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
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Provide opportunities for children to engage in informal talk throughout the day
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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.”)
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When children are engaged in a content area like visual arts, repeatedly use vocabulary specific to their processes, such as “perspectives” and “dimensions”
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
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Listen and provide feedback to clarify and extend understanding; for instance, restate in another way or use an image or a gesture to clarify
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Engage peers in a variety of activities in a range of different topics that foster sustained interactions
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Use translanguaging between English and home languages to encourage participation and keep children in the conversational loop
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Make comparisons with familiar characters and plots to sustain interactions
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
Ways educators might support the child's development
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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
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Observe emergent multilingual children’s use of social language when they are speaking in their home language
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During read-aloud time, invite predictions about characters’ relationships and interactions (“What might this character say to this one if she has that feeling?”)
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)
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Engage in extended conversation and dialogue about what children notice when they read
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Listen to what children say in response to open-ended questions and clarify, expand, or extend their ideas
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Ask peers to respond to other children’s questions and comments about their reading
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Use self-talk to model making connections to a story
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Ask children if they have ever had an experience similar to the character in the story
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Ask children to draw a picture in response to a story they heard read aloud
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
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Explore sounds of the alphabet by playing a clapping game (“When I say a word that starts with an “m,” clap your hands!”)
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Create an activity in which children can listen to beginning and ending sounds, noting the difference between each
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.)
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Brainstorm ideas for compositions with children
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Make time for children to share a scene or to act out parts of a story for a peer audience with props
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Celebrate children’s completed compositions with a publishing party
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
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Identify museums and galleries to visit with children
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Invite children to use drawing as a way to look closely at sculptures
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Invite a visual artist or filmmaker to visit the classroom
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Create a slideshow of documentation from the learning environment and share it with children each Friday
