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Early Learning Guidelines

Across all five domains

7-year-olds

Stage Infants Toddlers Preschool Early elementary
Age 0–9 months 8–16 months 15–24 months 24–36 months 3-year-olds 4-year-olds 5-year-olds 6-year-olds 7-year-olds 8-year-olds
Domain All domains I. Approaches to Learning II. Physical Well-Being, Health and Motor Development III. Social and Emotional Development IV. Communication, Language, and Literacy V. Cognitive Development
Show Both What educators might observe Ways educators might support the child's development
I

Approaches to Learning

A

Curiosity and Interest

Child approaches the world with curiosity and develops knowledge about specific topics.

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

What educators might observe
  • Recognizes that reality is not directly knowable and that people may have different interpretations of the same event
  • Pursues a particular interest by reading multiple books about the topic and writing and drawing about it
  • Observes and records information over time (e.g., observes and records notes about the guinea pig in its cage each day)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Create lists of children’s interests as part of learning about one another
  • Encourage children to ask their own questions about books (e.g., “Do you have any questions about the character?”)
  • As the class begins a study, the educator gathers questions from the children, asking them:
    • “What do you want to find out about this?” and recording their ideas
  • Invite children to create a presentation for the class on a topic or experience they know a lot about
B

Initiative

Child pursues their own goals.

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

What educators might observe
  • Applies learning in new contexts (e.g., learns about gardening in school and then brings seeds home and plants them in back yard)
  • Attempts to master styles of drawing and creating (e.g., sees manga in a graphic novel and tries drawing in that style)
  • Selects materials to create engineering solutions (e.g., uses wire, tape, and pieces of wood to create a drawbridge)
  • Uses writing to meet their goals (e.g., writes a card to a friend when they are out sick)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Engage children in conversation about their unique strengths and approaches to learning
  • Allow children to bring functional materials from one area of work to another, for example tape and paper to the block area to hang signs
  • Observe children’s work with them, reflect on what they have done or created and their ideas, and plan next steps together
C

Persistence and Attentiveness

Child focuses on tasks and perseveres in accomplishing them.

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

What educators might observe
  • Is able to concentrate for extended periods of time (30 minutes or more), even on non-preferred tasks
  • Makes several attempts to solve a problem, but doesn’t give up until they find a solution
  • Tries multiple strategies for solving a problem
  • Remembers essential facts over a period of days
  • Is conscious of the presentation of their work and makes revisions to improve their work
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Encourage children to choose and read books that they need several days to finish; when you check in with them ask them to summarize and predict
  • Support children in planning and carrying out projects over time; offer structures for them to keep track of steps in their work (i.e., check lists, story maps, and planning pages)
  • Create formats for reflective talking and writing about the child’s work processes, including such prompts as
    • “What was hard in making your project?”
    • “Where did you get stuck?”
    • “How were you able to figure out the problem?”
D

Creativity and Inventiveness

Child uses their imagination to create and invent.

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

What educators might observe
  • Uses standardized tools to assist them in their projects (e.g., uses a yardstick to measure the amount of string they need to hang up a curtain)
  • Thinks flexibly about how to create a project
  • Creates variation of existing games with peers
  • Adds functional details to a project (e.g., sews on a button and makes a rough buttonhole to hold on a cape)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Provide specific challenges to see how children encounter them, (e.g., ask chi ldren if they can figure out how to use a piece of paper to support a book)
  • Ask the child(ren) to use drawing and writing to plan a longterm project, alone and in groups, and include a materials list and book/computer resource list for project
  • Support child(ren) in collecting materials to create their project (e.g., collect bottle caps for children to use for wheels when building vehicles)
II

Physical Well-Being, Health and Motor Development

A

Large Motor Skills

Child uses and coordinates their large muscle groups.

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

What educators might observe
  • Runs up and down stairs with alternating feet
  • Runs to catch moving ball
  • Turns cartwheels
  • Swims
  • Learns a series of dance steps
  • Swings bat and hits ball
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • View recess as a right, not a privilege
  • Teach playground ball games such as kickball, foursquare, and tetherball
  • Create opportunities for children to choreograph sequences of movements
  • Organize competitive games with children and model sportsmanship
B

Small Motor Skills

Child controls the small muscles in their hands and wrists.

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

What educators might observe
  • Uses saws and hammers to build a construction
  • Peels carrots and potatoes efficiently with a peeler
  • Writes using letters that are the same size; stays on line when writing
  • Knits a scarf
  • Uses appropriate pressure when writing
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Provide opportunities for children to use their fine motor skills for meaningful work such as
    • Using a knife to spread cream cheese or nut butter on crackers or celery
    • Cutting and coring apples with an apple corer
    • Peeling carrots and potatoes for soup
    • Tying shoelaces
    • Using a screwdriver to fix a desk
    • Knitting a scarf
    • Making their own books and comics
C

Sensory Integration

The child uses sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, proprioception (deep pressure), and vestibular function (balance) to perceive and respond to the world around them.

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

What educators might observe
  • Children’s senses are well-integrated
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Provide activities that challenge children
    • Bike riding
    • Cooking
    • Obstacle courses
    • Hiking
D

Self-Care

Child cares for their physical well-being.

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

What educators might observe
  • Differentiates between conflict and bullying
  • In play with peers, establishes and follows own safety rules (e.g., says, “Let’s play tag, but no pushing hard, just tagging.”)
  • Checks in with educator before assuming new levels of risk, for example, says, ‘We are going to go down to play by the woods, ok?
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Visit a farmer’s market or grocery store and notice the things you see at different times of the year
  • Talk about safe and unsafe levels of risk-taking
  • Talk about consent with children. Invite them to role play scenarios in which they can practice saying, “This does not feel good to me” and “I don’t like that.”
  • Engage in group conversations about conflict and bullying
  • Invite police officer or fire fighter to visit the class and speak to the children
E

Healthy Sexuality

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.

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

What educators might observe
  • Looks to peers, media, and other sources for information about sex and sexuality; knows that not everything they hear from peers or see on T.V. or the internet is true
  • Children have questions about sex, crushes, dating, and relationships
  • May express internalized patriarchy and homophobia through teasing, using sexually explicit language (or slurs), and/or talking about girls’ bodies
  • Expresses their wants and needs with respect to their body (e.g., “Can I have some space?”) and respects the wants and needs of others (e.g., will stop roughhousing with a peer when told to)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Talk to families about their cultural norms and expectations for children’s gender and sexuality development
  • Learn from families about their children’s knowledge of sex and sexuality
  • Communicate with families about conversations related to gender and sexuality that arise in the classroom
  • Use books to support direct conversations about questions related to sex when they arise
    • What Makes a Baby , by Cory Silverberg
    • Sex is a Funny Word: A Book about Bodies, Feelings, and You , by Cory Silverberg
III

Social and Emotional Development

A

Trusting Relationships with Adults

Child develops trusting relationships with nurturing adults.

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

What educators might observe
  • Discusses a problem with classroom teacher, resource teacher, or volunteer
  • Talks to educators and staff about what they do at home with their family
  • Seeks assistance from an educator when a task is too difficult to accomplish by themselves
  • Initiates conversation with adult to “be together”
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Establish lines of help with children (“You can come to me or the assistant if you need support.”)
  • Take a request for support as a true need (Respond, for example, “I can help you with that. What have you tried so far?”)
  • Chart or map grownups with whom kids have special relationships, both in the school community and outside
B

Sense of Belonging

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.

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

What educators might observe
  • Represents themselves as part of racial, cultural, linguistic, or national groups
  • Forms groups of friends who share their gender, racial or cultural identities
  • Describes how they adjust their behavior between home and the learning environment
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Support a strong classroom community by allowing children to learn about one another informally and formally
  • Read stories and books to the class that reflect the diversities represented therein
  • Use maps to allow children to locate their homes in the community and their national origins
  • Connect families to work together on volunteering in the classroom, on fundraising projects, and chaperoning field trips, etc
  • Include community-building games in the daily routine at morning meeting and closing meeting
C

Sense of Self

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.

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

What educators might observe
  • Describes likes, dislikes, needs, wants, strengths, challenges, and personal opinions
  • Asks for help from a educator or peer when a task is too difficult to accomplish alone (e.g., “Can you help me with this math problem? I don’t remember how to do it.”)
  • Identifies goals for individual progress, accomplishment, or success
  • Identifies strategies that help them to be successful as a learner (e.g., “It helps me stay focused if I clear off my desk.”)
  • Internalizes societal messages related to gender and body image (e.g., girls may internalize a belief that they aren’t good at math or may express a desire to be thinner)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Engage in reflective writing as a routine and at key points, such as after finishing a project or before a conference with families; ask such questions as “What is hard for you in our classroom?” and “How have you been working to improve?”
  • Record children telling stories in their home languages, and share those stories with the community
  • Invite family members to come to school to be interviewed by the children
  • Use books to support direct conversations about questions related to gender stereotypes, and bullying when they arise
    • King & King , by Linda De Haan
    • One of a Kind Like Me , by Laurin Mayeno
    • Allie ’s Basketball Dream, by Barbara E. Barber
    • The Gender Fairy , by Jo Hirst
    • Princess Hair , by Sharee Miller
    • My Princess Boy , by Cheryl Kilodavis
    • A mazing Grace , by Mary Hoffman
D

Empathy

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.

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

What educators might observe
  • Stands up for others when they encounter unfairness
  • Feels strongly about equality of outcome
  • Understands that people think about what others are thinking or feeling (e.g., says, “He invited her to the party because he didn’t want her to feel left out.”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Read books about kindness:
    • Each Kindness , by Jacqueline Woodson
    • Under the Lemon Moon , by Edith Hope Fine
    • The Quiltmaker’s Gift , by Jeff Brumbeau
    • Those Shoes , by Maribeth Boelts
    • One Green Apple , by Eve Bunting
    • The Invisible Boy , by Trudy Ludwig
  • Use empathic group problem solving (“Our friend is having a hard time. Can anyone think of a way to help?”)
  • Work on perspective-taking in interpersonal interaction (“If she did to you what you did to her, how would you feel? What would you want her to do?”)
E

Cooperation and Negotiation

Child navigates friendships with peers through cooperation and negotiation.

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

What educators might observe
  • Is concerned about having friends and being liked
  • Engages in competitive games with peers
  • Works cooperatively on a group project (e.g., a mural or group collage)
  • Lets others join a game that is already in progress (e.g., “We just started playing but you can join us and go after Alex.”)
  • Listens to others’ points of views and considers ways to compromise
  • Identifies strategies to successfully resolve conflicts (e.g., “Let’s read the rules so we all agree on how to play.”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Offer a variety of games
    • Chutes and Ladders
    • Go Fish, Uno, or other card games
    • Jenga
    • Connect Four
    • Checkers
  • Foster friendships; allow children to choose their own work partners at times
  • Support children’s desire to spend time with peers who affirm their developing social, linguistic, and cultural identifies
  • Help children generate nonviolent, assertive language to communicate; be a supportive witness as children practice these skills
F

Emotional Self-Regulation

Child expresses and manages their feelings and impulses.

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

What educators might observe
  • Demonstrates flexibility and socially appropriate behavior at school (e.g., “When we are in the hallway we keep our voices down so other classes can work.”)
  • Manages strong emotions using known strategies (e.g., talks to a friend about being reprimanded by the educator)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Talk to families and past teachers about the development of the child’s ability to self-regulate
  • Notice, recognize, and communicate when children take hard steps to achieve control (e.g., “I saw that you left the game when you were getting upset.”)
  • Sing songs like “I Get Up In The Morning,” which contains the refrain, “Everything’s going to be all right,” to remind children that strong feelings pass; try “Here Comes the Sun,” to recall that feelings change
G

Rhythms, Rules, and Routines

Child follows the rhythms, rules, and routines of the learning environment.

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

What educators might observe
  • Knows the daily and weekly schedule and routines and follows routines accordingly (e.g., time for art, physical education, recess, lunch, etc.)
  • Adapts to the majority of a group even when the group’s ideas differ from their own (e.g., group plays a game with rules different from the actual rules)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Learn from families about rules and routines they have at home
  • Create illustrated charts of complex routines, like cleaning up paint or packing up at dismissal
  • Sing songs or chants to remind children of steps in a routine
IV

Communication, Language, and Literacy

A

Speaking

Child will develop the ability to speak and/ or sign in increasingly complete, complex, precise, and varied ways.

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

What educators might observe
  • Speaks clearly, modifying volume so that all listeners can understand
  • Asks and answers “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” and “why” questions about an topic of interest
  • Refines vocabulary so it better expresses the meaning that they want to express
  • Categorizes vocabulary by parts of speech
  • Enjoys puns
  • Artfully combines English with home language(s) to better convey meaning, play with language, and/or strengthen relationships
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Use translanguaging with children, and scaffold their use of academic language by strategic use of home language and English
  • Learn key words in the child’s home language related to the topic of study
  • Draw on cognates in both English and the child’s home language
  • Provide opportunities for children to represent the meaning of words in a variety of ways (e.g. through dance, in song, or in a drawing)
B

Listening and Understanding

Child will develop their ability to listen and understand complete, complex, precise, and varied language.

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

What educators might observe
  • Understands positional and directional words (e.g., here, there, over, next to, in front, under, or between)
  • Becomes logical in their comprehension of vocabulary (e.g., figures out the meaning of words based on their root)
  • Demonstrates knowledge of sequence of events and understands cue words and phrases (e.g., before, yesterday, later that day, after, next year)
  • Uses clues in story they have heard to make inferences
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Reinforce key vocabulary and content words in activities; for example, play games such as Simon Says to strengthen understanding of prepositions or classification games to deepen understandings of meanings
  • Use role plays with partners or small groups to establish understanding of characters and relationships
  • Model body language as an active listener to extend conversation
  • Draw on home languages or actively encourage partners to speak it to reinforce and ensure understanding
C

Social Communication

Child uses language to relate to others according to the social expectations of their family, community, and culture.

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

What educators might observe
  • Makes up secret languages
  • Uses language to include or exclude children from peer groups
  • Navigates different ways of using language and flexibly uses different forms and variations to improve communication or affiliation
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Observe and reflect on children’s use of social language in non-academic environments such as the playground
  • Provide time for children to discuss social interactions and how those interactions made them feel
  • Be aware of whose voices are not being heard in group conversations and provide supports for all children to participate
  • Teach children language that they can use to resolve social conflicts
D

Engaging with Stories and Books

Child enjoys, attends to, understands, and makes meanings from spoken and written language of storytelling and books.

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

What educators might observe
  • Reads independently for pleasure
  • Paraphrases a part of a book and explains why it is important
  • Monitors own comprehension and understanding in a variety of ways
  • Reads an informational book to learn about an area of interest, using text features such as the glossary to find information
  • Hears a well-known story told by a friend and compares it to a movie version of the same story, pointing out differences in the main character
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Scaffold thinking about the narrative structure of stories and books in a variety of genres
    • In fictional genres, think aloud about: 1) the beginning and the introduction to the main character, 2) the middle and the main character’s problem, and 3) predict or ask what might happen at the end
    • For an informational text, think aloud about: the main idea, examples, and key details
E

Phonological Awareness

Child develops the ability to recognize and manipulate the different sounds in spoken language(s).

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

What educators might observe
  • Explores and identifies the concept of silent “e” (e.g., adds “e” to “hid” to change the word to “hide” and understands the vowel sound has changed)
  • Develops awareness of letters that have more than one sound (e.g., notices the “o” in “row” makes a different sound than the “o” in “dog”)
  • Incorporates blends, digraphs, prefixes, and suffixes into their invented spelling
  • Uses segmenting in order to read larger words by breaking word down into initial sounds or syllables (/fac/ /tor/ /y/ for factory)
  • Recognizes the base of a word and common prefixes and suffixes and uses them to make different words (e.g., “trans,” “port,” and “ed” or “ing”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Play familiar games with rhymes (hand claps, jump rope chants) invite a family member to come in to introduce the game
  • Introduce a book such as Adivinanzas in Mixteco (Riddles in Mixteco) that is written or translated into several different languages and language varieties; ask families about riddles in their home languages
  • Explore vowel sounds by singing songs in a variety of languages (e.g., “Juanito Cuando Baila”)
F

Composing

Child uses materials and/ or language to make meaning for themselves and/or an audience.

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

What educators might observe
  • Varies the types of sentences that they use in their compositions
  • Writes stories with a beginning, middle, and end
  • Collaborates with a peer to plan, write, and illustrate a story
  • Plans and develops a writing composition over the course of several days
  • Uses an editing checklist to try to incorporate features of non-fiction (For example, to revise the non-fiction book All About Birds , the child uses a checklist and adds a Table of Contents)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Discuss contrasting features of a child’s home language with English, such as use of accent marks in Spanish and English
  • Explore the scene or setting of a play by talking about the author’s word choice
  • Model writing the beginning of a story, and revise it to introduce the main character’s personal voice
  • Ask children for explanations of why they made certain choices while authoring
  • Challenge children to use rich vocabulary and complex sentences in their compositions
G

Creating and Interpreting Multimedia Texts

Child views, creates, and makes meaning of visual communication and multimedia documentation, which includes drawings, collections, photographs, videos and displays.

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

What educators might observe
  • Uses vocabulary, such as “audience” and “represent,” to discuss the work of a filmmaker
  • Discusses an artist’s decision to use memory, imagination, or observation in their creation
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Find out about free or low-cost opportunities to see art in the community, and share these opportunities with families
  • Support children in making connections between popular culture and their own multimedia work in the classroom
  • Look at a block building from different heights and talk about ways to represent with different points of view (worm’s eye view, bird’s eye view, or child’s eye view)
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

What educators might observe
  • Discusses what happens to the body after death
  • Understands the patterns of the days of the week and the months of the year
  • Asks questions about the properties of materials (e.g.,”What is the air made out of?”)
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

What educators might observe
  • Represents specific details from architecture in their constructions
  • Plans artistic representation with peers (e.g., child writes a story with friends and then makes puppets and scenery to dramatize the story)
  • Experiments with different forms of representation they have learned about through media and trips to cultural institutions (e.g., child attends a field trip to see Balinese shadow puppets and then experiments with creating shadow puppets themselves)
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

What educators might observe
  • Groups items they have to remember into easy-to-remember categories (e.g., animals, foods, shapes)
  • Begins to identify which events happened long ago and which happened in the more recent past
  • Starts to make connections between how history has shaped our present experience (e.g., “My friends and I can swim at the same pool because of Martin Luther King, Jr.”)
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

What educators might observe
  • Seeks scientific solutions that are rational and consistent and that work in similar situations
  • Plans simple experiments (e.g., child builds spinning tops and hypothesizes that a wide top will spin for a longer period of time than a flat one)
  • Observes changes in living organisms and the natural environment over time (e.g., independently checks corn plants every morning to see how they are growing)
  • Works with peers to collaboratively plan experiments
  • Compares their observations to those of their peers
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

What educators might observe
  • Designs experiments that will prove their previously held beliefs about causes, rather than objective experiments
  • Describes choices people make based on availability of resources (e.g., talks about how lack of food causes migration)
  • Asks questions about how things change over time
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

What educators might observe
  • Uses a second problem-solving strategy if the first one is unsuccessful
  • Pays attention to the relevant part of solving a problem (e.g., examines the attachment of the axles and wheels when the toy car won’t roll)
  • Uses logic and reasoning to solve problems with materials (e.g., uses their knowledge of how the physical properties of objects affect their behavior and motion)
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
What educators might observe
  • Reverses mental actions (e.g., knows that a ball of clay rolled into a long snake contains the same amount of clay as the ball)
  • Chooses a strategy for comparison (e.g., uses graphs to compare their observations of the natural world)
  • Understands the need for a standard unit when measuring length
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
What educators might observe
  • Realizes that the number is unchanged, even when the arrangement looks different (e.g., when counters are spread out, says that there are the same number of counters as when they were together)
  • Understands the reversibility of operations (e.g., subtraction is the reverse of addition)
  • Uses groups, skip counting, and place value to quickly identify sets shown quickly (“I saw three sets of ten and three sets of two, so the answer is 36.”)
  • Uses a mental number line to compare numbers
  • Counts forward and backward by ones and using skip counting
  • Solves all types of single digit addition and subtraction problems, with flexible strategies and known combinations
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
What educators might observe
  • Skip counts by hundreds, tens, fives, twos
  • Identifies the rule needed to extend a pattern or identify a missing number in a pattern (2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17)
  • Tells time to the nearest five minutes on different types of clocks
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
What educators might observe
  • Pays attention to the spatial relationships of all the parts of complex figures
  • Folds paper squares to make two triangles, folds them again to make more triangles, and describes the process
  • Uses simple coordinates to locate a place on a map or a move on a chessboard
  • Systematically checks that two shapes are the same by comparing all attributes
  • Recognizes and describes situations in which angle knowledge is relevant (e.g., “I need to change the angle to make the car go faster down this ramp.”)
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

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