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.

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

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Talk to family members about their beliefs about death and how they would like to explain death to the child
• Talk to children about the inevitability of the life cycle, and how it applies to everything that is alive
• Observe food as it turns to compost; discuss how it changes

B

Representing

Child uses symbolic thought to represent.

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

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Invite families to share modes of artistic expression from their family, community, or culture
• Make paper dolls of historical figures; use cloth and scissors to clothe the dolls in historical costumes
• Act out stories that the children write
• Sing songs, such as:
  • “I Had a Rooster”
  • “The Cat Came Back”
  • “The Foolish Frog”

C

Memory and History

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

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

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Research the histories of the national and cultural groups of the children in the class, and be prepared to weave examples from these groups into discussions of history
• Invite each child to contribute to a timeline of a time period that includes now
• Sing songs that touch on history
  • “If I Had a Hammer”
  • “If You Meet Me at the Back of the Bus”
  • “Fillimiooriay”

D

Investigating and Exploring

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

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

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Provide sketchbooks to record natural phenomena, and make predictions; for example, ask children to draw a seed as they plant it, then when it has sprouted, and as a plant growing over time
• Invite children to document their observations in a variety of ways (charts, notes, or graphs, for example)

E

Understanding Cause and Effect

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

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

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Engage in group conversation about children’s theories of causation
• Analyze choices people made in creating the built environment (e.g. ‘Why did engineers choose to build a vertical lift bridge here?”)

F

Engineering: Problem-solving with Materials

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

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

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Observe and reflect on children’s processes as they solve problems with materials
• Consider which children are most engaged in engineering: Are girls as engaged as boys? Why or why not?
• Invite children to make complex marble runs, taking into account both the angle and length of the ramps
• Offer objects in the environment as models for children’s problem-solving; for example, show them a hinge on a door, or point out how bricks are stacked in a building

G

Math

1. Comparing and Categorizing

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

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

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Offer formats distinctly for comparison and categorization, such as Venn diagrams and three-column charts
• Offer vocabulary such as “traits,” “similar,” and “category”
• Use “greater than” and “less than” to compare quantity
• Compare standard and non-standard units of measure, some of which can be parts of the body; use inches, feet and meters, but also fingers, hands, and items like paper clips

2. Number Sense and Quantity

Child understands and explores numbers and quantity.

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

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Play more games on a number line (If you start at 12, how many to get to 15? How do you get to 100 from 64?)
• Keep locating math in the body; ask questions like how many fingers in the class?
• Provide base 10 materials to model numbers
• Play “I’m Thinking of a Number” in which children seek clues of what numbers are smaller or larger than the one in mind

3. Patterning

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

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

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Use materials such as pattern blocks to build growth patterns and describe them (“One hexagon has six sides. How many sides on two hexagons? On three hexagons?”)
• Invite children to observe, copy, and create patterns that grow; for example, make a square out of four cubes, make the square grow to nine cubes, then 16, and describe the pattern with numbers

4. Spatial Sense and Geometry

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

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

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Invite children to use materials such as clay, straw, and pipe cleaners to construct shapes
• Encourage children to describe why a figure belongs or does not belong to a shape category
• Show children how to “test” right angles on rectangles with a “right-angle checker,” (thumb and index finger held apart at 90°, or the corner of a piece of paper)
• Solve construction problems with blocks
  • Build a bridge from point A to point B
  • Construct the tallest tower
  • Attempt to build buildings observed in the neighborhood