Child will develop the ability to speak and/ or sign in increasingly complete, complex, precise, and varied ways.
What educators might observe
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Speaks clearly so that others understand
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Tells a joke to a friend
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Uses most parts of speech or grammar correctly (e.g., uses a contraction)
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Uses vocabulary specific to science, math, social studies, and the arts
Child will develop their ability to listen and understand complete, complex, precise, and varied language.
What educators might observe
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Remembers a story that a friend told yesterday
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Responds and can follow a sequence of twoor three-step directions in a row
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Listens to a peer’s idea and participates in a conversation with a partner
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Compares or uses specific traits to describe characters in a story that the educator has told
Child uses language to relate to others according to the social expectations of their family, community, and culture.
What educators might observe
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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
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Converses with a partner taking a number of turns and building on and extending the topic
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Shares knock-knock and other jokes with peers
Child enjoys, attends to, understands, and makes meanings from spoken and written language of storytelling and books.
What educators might observe
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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.”)
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Understands and responds to a favorite part of a book during buddy reading
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Retells a story from a picture book (e.g., summarizes a plot about how a neighborhood transforms with mural art)
Child develops the ability to recognize and manipulate the different sounds in spoken language(s).
What educators might observe
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Generates a group of rhyming words from one word
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Segments simple words into their initial, middle, and ending sounds
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Taps out the number of syllables in a multisyllabic word
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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”)
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Uses first, last, and some middle sounds in invented spelling (e.g., writes, I WNT TO THE PRK for “I went to the park.”)
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Begins to explore and identify blends such as “pl” in play and “br” in brown
Child uses materials and/ or language to make meaning for themselves and/or an audience.
What educators might observe
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Uses drawing and invented spelling to write about an experience, idea, or topic
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Follows some social rules for composition (e.g.,, begins messages with “Dear” or “To” and concludes with “Love” or “From”)
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Adds their own ideas to a story their peers are making up
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References known stories and styles in their own composing (e.g., reads several versions of Jack and the Beanstalk and dictates their own version.)
Child views, creates, and makes meaning of visual communication and multimedia documentation, which includes drawings, collections, photographs, videos and displays.
What educators might observe
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Views a slideshow of documentation from the learning environment and selects an image of an experience for further investigation
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Responds to the visual work of a peer using observations, comments, and questions
