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Across all five domains

6-year-olds

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)

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)

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)

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

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

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

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.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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.)

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

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.”)

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

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

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.”)

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)

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
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

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)

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)

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

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