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Early Learning Guidelines

Across all five domains

6-year-olds

Stage Infants Toddlers Preschool Early elementary
Age 0–9 months 8–16 months 15–24 months 24–36 months 3-year-olds 4-year-olds 5-year-olds 6-year-olds 7-year-olds 8-year-olds
Domain All domains I. Approaches to Learning II. Physical Well-Being, Health and Motor Development III. Social and Emotional Development IV. Communication, Language, and Literacy V. Cognitive Development
Show Both What educators might observe Ways educators might support the child's development
I

Approaches to Learning

A

Curiosity and Interest

Child approaches the world with curiosity and develops knowledge about specific topics.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Locates an informational text in the classroom to find out about topics they are interested in
  • Asks questions of experts (e.g., during a field trip to the waste treatment plant, child asks questions about how the pipes are connected)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include time in the daily schedule during which children may follow their own ideas to make, build, and compose their own works
  • Allow students access to a variety of materials to pursue their interests:
    • Blocks and ramps
    • Writing and drawing materials
    • Books
    • Legos
    • Clay
    • Math manipulatives
  • Visit the library with children and show them how to look for books related to their topics of interest
B

Initiative

Child pursues their own goals.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Thinks of ideas for stories they want to write about
  • Volunteers to help with classroom chores
  • Talks to an educator about how to solve a social problem (e.g., talks about homeless people they see on the way to school and asks how we might offer shelter to them)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include a writing area in the learning environment that has multiple and varied tools, materials, and resources (e.g., different types of paper and blank books with a few lines on each page for children to draw and write their own stories)
  • Engage children in conversation about their own goals
  • Discuss problems and plan solutions; ask for the child(ren)’s ideas for plans of action and document these in writing or drawing
C

Persistence and Attentiveness

Child focuses on tasks and perseveres in accomplishing them.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Sustains interest in a chapter book the educator is reading the class over the course of several weeks
  • Reflects on their work and makes changes based on feedback from peers or educators
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Provide large, uninterrupted time blocks for work on projects
  • Ask children to share work in progress, reflect on their process, and plan aloud their next steps; other children can offer suggestions for next steps
  • Create areas in the classroom for “works in progress”
D

Creativity and Inventiveness

Child uses their imagination to create and invent.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Uses their knowledge of science or social studies in creating (e.g., finds a beetle and makes a home for it with leaves and sticks)
  • Collaborates with peers to create a project over time (e.g., works together in a small group to paint the backdrop for a play)
  • Uses a familiar story as the basis to tell a new version (e.g., learns several Anansi stories and then makes up their own story about a tricky spider)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include “choice time” in the daily schedule during which the child has access to a variety of materials and may follow their own idea for a project
  • Provide familiar tools such as scissors, rulers, tape, and glue for work
  • Document and facilitate children in recording their work with photographs, drawings, and writing; reflect on the process of creating
  • Introduce the formal vocabularies of music, dance, and visual arts
II

Physical Well-Being, Health and Motor Development

A

Large Motor Skills

Child uses and coordinates their large muscle groups.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Kicks a ball at a target
  • Pumps legs to swing
  • Rides a bicycle without training wheels
  • Jumps rope
  • Dribbles basketball a few times
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Sing songs or chants with some dance steps to practice galloping, skipping, side stepping, walking in rhythm, such as
    • “Skip to My Lou”
    • “Going to Boston”
    • “El Juego Chirimbolo”
    • “Sasha 1-2-3”
    • “Little Johnnie Brown”
    • “Funga Alaffia”
  • Provide structured gross motor breaks throughout the day
  • Provide unstructured, outdoor recess time each day
B

Small Motor Skills

Child controls the small muscles in their hands and wrists.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Cuts out a shape, such as a house, with scissors
  • Uses a pencil to write letters
  • Makes braided chains of yarn or finger-knits
  • Uses a large needle and thread to sew a pouch or a pattern
  • Weaves yarn or strips of paper together
  • Grips and squeezes a paper punch or pliers
  • Ties shoelaces in bow
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include materials in the learning environment that foster fine motor skills
    • Legos
    • Geoboards
    • Clay
    • Yarn
    • Sewing materials
    • Hand looms
    • Scissors
    • Hole punches
    • Hammer and nails
    • Drill
    • Pliers
C

Sensory Integration

The child uses sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, proprioception (deep pressure), and vestibular function (balance) to perceive and respond to the world around them.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Eye muscles are adequately developed to allow them to move their eyes efficiently across a series of letters
  • Identifies and describes sensations they find soothing or disagreeable
  • Propels self on swing by pushing off tree or other surface with their feet, and begins to pump their legs
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Support children in developing self-awareness about their sensory preferences
  • Honor children’s requests for quieter environments, movement breaks, or alternative seating
  • Reflect with colleagues on options available to children during recess, and add elements to the outdoor environment as necessary
D

Self-Care

Child cares for their physical well-being.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Describes the purpose of events at the doctor’s office (e.g., says that a vaccine will keep them from getting sick in the future)
  • Discusses consent with educators and peers; for example, says, “I would prefer to shake your hand, not give you a kiss.”
  • Knows to call 911 in an emergency
  • Knows what bullying is and how to report bullying to a trusted adult
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Offer healthy snacks and ask children to try unfamiliar or non-preferred foods
  • Provide independent access to Band- Aids
  • Provide sufficient time for children to independently put on their own coat, hat, and gloves
  • Make plans about what a child should do if separated from the group during outings
  • When practicing fire, lockdown, and other drills with children
    • Invite children to express their fears and provide reassurance and emotional support
    • Inform families that there was a drill
    • Provide families with information about how to address children’s fears about safety at school
E

Healthy Sexuality

Child develops a healthy relationship to their body, pleasure, and others. This healthy sense of self is supported and demonstrated through respectful, caring, and loving relationships with families, educators, and other children.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Less interested in exploring sexuality than they were earlier
  • May continue to masturbate and understand that it is a healthy activity that has a specific time and place
  • Begins to understand concepts of the body changing as it grows older
  • Knows that they have agency over and are the experts on their own bodies and gender identity (i.e. they get to decide if they are a boy, girl, both, or something else)
  • Understands that there are lots of different kinds of loving relationships (e.g. parent, sibling, friend, etc.)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Check in with families about children’s curiosity regarding partnerships and sexuality
  • Explore the changing and growing body by comparing photos of when children were younger with what they look like now
  • Be sensitive to the variety of family configurations in the classroom in your words and actions (e.g., avoid saying, “Go home and tell your moms and dads.”)
  • Nurture children’s positive self-image; draw self portraits and talk about what they love and appreciate about their bodies
III

Social and Emotional Development

A

Trusting Relationships with Adults

Child develops trusting relationships with nurturing adults.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Greets educators or other adults when arriving in the learning environment
  • Engages in informal conversations with adults (e.g., talks with educator every day about what their new kitten is doing)
  • Seeks educator’s assistance when a group of children cannot agree on the rules for a game
  • Seeks educator’s advice on how to deal with a conflict with a friend
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Help children and families identify and develop supportive relationships with family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, community members, and service providers
  • Model language of assistance and support (“How can we work together to figure this out?”)
B

Sense of Belonging

Child experiences a sense of belonging in environments that link, extend, and affirm the child’s family and community. Child expresses comfort and joy with human diversity.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Shows evidence of social messages affecting how they feel about their self and group identity (e.g., evidence of internalized superiority or internalized oppression)
  • Knows that insults related to race, gender, and cultural identity are hurtful
  • May choose to play only with children close to their gender, racial, or cultural identities
  • Explores the similarities and differences in the home cultures of their peers
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Convey to families that you respect them as their child’s best advocate
  • Create opportunities for children to know each other by interviewing each child in a group as part of a name study or family study
  • Incorporate the four goals of Anti-Bias Education (listed below) into the daily curriculum
    • Each child will demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities
    • Each child will express comfort and joy with human diversity; accurate language for human differences; and deep, caring human connections
    • Each child will increasingly recognize unfairness, have language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts
    • Each child will demonstrate empowerment and the skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice and/or discriminatory actions
C

Sense of Self

Child develops a sense of self through noticing and developing their own interests, preferences, and abilities. Child increasingly develops self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Shows satisfaction and pride in their work (e.g., expresses joy when they are selected to work on a new science project)
  • Compares abilities to those of their peers
  • Seeks approval of abilities from peers and adults
  • Can name some of their group identities and express how they feel about being a member of those groups
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Create time for children to share their work, either before or after a working period; allow children to choose the work they want to share
  • Display children’s work with their words of guidance or explanation beside it
  • Create structures for children to show their interests and preferences, such as choice time
  • Make time for reflective conversations (“How are you doing in our classroom routines? How is reading going?”)
  • Avoid asking children to line up or choose partners by gender
D

Empathy

Child forms deep, caring, human connections by imagining what someone else may be thinking or feeling and responding with care. Child recognizes unfairness and understands that unfairness hurts.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Dislikes being at a relative disadvantage to others (e.g., would rather that nobody got cookies, then that their friend got two and they got one)
  • Does not object to being at a relative advantage to others (e.g., does not advocate for fairness when they get three cookies and their peer gets one)
  • Notices and describes social inequities
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Observe that life seems easier for some people and harder for others, and explore with children the reasons for these inequities; teach that inequities are not a consequence of anything that marginalized people did wrong
  • Teach children to show compassion and support for their peers
  • Assume children’s good intentions
  • When children come to educator with an interpersonal conflict, ask them to start resolving it by first trying to imagine and articulate how the other party feels, and then invite them to articulate to each other how they really feel
E

Cooperation and Negotiation

Child navigates friendships with peers through cooperation and negotiation.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Negotiates with other children by using words to express ideas and feelings
  • Plays games that have clear roles for two players (e.g., card games, board games, and computer games)
  • May change the rules of structured games to ensure that they win
  • Dislikes being corrected or losing at games
  • Identifies actions of others as purposeful or accidental
  • Sense of friendship with the same child may change abruptly within the same day
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Consider shared interest among children as basis for connection; children who like to build, children who like to read about animals, etc
  • Suggest out-of-school time connections for families
  • Offer shared language for respectful conversation, including respectful disagreeing: (“I disagree” rather than “No! You’re wrong!”)
  • Read books about cooperation and negotiation, such as
    • Click , Clack, Moo: Cows That Type , by Doreen Cronin
    • Cat and Rat , by Ed Young
    • The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig , by Eugene Trivizas
F

Emotional Self-Regulation

Child expresses and manages their feelings and impulses.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Identifies socially and culturally acceptable behavior (e.g., listening vs. interrupting)
  • Becomes upset when they lose a game but is able to use a strategy to cope
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Read books about self-control, such as:
    • Sophie Gets Angry , Really, Really Angry , by Molly Bang
    • Ahn’s Anger , by Gail Silver
    • Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse , by Kevin Henkes
  • Discuss the books with the children, asking
    • Have you ever felt the same way as ___?
    • What would you do if you were ___?
    • What would you say to___?
  • Create strategy charts for feelings, impulses, and ways to act on them
G

Rhythms, Rules, and Routines

Child follows the rhythms, rules, and routines of the learning environment.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Adheres strongly to rules (e.g., “James isn’t raising his hand to talk, but I am!”)
  • Follows routines with multiple steps independently (e.g., arrives in the morning and knows what to do to begin day: hangs up belongings, takes out their folders, and chooses an activity until group time is announced)
  • Takes turns in group discussion (e.g., raises hands, quietly listens to others, and proposes ideas when it’s their turn to talk)
  • Adapts rules to fit a particular situation or their own desires
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Reflect on your own cultural expectations related to discipline
  • Create some routines together; ask children, for example, how they think an area could best be organized and use their input to create some routine procedures
  • Decide on logical consequences for rules with all staff; reconsider the use of social exclusion as a consequence
IV

Communication, Language, and Literacy

A

Speaking

Child will develop the ability to speak and/ or sign in increasingly complete, complex, precise, and varied ways.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Speaks clearly so that others understand
  • Tells a joke to a friend
  • Uses most parts of speech or grammar correctly (e.g., uses a contraction)
  • Uses vocabulary specific to science, math, social studies, and the arts
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Provide opportunities for children to engage in informal talk throughout the day
  • Provide opportunities for children to use new content area vocabulary in conversation and with their family by sending home conversation starters (e.g., “Ask your child about the geodes we opened today in science.”)
  • When children are engaged in a content area like visual arts, repeatedly use vocabulary specific to their processes, such as “perspectives” and “dimensions”
B

Listening and Understanding

Child will develop their ability to listen and understand complete, complex, precise, and varied language.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Remembers a story that a friend told yesterday
  • Responds and can follow a sequence of twoor three-step directions in a row
  • Listens to a peer’s idea and participates in a conversation with a partner
  • Compares or uses specific traits to describe characters in a story that the educator has told
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Listen and provide feedback to clarify and extend understanding; for instance, restate in another way or use an image or a gesture to clarify
  • Engage peers in a variety of activities in a range of different topics that foster sustained interactions
  • Use translanguaging between English and home languages to encourage participation and keep children in the conversational loop
  • Make comparisons with familiar characters and plots to sustain interactions
C

Social Communication

Child uses language to relate to others according to the social expectations of their family, community, and culture.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Understands the body language or facial expression of a peer and uses it to check in with or to modify language and/or behavior with that child
  • Converses with a partner taking a number of turns and building on and extending the topic
  • Shares knock-knock and other jokes with peers
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Talk to families about children’s use of social language outside of school; Find out if a child who is quiet at school is talkative at home or in their community
  • Observe emergent multilingual children’s use of social language when they are speaking in their home language
  • During read-aloud time, invite predictions about characters’ relationships and interactions (“What might this character say to this one if she has that feeling?”)
D

Engaging with Stories and Books

Child enjoys, attends to, understands, and makes meanings from spoken and written language of storytelling and books.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Listens to a nonfiction book and shares a personal connection (e.g., connects with text about a family from Mexico and the United States by stating, “I am from both places too.”)
  • Understands and responds to a favorite part of a book during buddy reading
  • Retells a story from a picture book (e.g., summarizes a plot about how a neighborhood transforms with mural art)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Engage in extended conversation and dialogue about what children notice when they read
  • Listen to what children say in response to open-ended questions and clarify, expand, or extend their ideas
  • Ask peers to respond to other children’s questions and comments about their reading
  • Use self-talk to model making connections to a story
  • Ask children if they have ever had an experience similar to the character in the story
  • Ask children to draw a picture in response to a story they heard read aloud
E

Phonological Awareness

Child develops the ability to recognize and manipulate the different sounds in spoken language(s).

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Generates a group of rhyming words from one word
  • Segments simple words into their initial, middle, and ending sounds
  • Taps out the number of syllables in a multisyllabic word
  • Changes the middle sound of a short word to make a new word (e.g., changes dog to dig by substituting the “i” sound for the “o” sound”)
  • Uses first, last, and some middle sounds in invented spelling (e.g., writes, I WNT TO THE PRK for “I went to the park.”)
  • Begins to explore and identify blends such as “pl” in play and “br” in brown
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Explore sounds of the alphabet by playing a clapping game (“When I say a word that starts with an “m,” clap your hands!”)
  • Create an activity in which children can listen to beginning and ending sounds, noting the difference between each
F

Composing

Child uses materials and/ or language to make meaning for themselves and/or an audience.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Uses drawing and invented spelling to write about an experience, idea, or topic
  • Follows some social rules for composition (e.g.,, begins messages with “Dear” or “To” and concludes with “Love” or “From”)
  • Adds their own ideas to a story their peers are making up
  • References known stories and styles in their own composing (e.g., reads several versions of Jack and the Beanstalk and dictates their own version.)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Brainstorm ideas for compositions with children
  • Make time for children to share a scene or to act out parts of a story for a peer audience with props
  • Celebrate children’s completed compositions with a publishing party
G

Creating and Interpreting Multimedia Texts

Child views, creates, and makes meaning of visual communication and multimedia documentation, which includes drawings, collections, photographs, videos and displays.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Views a slideshow of documentation from the learning environment and selects an image of an experience for further investigation
  • Responds to the visual work of a peer using observations, comments, and questions
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Identify museums and galleries to visit with children
  • Invite children to use drawing as a way to look closely at sculptures
  • Invite a visual artist or filmmaker to visit the classroom
  • Create a slideshow of documentation from the learning environment and share it with children each Friday
V

Cognitive Development

A

Understanding Stability and Change

Child recognizes and develops the ability to explain how material objects change and how they remain stable.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • May be anxious about death
  • Discusses the physical changes that accompany age
  • Can imagine their adult family members growing old
  • Compares the life cycles of different organisms (e.g., says that people live longer than dogs)
  • Becomes conscious of time, but is not yet able to tell time on the clock (“Is it three o’clock? My grandma is coming to get me.”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include books in the learning environment that help children understand death
    • And So It Goes , by Paloma Valdivia
    • Goodbye Mog , by Judith Kerr
    • The Goodbye Book , by Todd Parr
    • Ida Always , by Caron Levis and Charles Santoso;
    • The Dead Bird , by Margaret Wise Brown
  • Read non-fiction books about the life cycles of familiar animals (such as cats, dogs, and other animals that children see in their communities); explore rituals and routines for having pets and for pet deaths
B

Representing

Child uses symbolic thought to represent.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Assigns roles and acts out scenes from the economy (e.g., child dramatizes a farmer’s market and has peers work at different stalls and be customers)
  • Uses art to reflect on their experiences (e.g., uses musical instruments to make a song about an experience they had)
  • Shares stories and symbols from their own families and cultures
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Ask families about cultural or religious prohibitions to representation; create a welcoming and inclusive learning environment
  • Invite children to use collage materials to make dollhouses out of cardboard boxes and make characters to inhabit the dollhouses
  • Sing songs with space for children’s contributions and allow them to write new verses
  • Create visual art while listening to different types of music
C

Memory and History

Child develops the ability to store, retrieve, and share information about past experiences.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Begins to understand that history describes the collective memories of people and events from other times and places
  • Asks questions of elders about how life was different in the past
  • Shares significant events from their own family history with peers
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include books in the learning environment that tell stories from history
    • Histories of the children’s national and cultural groups (e.g., history of Taíno people)
    • Biographies (e.g., Obama, Lincoln)
    • Stories of historical events (e.g., The March on Washington)
    • Descriptions of life at different periods of history (e.g., prehistoric man)
    • Invite elders to the classroom to talk about their memories
D

Investigating and Exploring

Child becomes a scientific thinker by manipulating objects, asking questions, making observations and predictions, and developing generalizations.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Uses non-fiction books to find answers to questions
  • Develops hypotheses (e.g., If a hermit crab prefers a particular shell, the child says, “I think it’s because he has more room to grow in there.”)
  • Describes a strategy for finding out if their hypothesis is true
  • Uses prior knowledge to make generalizations about what might happen (e.g., The child says, “Fruits grow on trees, so I think if I plant this orange seed, a tree will grow.”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Use photography to gather observations over time; for example, observe a tree through several seasons or watch a pumpkin over the weeks around harvest, and ask children to come up with theories about why changes occur
  • Ask children to do research by looking in books for answers to their questions
  • Question the child’s reasoning to explore their thought process, but without concern for correctness (“What makes you think that? How did you figure that out?”)
E

Understanding Cause and Effect

Child understands and explores the causes and effects of actions and events.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Believes their own theory about the cause of an event, regardless of the evidence
  • Discusses how rules impact people and the environment (e.g., recycling)
  • Reflects on how some actions can help others feel better (e.g., cheering up a sad friend by sharing their snack)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Ask children why the water in a clear or open container left on the heater or windowsill diminishes over a few days
  • Plant beans in a plastic bag lined with a wet paper towel; ask why some grow and some do not
F

Engineering: Problem-solving with Materials

Child plans and uses hands, tools, and technology to solve problems with materials.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe
  • Investigates the motion and movement of objects when solving problems with materials (e.g., notices and compares how different balls bounce higher than others)
  • Identifies and describes tools made for different purposes
  • Uses sophisticated strategies to make their block buildings more stable
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include tools in the learning environment that children can access for a variety of purposes
    • scissors
    • staplers
    • hole punches
    • hammers
    • measuring tapes
    • hand drills
  • Invite children to systematically test the stability of their block buildings by rolling balls at them
  • Offer encouragement and guidance (“These problems can be solved! You can figure this out. What if you…?”)
G

Math

1. Comparing and Categorizing

Child recognizes some similarities and differences between familiar and unfamiliar people, objects, or experiences.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary
What educators might observe
  • Compares several aspects of something (e.g., compares animals, identifying similarities and differences between the ways they move, eat, and defend themselves)
  • Notices and compares changes over time (e.g., compares the length of the day at different times of the year, saying, “It used to be dark when I was picked up.”)
  • U ses a repeating unit to measure length (e.g., uses a line of small blocks to measure a book)
  • Identifies similarities and differences among the lives of people in different families and communities
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Offer objects for comparison and categorization
    • Photos of animals
    • Collections of rocks or leaves
    • Keys
    • Buttons
  • Engage children in using categorization for social good; for example, categorize recycling materials
  • Provide unit blocks and rulers for measurement
  • Create activities to measure distance (e.g., hold a paper airplane contest, then chart the results in a graph)

2. Number Sense and Quantity

Child understands and explores numbers and quantity.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary
What educators might observe
  • Understands that 10 is always 10, whether it is made by adding 6+4 or 7+3
  • Starts counting with numbers other than one (e.g., asked to count from four to seven, counts four, five, six, seven)
  • Answers questions about quantity such as, “How many more?” “How many fewer?” by counting up or down (e.g., when asked how many is three more than six? The child responds, “Six, seven [puts up a finger], eight [puts up another finger], nine [puts up a third finger])
  • Understands place value; understands value of a digit according to the place of the digit within a number
  • Makes whole objects from parts when counting (Given three whole plastic eggs and four plastic egg halves, knows they have five whole eggs)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Create a number line adding one number each day for the whole year, and use it to practice counting by ones, twos, fives, and tens
  • Offer structures like a 100’s chart or number line sections for organizing number systems
  • Play games in which children roll a dice or spin a spinner and move a piece along a path
  • Provide strong context for solving problems with numbers (With 23 children in the class, does everyone have a snack if you have 18 snacks? How many more we need or how many extra do we have?)

3. Patterning

Child develops the ability to identify, describe, extend, and create patterns.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary
What educators might observe
  • Identifies the smallest unit of a pattern
  • Skip counts by tens, fives, and twos
  • Explains the rule for a number pattern. For example, 5, 10, 15, 20 is the “plus five” number pattern
  • Looks for and explains patterns in a number chart
  • Understands the commutative principle of addition (2+3 = 5, 3+2 = 5)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Continue to notice patterns in the world on numbered streets and avenues or windows on buildings
  • Model addition with materials to ground math ideas in concrete experience; use two colors of tiles to show the commutative property of addition (two green and three red is five tiles; three green and two red is still five tiles)
  • Invite children to make patterns while stringing with small beads or weaving

4. Spatial Sense and Geometry

Child understands how objects, points, lines, and shapes fit in space.

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary
What educators might observe
  • Uses maps with picture clues to determine paths and find objects
  • Discriminates and names most common shapes, including rhombuses, without making mistakes such as calling ovals circles
  • Moves one shape on top of another to check if it fits exactly
  • Divides circles and rectangles into halves or fourths to develop understanding of part/whole
  • Uses blocks to make complex towers or other structures involving multiple levels with ceilings
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Look at maps with children and encourages them to describe
    • Direction—which way?
    • Distance—how far?
    • Location—where?
    • Identification—what objects?
    • Coordinates—what are they?
  • Encourage children to make representations out of pattern blocks (for example, a ship with a smoke stack and rhombus-shaped smoke); they may trace their pattern block images to create pattern block puzzles for one another
  • Read books by Rebecca Emberly and others that show how to represent objects with different shapes

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