
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Go on community walks along different routes and discuss which route was longer or shorter and why
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Describe the location of objects the child is trying to find, rather than pointing to them (e.g., “The tape is beside the construction paper.”)
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Present many examples of squares and rectangles, varying orientation and size; include squares as examples of rectangles (If children say, “That’s a square,” reply, “It is a square, which is a special type of rectangle.”
