Child develops trusting relationships with nurturing adults.
What educators might observe
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Greets educators or other adults when arriving in the learning environment
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Engages in informal conversations with adults (e.g., talks with educator every day about what their new kitten is doing)
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Seeks educator’s assistance when a group of children cannot agree on the rules for a game
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Seeks educator’s advice on how to deal with a conflict with a friend
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Help children and families identify and develop supportive relationships with family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, community members, and service providers
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Model language of assistance and support (“How can we work together to figure this out?”)
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.
What educators might observe
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Shows evidence of social messages affecting how they feel about their self and group identity (e.g., evidence of internalized superiority or internalized oppression)
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Knows that insults related to race, gender, and cultural identity are hurtful
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May choose to play only with children close to their gender, racial, or cultural identities
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Explores the similarities and differences in the home cultures of their peers
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Convey to families that you respect them as their child’s best advocate
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Create opportunities for children to know each other by interviewing each child in a group as part of a name study or family study
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Incorporate the four goals of Anti-Bias Education (listed below) into the daily curriculum
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Each child will demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities
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Each child will express comfort and joy with human diversity; accurate language for human differences; and deep, caring human connections
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Each child will increasingly recognize unfairness, have language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts
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Each child will demonstrate empowerment and the skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice and/or discriminatory actions
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.
What educators might observe
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Shows satisfaction and pride in their work (e.g., expresses joy when they are selected to work on a new science project)
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Compares abilities to those of their peers
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Seeks approval of abilities from peers and adults
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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
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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
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Display children’s work with their words of guidance or explanation beside it
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Create structures for children to show their interests and preferences, such as choice time
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Make time for reflective conversations (“How are you doing in our classroom routines? How is reading going?”)
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Avoid asking children to line up or choose partners by gender
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.
What educators might observe
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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)
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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)
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Notices and describes social inequities
Ways educators might support the child's development
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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
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Teach children to show compassion and support for their peers
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Assume children’s good intentions
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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
Child navigates friendships with peers through cooperation and negotiation.
What educators might observe
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Negotiates with other children by using words to express ideas and feelings
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Plays games that have clear roles for two players (e.g., card games, board games, and computer games)
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May change the rules of structured games to ensure that they win
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Dislikes being corrected or losing at games
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Identifies actions of others as purposeful or accidental
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Sense of friendship with the same child may change abruptly within the same day
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Consider shared interest among children as basis for connection; children who like to build, children who like to read about animals, etc
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Suggest out-of-school time connections for families
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Offer shared language for respectful conversation, including respectful disagreeing: (“I disagree” rather than “No! You’re wrong!”)
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Read books about cooperation and negotiation, such as
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Click , Clack, Moo: Cows That Type , by Doreen Cronin
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Cat and Rat , by Ed Young
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The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig , by Eugene Trivizas
Child expresses and manages their feelings and impulses.
What educators might observe
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Identifies socially and culturally acceptable behavior (e.g., listening vs. interrupting)
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Becomes upset when they lose a game but is able to use a strategy to cope
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Read books about self-control, such as:
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Sophie Gets Angry , Really, Really Angry , by Molly Bang
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Ahn’s Anger , by Gail Silver
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Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse , by Kevin Henkes
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Discuss the books with the children, asking
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Have you ever felt the same way as ___?
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What would you do if you were ___?
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What would you say to___?
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Create strategy charts for feelings, impulses, and ways to act on them
Child follows the rhythms, rules, and routines of the learning environment.
What educators might observe
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Adheres strongly to rules (e.g., “James isn’t raising his hand to talk, but I am!”)
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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)
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Takes turns in group discussion (e.g., raises hands, quietly listens to others, and proposes ideas when it’s their turn to talk)
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Adapts rules to fit a particular situation or their own desires
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Reflect on your own cultural expectations related to discipline
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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
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Decide on logical consequences for rules with all staff; reconsider the use of social exclusion as a consequence
