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Early Learning Guidelines

Across all five domains

Preschool

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.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Often asks “why?”
  • Makes up stories about objects around them (e.g., observes fish tank and tells a story about the fish’s family)
  • Notices the interests of their peers (e.g., observes their play and then imitates it)
  • Investigates the details of caregiving (e.g., asks to help cook)
  • Compares experiences in one setting and another (e.g., after reading a book about pets, the child says, “I have a dog too.”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • When a child asks a “why” question:
    • Restate their question
    • Acknowledge their curiosity (“That’s an interesting question!”)
    • Ask what they think the answer might be
    • Talk together about how you might find the answer
    • Go together to consult an expert, look for a relevant book, or visit a website
  • Welcome the child to contribute to caregiving routines
  • Join the child in making up stories

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Learns details about a topic of interest, (e.g., after reading a book about sharks, reads more books about sharks and learns the names of many sharks)
  • Collects objects that they are interested in, for example, sticks
  • Tries to reproduce things they are interested in (e.g., looks at a book about a castle and then tries to build a castle in the block area)
  • Asks for explanations of how things work (e.g., asks where the water in the faucet comes from)
  • Makes connection between their experiences at home and in school (e.g., says, “I have paints at home too!”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Ask families what the child has expressed interest in at home
  • Make those interests present in the learning environment
  • Respect children’s efforts, and make special places to hold their collections
  • Go to the library and check out several books related to a child’s interest
  • Organize outings and field trips related to the children’s interests

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Recognizes their peers’ knowledge and asks them about things that they are experts in
  • Asks scientific questions (e.g., what happens to the caterpillar when it is in the chrysalis)
  • Believes that there is one objective truth about a subject and thinks that if others have a different interpretation, they do not know the truth
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Support children’s ability to learn from one another:
    • Allow time for sharing work
    • Welcome questions and comments from other classmates about one another’s work
  • Provide resources related to children’s interests (e.g., if you hear children talking about dinosaurs, add dinosaur books, figures of dinosaurs to the learning centers)
B

Initiative

Child pursues their own goals.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Engages in solitary play with a preferred toy
  • Asks educator to read them their favorite book
  • Watches what another child is doing and then begins to do it alongside them
  • Chases another child and then turns so that they may have a turn being chased
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include duplicates of toys in the learning environment so that multiple children can play next to each other simultaneously
  • Help children to initiate play by giving verbal cues (e.g., “Your turn! Now it’s Chelsea’s turn, which means that you run and try to catch her!”)
  • Involve the child in small group activities where they can contribute, participate, take turns, and anticipate as well as initiate turn-taking

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Gathers the materials that they need for a simple project, such as making imaginary soup
  • Finds their own clothing in their cubby and puts it on
  • Makes a plan for what they want to create (e.g., plans to draw a house)
  • Makes a choice about which area of the classroom they want to play in
  • Makes a new friend by playing alongside or with them and engaging in conversations
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Discuss with families ways in which children’s initiative is a value in their family, community, and culture. Acknowledge different perspectives.
  • Recognize that a child may not demonstrate and express initiative in the same way in all settings (e.g., may take initiative with peers but not in the presence of elders)
  • Use vocabulary related to initiative:
    • “You decided to…”
    • “You made a choice…”
    • “You were planning to play…”

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Takes care of classroom chores without being asked (e.g., throws out napkin after snack)
  • Develops a play idea day after day (e.g., child returns to block area to continue a construction and play scenario that has been developed throughout the week)
  • Advocates for their plot ideas when engaged in dramatic play with peers (e.g., when playing hospital in the dramatic play area, child asserts that the patient should be cured, while peer thinks they should die)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Notice children’s attempts to initiate play ideas with peers, and advocate for those children whose ideas are not acknowledged
  • Use children’s suggestions to set up a helper or job chart, with children volunteering for helper roles on a weekly basis
C

Persistence and Attentiveness

Child focuses on tasks and perseveres in accomplishing them.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Focuses on the character and plot when engaged in pretend play (e.g., pretends to be the mother and stays in this role as the doll babies are fed and put to bed)
  • Listens to a short story from start to finish with a small group of children
  • Tries several times to put on their own shoes before asking for help
  • Chooses the same puzzle every day until they can do it with ease
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Follow the child’s lead in play; this may mean that the child assigns a role to the educator, often with the educator being a child, and the child assuming an adult role
  • Though materials in the learning environment should be rotated, allow for previously used materials to reappear at the child’s request, and keep materials that the children are actively engaged with available to them
  • Allow for ample time for the child to practice tasks such as dressing themselves and to develop self-help skills

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Makes a bead necklace of their name and sorts through all the letters until they find those needed
  • Puts blocks away in their designated places until every block has been put away
  • Listens to a storybook read to the whole group from start to finish
  • Asks for help from a caregiver to complete a task
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Offer the child genuine opportunities to care for the learning environment, indicating how important and meaningful it is to be mindful of such tasks as watering plants, putting materials away, or stacking objects
  • Notice children’s accomplishments, patience, and persistence and describe why their efforts are important
  • Provide opportunities for children to revisit experiences and materials again and again so they are able to deepen their understanding
  • Encourage the child in their work, rather than solving the problem for them. Ask:
    • “How can you figure that out?”
    • “How can you fix that?”

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Attends to open-ended tasks that they are interested in for a minimum of 20- 30 minutes
  • Pauses work to get up to talk to their peers
  • Rebuilds their elaborate block structure after it has been knocked down
  • Tries several different ways of solving a problem (e.g., tries making a bridge with blocks to drive a car over, and when it falls, tries a new foundation so that it will support the cars)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Choose a book to read aloud to the class over several days; each day ask children to recall details from the previous readings and predict what will happen next
  • Offer children a variety of materials for open-ended work, encouraging them to stay with work they do not finish in one working period
  • Take time to reflect on the process together, asking:
    • “How did you do that?”
    • “Where did your idea come from?”
D

Creativity and Inventiveness

Child uses their imagination to create and invent.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Asks adult for assistance with their creations (e.g., child asks educator to make a tent by putting a sheet over a table)
  • Embodies a pretend play character day after day
  • Experiments with materials (e.g., dips paint into water and sees what color the water turns)
  • Invents words in play (e.g., says the specks of dirt in the sunlight are “bittle”)
  • Sings made up songs to themselves
  • May have an imaginary friend
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Provide access in the learning environment to open-ended materials children can use in a variety of ways
    • Blank paper of different sizes, textures, and colors
    • Watercolor and tempera paints
    • Pencils, colored pencils, crayons, and markers
    • Collage materials such as origami paper, pom-poms, and buttons
    • S culpture materials, such as pipe cleaners and cardboard
    • Pieces of cloth in a pretend area
    • Boxes
    • Scissors
    • Masking tape and glue
  • Guide the child’s use of materials, noticing and commenting on their actions

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Engages in detailed pretend play with peers
  • Makes objects that they need for pretend play (e.g., makes a boat out of a cardboard box)
  • Tries several ways to create the object they have in mind (e.g., child experiments with different foundations until they have found the one that will hold up a block bridge)
  • Develops techniques for painting and drawing (e.g., makes fast and slow strokes, or thick and thin lines)
  • Hears peers speaking a different language and makes up nonsense words and says they are speaking that language
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Allow children to save artwork and return to it. Have a place to keep projects if the child needs to transition to another activity and wants to continue to work on the project at another time.
  • Display children’s art, at child’s level, around the room and in the hallway. Document and share the process in which the art is being created with children, through written descriptions and photographs.
  • Provide child with access to artists and artwork from own and other cultures (e.g., pictures of famous artworks, sculptures, and artifacts)
  • Include time in the day for children to experiment with musical instruments, song, and dance

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Adds detail to creations (e.g., makes a clay bird with wings and a beak)
  • Asks more experienced people for advice about their creations (e.g., discusses ways to build stairs with an educator and then uses their advice)
  • Uses writing to add detail to their projects (e.g., includes a stop sign in their block construction)
  • Makes detailed and elaborate costumes for pretend play
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include books in the learning environment about inventive and creative characters
    • Frederick by Leo Lioni
    • Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
    • Iggy Peck Architect by Andrea Beatty
    • Rosie Revere Engineer by Andrea Beatty
    • The Dot by Peter Reynolds
    • B eautiful Oops by Barnie Saltzberg
  • Teach vocabulary related to art-making (“One color of paper could overlap, or go on top of another color, in your collage”)
  • Provide opportunities for learning in which there is no right or wrong way to accomplish the goal, and encourage children to try different strategies or solutions
II

Physical Well-Being, Health and Motor Development

A

Large Motor Skills

Child uses and coordinates their large muscle groups.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Walks along curb or beam for short periods
  • Jumps off a step with both feet together
  • Throws ball overhand
  • Catches mediumto large-size balls and similar objects by trapping them against body with straight arms
  • Climbs up playground ladders
  • Gallops
  • Has a smooth walk/run gait
  • Can stop body before running into other peers o obstacles
  • Runs and stops suddenly without falling
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Provide access to playground materials that support the development of gross motor skills
    • Balls of various sizes
    • Ribbon dancers
    • Tricycles
    • Scooters
    • Low steps
    • Large blocks
    • Balance beams
  • If possible, take children on walks in nature during which they have the opportunity to walk on different surfaces and climb over rocks and logs

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Runs smoothly around obstacles, stops and starts, plays tag
  • Jumps for height and distance
  • Hops on one foot
  • Balances on one foot for a few moments
  • Pedals tricycle while navigating corners and obstacles
  • Walks up and down stairs, alternating feet, without support
  • Climbs down playground ladders
  • Squats without falling over
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Play games with children that facilitate the development of gross motor skills, such as
    • Simon Says
    • Freeze tag
    • Hokey Pokey
    • Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
    • Red Light, Green Light
    • Songs with dance steps that include galloping, skipping, and walking in rhythm
  • Provide times in the daily schedule for both structured and unstructured gross motor activity

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Skips using alternating feet
  • Walks backwards
  • Turns somersaults
  • Catches a playground ball from 3 feet away
  • Balances on either foot
  • Walks up and down stairs while holding an object
  • Moves confidently around an obstacle course, maintaining balance while stopping and turning
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Provide access to playground materials that support the development of gross motor skills
    • Hula Hoops
    • Basketballs
    • Soccer balls
    • Large wooden blocks
    • Jump ropes
B

Small Motor Skills

Child controls the small muscles in their hands and wrists.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Uses crayon, marker, or pencil to draw lines and rough circles and shapes that may resemble letters and people
  • Turns the pages of a book one at a time
  • Builds a tower of 8 or more small blocks
  • Cuts across small piece of paper with scissors
  • Pinches, pounds, rolls, and squeezes clay
  • Can place and remove a cookie cutter from a mound of clay
  • Places small pegs in in pegboard
  • Pours water from a small pitcher into a cup with minimal spillage
  • Can use forks, spoons, or chopsticks
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include materials in the learning environment that foster fine motor skills
    • Safety Scissors
    • Magazines to tear and cut
    • Clay and play dough
    • Small blocks
    • Duplos
    • Fingerpaint
    • Easel painting
    • Pegboards
    • Puzzles
    • Small cups and containers in the sand and water areas
    • Chunky crayons
    • Stickers
    • Large wooden beads for stringing

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Strings small beads onto laces
  • Builds a tower of 10 or more blocks
  • Hits nails and pegs with a hammer
  • Forms shapes and designs out of clay (such as cookies with chips or snakes with eyes)
  • Buttons medium-large buttons when dressing themselves
  • Cuts along a line
  • Pulls tape off a dispenser, then attempts to tape items to a page or form tape into a ball
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include materials in the learning environment that provide a variety of opportunities for practicing writing and drawing
    • Markers
    • Colored pencils
    • Dry erase boards
    • Slates with chalk
    • Bingo markers
    • Oil pastels
    • Magnetic writing boards
    • Playground chalk
    • Watercolor painting supplies
  • Practice writing letters in materials that provide sensory input, such as trays of shaving cream or sand

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Consistently uses their right or left hand
  • Tears a small piece of tape off a tape dispenser
  • Uses scissors with one hand to cut out shapes
  • Uses pencil to copy many shapes and letters; these may be overly large or rough looking but the letter will be apparent
  • Spins a top
  • Zips up own coat
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include materials in the learning environment that foster fine motor skills
    • Geoboards
    • Legos
    • Bottles of glue
    • Tape
    • Wire
    • Plasticine
    • Small beads for stringing
    • T ops
  • Show sensitivity to children’s flexible directionality, and demonstrate left to right directionality with writing and counting, as on a number line
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.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Navigates learning environment, occasionally bumping into tables and chairs
  • Perceives the difference between similar colors (e.g., red and orange)
  • Turns around and around until dizzy
  • Expresses preferences about the way things feel (e.g., whether the temperature of the air is too hot or too cold)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Invite children to explore different textured materials, such as velvet, felt, satin, cotton, dry leaves, seeds, dirt, and flowers
  • Create simple cooking experiences with the children that involve smelling the ingredients, pouring, mixing, and stirring
  • Add scents such as lavender or apple pie spice to homemade play dough, checking for allergies beforehand
  • Provide opportunities for children to use sensory tables, including light tables and water/sand tables on a daily basis
  • Provide a quiet space with soft furnishings that may also include a listening center, soft animals, objects to squeeze, or picture books

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Not able to see close up as well as they can far away
  • Jumps off platforms
  • Experiments with different kinds of slides and ways to slide
  • Roughhouses with peers
  • Swings and holds balance without falling off
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Engage families in conversation about their values around rough-and-tumble play
  • Identify and evaluate which local playgrounds have equipment for climbing, swinging, and balancing that meets safety guidelines
  • Provide access to experiences that develop the child’s sense of balance
    • Balance boards
    • Low balance beams
    • Tire swings
    • Bucket swings
    • Slides
    • Climbers
  • Take the children on listening walks and then talk about what you heard

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Developing left-to-right visual tracking
  • Moves around the learning environment easily and successfully
  • Spends time moving their body into different positions (e.g., upside down)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Have meetings before rough-and-tumble play to establish safe limits
  • Provide activities that engage children’s senses
    • Rolling down a hill
    • Wheelbarrow walks
    • Monkey bars
    • Rolling and carrying gallon jugs full of water
    • Cartwheels
    • Jumping jacks
  • Include soft and cozy elements in the learning environment
D

Self-Care

Child cares for their physical well-being.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Eats socially, as is appropriate for their family and community’s culture (e.g, by taking a portion from a common bowl and passing the bowl to the next child)
  • Communicates to educator when they need to use the toilet
  • Begins to follow the steps of using the toilet with assistance
  • Washes hands before eating and after using the toilet, with reminders
  • Puts on their own coat before going outside
  • Wipes their own nose with a tissue, with a reminder
  • Brushes their teeth, with help to reach all areas of the mouth
  • Recognizes their own cubby to store personal items
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Transition a tired child to a quieter activity or area so that their body can rest
  • Provide enough time during transitions so that the children can practice selfhelp skills such as putting on their coats
  • Notice and acknowledge children’s growing independence
  • Establish times in the daily schedule for toilet use, and remind children who are learning to use the toilet to go more frequently
  • Establish good health routines, including tooth brushing, serving healthy foods, and hand washing

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Independently uses the toilet
  • Independently washes hands before eating and after using the toilet with minimal reminders
  • Dresses themselves, but may need help with zippers, snaps and buttons
  • Communicates to educator about their own feelings of being hungry, tired or ill
  • Brushes their own teeth
  • After a couple of weeks at school, knows the morning routine such as placing their backpack into their cubby and hanging up their coat
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include materials in the learning environment that foster the development of self-help skills
    • Accessible sinks
    • Child-size toilets
    • Sponges, washcloths, and napkins at a low level
    • Snack table where they can independently serve themselves food
    • Pitcher and cups for pouring their own milk or water
    • Quiet cozy area where they can go when tired
    • Individual cubbies for personal items
    • Items in the dramatic play area that allow children to practice self-help skills such as clothes with buttons, snaps and zippers
  • Provide opportunities for children to learn about pedestrian, bicycle, and water safety

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Manages the contents of their backpack (e.g., takes out their folder and hangs it on their hook when they arrive in school)
  • Gets lunch on their tray or their lunchbox from their backpack and eats without prompting during lunch time
  • Safely manages increasing levels of risk in physical play
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Gently introduce the routines of the learning environment, taking special time with children who did not go to preschool
  • For children who eat in school cafeterias, arrange lunch procedures that allow time, space, and appropriate noise levels for children to eat and enjoy their food
  • Review rules and protocols for safety procedures such as evacuation drills, crossing streets, and lock down drills before they occur; reflect on children’s practice together afterwards
  • Observe children closely as they take calculated risks in active play
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.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Expresses positive feelings about their body and actively explores what it can do (e.g., may experiment with different positions for urinating)
  • Understands that their bodies belong to themselves and that they have a right to say “no” to unwanted touch
  • Imitates the relationship behavior of adults (e.g., children may engage in “kissing” or “playing house”)
  • Expresses curiosity about their body and the bodies of others (e.g., a child may examine the “bottoms” of pets and stuffed animals)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Talk to children about the human body (parts and functions); equip children with accurate vocabulary for their genitals in the same way you provide accurate vocabulary for all of their other body parts
  • Model consent throughout your everyday teaching practices; for example, give children options for how they would like to be greeted in the morning (e.g., hug, high five, or wave)
  • Communicate with children about your own physical boundaries (“I don’t like when people touch my hair without asking. It’s great to be curious. So, if you are feeling curious about how my hair feels, you can ask me, and I might say yes and I might say no.”)
  • Teach children that “no” and “stop” are important words and should be honored in relation to their own bodies and the bodies of others; support children as they begin to learn how to read and respond to others’ non-verbal communication

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Asks questions about their bodies and the bodies of others
  • Curious about birth, reproduction, and how families are made (e.g., child may ask, “Where did I come from?” or “What makes a baby?”)
  • Plays “doctor,” taking off clothes and examining peers’ genitals
  • Seeks bodily pleasure (e.g., may want to cuddle when they wake up from nap or enjoy dressing up in silky dresses)
  • Masturbates either with their hands or through rubbing their genitals against surfaces like pillows or chairs
  • Uses “potty talk” to test limits and make people laugh
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Provide straightforward, honest answers to children’s questions, and be mindful to provide answers in ways that are inclusive of all genders, all bodies, and all of the different ways that people make families (For example, instead of saying, “Girls have vaginas and boys have penises,” you could say, “Many or most girls have vaginas, and many or most boys have penises.”)
  • Communicate with families early and often about your policies and practices regarding gender and sexuality
  • Avoid overreacting to common (or typical) child sexual behavior like masturbation; set limits without shaming children
  • Teach children to ask permission before touching or embracing a playmate, using language such as, “Jasmine, let’s ask Joe if he would like to hug bye-bye.” If Joe says “no” to this request, cheerfully tell the child, “That’s okay, Jasmine! Let’s wave bye-bye to Joe and blow him a kiss instead.”

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Uses correct names for parts of the body
  • May be familiar with exploring genitals but still have questions about their functions
  • Understands that certain bodily activities have particular times and places, and accepts limits (e.g., may pick their nose in the bathroom)
  • Explores the idea of family and marriage, and understands that some adults are married and that some are not; is aware that there are lots of different ways to make a family
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Allow children to explore the idea of partnerships with each other, regardless of their gender identity
  • Reflect on your own biases and examine your habits, curriculum, and classroom environment for subtle or overt messages children may be receiving about gender, bodies, and relationships
  • Actively learn about the families of the children you serve and ensure that your curriculum reflects and honors their diversity and their strengths
  • Include books in the learning environment that celebrate all kinds of families
    • Dear Child , by John Farrell
    • The Different Dragon , by Jennifer Bryan
    • The Family Book , by Todd Parr
    • Stella Brings the Family, by Miriam B. Schiffer
    • A Family is a Family is a Family , by Sara O’Leary
III

Social and Emotional Development

A

Trusting Relationships with Adults

Child develops trusting relationships with nurturing adults.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Separates with assistance from significant adults and transitions to educator
  • Asks for educator’s assistance with an activity they want to do (e.g., asks educator to hold their hand as they balance along a curb)
  • Brings simple problem to adults attention (e.g., informing them a tricycle has gotten stuck)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Build relationships with individual children throughout the day (e.g., during small groups, one on one play with child, conversation at meal times, etc.)
  • Create predictable separation routines at drop-off
  • Meet children’s caregiving needs promptly and empathetically (e.g., when a child has a toileting accident, shows compassion and respect)
  • Listen to children and show you value what they are saying by acknowledging them and expanding upon their ideas
  • When a child is talking with you, get down at their level, either by sitting in a chair or on the floor; allow the child to talk and explain as much as possible
  • Thank child for coming to get you in times of need

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Asks for help in completing projects that they are interested in but that are beyond their physical capabilities (e.g., asks caregiver to tape corners of cardboard construction together)
  • Carries out actions to please adults at times (e.g., cleans up at clean-up time)
  • Expresses feelings about adults (e.g., “I love Auntie because she always plays with me.”)
  • Follows educators’ guidelines for appropriate behavior in different environments
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Talk to the family about their hopes and dreams for the child, and hold that image in your mind
  • Notice when the child may need comfort and reassurance and provide support, even when they do not ask for it
  • Promote the idea that everyone shares the responsibility for the well-being of children
  • Use observation, recording, and reflection to notice the areas in which children are struggling and plan to offer them extra support in those areas
  • Ask open-ended questions to sustain conversations with children

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Interacts with significant adults outside of the family and classroom (e.g., speaks with the bus driver and cook)
  • Seeks guidance from family members, educators, and other familiar adults
  • Transitions into unfamiliar settings with the assistance of a familiar adult
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Assist children in sustaining interactions in play by modeling, cooperating, helping, and suggesting new ideas for play
  • Help the child identify community members they can trust and ask for assistance (e.g., home visitors, mentors, older extended family members, or caring individuals within the community at large)
  • Show interest in the child’s other interpersonal relationships (e.g., “What do you and Gus the bus driver talk about when he takes you home?”)
  • Take time to do something that you know is special for the child (e.g., ask them to teach you some words in their home language)
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.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Uses pretend play to explore, practice, and understand social roles
  • May assign roles to other children during dramatic play that reflect their lived experience (e.g., “You be the Mama, and I’ll be the Papa with the baby.”)
  • Identifies gender and other similarities and differences between self and others; may draw conclusions based on stereotypes and personal experience
  • Notices differences, and may ask why (e.g., “Why is he in a wheelchair?”)
  • Children may begin using their home language in certain places and times or with certain people
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Describe gender as how a person feels (“Josie is a boy because Josie feels like a boy on the inside.”)
  • Make the child’s home language seen and heard in the learning environment
  • Adapt curriculum and materials in the learning environment so that all children are able to participate
  • Connect families in their learning environment to one another
    • Family breakfast in the classroom or program
    • Book groups
    • Parenting reflection groups
  • Encourage families to engage in play-based learning activities in their home language
  • Accept silence or quiet observation as an acceptable way for children to participate, particularly when they are new to the learning environment or if that is consistent with their personality
  • Reflect on your own biases and the ways those biases manifest in your interactions with children, colleagues, and families

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Identifies self as a member of a group (e.g., refers to our family, our school, our faith, or our culture)
  • Begins to show evidence of internalized superiority or internalized oppression based on race, ethnicity, class, gender, religion, ability status, family structure, body size, and/or language
  • Adjusts behavior to different settings (e.g., family vs. learning environment)
  • Compares similarities or differences of others (e.g., height, hair color, or skin tone)
  • Seeks out people and objects in the learning environment that affirm their sense of belonging (e.g., educator who shares their home language, family photo, item from home)
  • Develops their own theories about what causes differences in ability, gender, and skin color
  • May mask fear of differences with avoidance and/or silliness
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Welcome children’s questions about difference (“You are noticing your skin color is different than mine. What words would you use to say what color my skin is?”)
  • Include books and materials within the learning environment that respect and honor differences and those by authors of different backgrounds (e.g., culture, gender, ethnicity, language, and abilities)
  • Ask families to send in photos of things that are meaningful to each child, such as foods, celebrations, and family activities; use pictures to make personalized posters, displays, and class books
  • Ask families to bring familiar objects from their home, such as music, instruments, household items, clothing, and toys, and encourage children to talk about and use them in the classroom
  • In non-parochial schools, refrain from celebrating religious holidays, such as Christmas; instead invite families to visit the class and share their cultural traditions

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • When a child’s home culture or experience differs from the dominant or mainstream culture, they may
    • Reject their home culture and adopt the dominant one
    • Reject dominant culture and insist on home culture
    • Learn to adjust behavior and to become bi-cultural
  • W hen a child’s home culture and experience has been affirmed, they may express pride in their racial, linguistic and cultural identity
  • When a child’s home culture or experience aligns with dominant or mainstream culture, they may
    • Internalize a false sense that they are “normal” or superior
  • Prefers a child who speaks their own language or language variation as a friend
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Invite family members into the classroom and talk to them as part of a study of families, careers, or interests
  • Engage families in conversations about their national and family origins to affirm positive social identities
  • Record families telling stories in their home language and include them as part of your listening center/library
  • Intentionally plan activities to counter potential overgeneralizations or existing stereotypes
  • Engage children in conversation about unfair social differences, including wealth and power
  • Model and explain accurate and appropriate vocabulary for different social groups. For example, name your own racial identity.
  • Teach children about what causes differences in skin color using books like All the Colors We Are: The Story of how We Get Our Skin Color , by Katie Kissinger
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.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • May talk to self and/or engage in conversations with imaginary playmates
  • Describes self by physical attributes and gender
  • Uses personal pronouns (I, me) rather than referring to self in third person
  • Chooses preferred activities (e.g., painting, doing puzzles)
  • Expresses self in different roles during pretend play
  • Exerts will and preferences with actions and language
  • Acts as though they are capable of doing new tasks and activities (e.g., copies use of adult tools, tries to sweep the floor with adult sized broom)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Assist child in exploring “All about Me” by making collages and books with pictures and captions; include the family, extended family, and community members when possible
  • Affirm children’s self-identification and model accurate and appropriate vocabulary around race, ethnicity, and gender
  • Encourage children to try new things and talk with them about their impressions
  • Observe children’s interests and plan activities to support them
  • Create opportunities for the child to make meaningful decisions (e.g., what to name the pet fish)
  • Ensure that children’s home languages are visible in the classroom, in the library, and on charts and labels
  • Acknowledge children’s accomplishments when they have solved a task or problem on their own
  • Encourage all types of play for children of all genders (for example, allow boys to hold the babies and pretend to breastfeed; allow girls to splash in mud puddles)
  • Include books in the learning environment that can support your ongoing conversations about gender and gender stereotypes, and affirm a wide variety of gender identities and expression, such as
    • Who Are You? by Brook Pessin-Whedbee
    • I’m Jay, Let’s Play , by Beth Reichmuth
    • Julian is a Mermaid , by Jessica Love

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Describes family members and the structure of their family
  • Describes self by physical attributes, abilities, and feelings
  • Experiments by trying new activities and testing their abilities
  • Identifies feelings, likes, and dislikes, and expresses own ideas and opinions; begins to be able to explain why they have them
  • Becomes aware of and explores the meaning of their racial, cultural, gender identities; understands that they are a member of various social groups that have names (e.g., White, Black, African American, Dominican, Muslim, boy, transgender, etc.)
  • Children begin to internalize gender stereo-types and may begin to conform to society’s gendered expectations for their own behavior and/or express gender biases (e.g., only boys play with blocks or only girls wear dresses)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Talk to the child’s family to learn about their strengths, knowledge, and experiences
    • Home languages
    • Traditions
    • Friends and family members
    • Caregivers and caregiving practices
    • Educational activities
    • Chores
    • Family outings and trips
    • Occupations
    • Scientific knowledge
  • Make the families’ strengths, knowledge, and experiences present in the classroom through materials, curriculum, field trips, and conversation
  • Provide paint, markers, crayons, construction paper, and other materials in a range of skin tones that children can utilize in their artwork
  • Teach children about some of the different words people use to describe their identities
  • Gently intervene when you notice children enforcing rigid gender roles. For example, if you overhear a child saying, “You can’t play with us! Only boys can be firefighters,” you can ask, “Is that true? I don’t think it’s accurate to say that only boys can be firefighters. There are many women firefighters.”

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Identifies and expresses own interests, preferences, and abilities
  • Confidently expresses likes and dislikes
  • Has unrealistic positive overestimations of their own abilities
  • Compares or contrasts self to others (e.g., physical characteristics, preferences, abilities, and feelings)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Allow children to hold responsibilities within the classroom
  • Provide opportunities for child to attempt new tasks without prompting or reinforcement
  • Showcase children’s cultures, interests, and capabilities
    • Create an art gallery of children’s work
    • Use study examples and displays created by children
    • Verbally reinforce children’s thinking process, capabilities, and accomplishments
    • Enc ourage children to demonstrate and share their own uniqueness
  • When doing introductions, invite all members of the community to share their gender pronouns along with their names “What words would you like us to use when we talk about you? When people talk about me, I like them to say ‘she/her.’
  • Actively celebrate children’s marginalized social identities and validate their observations of injustice; acknowledge and talk about their healthy feelings of confusion, sadness, fear, and anger in individual, small group, and whole group conversation
  • Explore feelings, confidence in one’s abilities, and identity using books like
    • Katy and the Big Snow , by Virginia Lee Burton
    • Be Boy Buzz , by bell hooks
    • I Love My Hair! by Natasha Ana Tarpley
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.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Tells an adult when another child does something unkind or unfair
  • Is more likely to help someone who has previously helped someone else and is less likely to help someone who has been unkind to someone else
  • Adopts a variety of roles and feelings during pretend play
  • Identifies and responds to the feelings and experiences of the characters in stories
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Validate child’s feelings (“You’re sad. I would feel sad if I lost my teddy bear too.”)
  • Read books about feelings and discuss character’s feelings, asking such questions as, “How would you feel if that happened?”
  • Demonstrate how to ask for and understand the viewpoints and opinions of others (“Tell me how you feel about that.”)
  • Use pretend play to help children develop understanding of others’ feelings (“The hippo’s mommy is going to work. How does baby hippo feel?”)
  • Teach children that feelings change; help them reflect on how they felt earlier in the day and how they feel now

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Expresses how another child might feel (e.g., “I think Tanya is sad because she is crying.”)
  • Shows concern about fairness within peer group
  • Develops awareness that some racial, cultural, gender, and linguistic identities are unfairly valued more than others in society
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Assist children in acknowledging and understanding how a peer is feeling by pointing out facial expressions, voice, tone, body language, or words the child is using
  • Use “I” statements to teach children self-awareness (“I don’t like it when you ignore me. It makes me feel sad.”)
  • Using an anti-bias approach, introduce critical thinking (true/not true, fair/not fair) about pervasive stereotypes
  • Put a seed in a jar every time a child practices an act of kindness and plant a kindness garden when the jar is full

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Begins to recognize how own actions affect others
  • Listens to viewpoints of others
  • Offers support to another child or shows concern when a peer is upset (e.g., “I see you’re sad. Do you want to play with me?”)
  • Develops their own theories about social inequities (e.g., why some groups of people tend to have more money and decision-making power than others)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Acknowledge children’s ability to practice empathy (“I saw how you let Diego have the markers when he was upset. I bet you wanted the markers too, but you chose to help a friend.”)
  • Throughout the year, talk to children about past and present injustices and social justice movements
  • When children notice injustice in their classroom or community, engage them in group action to try to make things fairer
  • Read books about kindness
    • The Last Stop on Market Street , by Matt de la Peña,
    • The Lion and the Mouse, by Jerry Pinkney
    • The Big Umbrella , by Amy June Bates
E

Cooperation and Negotiation

Child navigates friendships with peers through cooperation and negotiation.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Negotiates with peers (e.g., takes turns, plans play) and communicates disagreement to other children
  • Understands the concept of “mine” and “theirs”
  • Chases other children and then turns and allows themselves to be chased
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Ensure that there are enough materials for each child to have a reasonable amount
  • Observe, record, and reflect on the efforts of emergent multilingual learners to connect with their peers; intentionally create opportunities to extend these connections
  • Make adaptations so that all children can be involved in a meaningful way in individual and group activities
  • Create puppet shows in which conflicts between children are dramatized; allow children to identify how to solve the conflict
  • Use naturally occurring problems as an example to practice problem-solving skills (“Uh-oh, we have only one of those trucks and I see that Juan is mad that Devonte grabbed it from him. What can we do to help Juan not feel mad?”)
  • Provide activities that are done in pairs (e.g., “marbles in box” painting, which requires two children to hold and tilt the corners of the box)

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Assigns roles in play
  • Uses different turn-taking strategies (e.g., bartering, trading, or waiting for a turn)
  • Uses simple strategies to solve problems, either individually or in a group
  • Negotiates with other children to solve a problem
  • States a position with reasons (e.g., “I don’t want to play blocks right now because I want to draw.”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include books about friendship in the learning environment, such as
    • Making Friends , by Fred Rogers
    • Amos and Boris , by William Steig
    • Alexander and the Wind-up Mouse , by Leo Lionni
  • If possible, create opportunities for emergent multilingual children who share the same home language to sit and play together
  • Use conflict-resolution strategies such as a problem-solving script 1. “I don’t like it when…” 2. “What can I do to make you feel better?” 3. “ You can …”
  • Use visual aids to illustrate strategies for problem-solving; for example, allow children to select a picture that depicts how they feel and what will make them feel better
  • Provide opportunities for the child to experience the reactions of their peers by not rushing in too quickly to resolve conflicts

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Shares, take turns, and cooperates in a group
  • Listens to others’ ideas and wants; shares own ideas and wants
  • Understands that sometimes you are a leader, and sometimes you are a follower
  • Plays simple card games that require turn-taking and waiting
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Reflect with families about how they feel children should act toward their friends and siblings
  • Consider peer placement during classroom activities; notice children who have been connecting with one another and place them together
  • Read books about cooperation and negotiation
    • Swimmy , by Leo Lionni
    • Seven Blind Mice , by Ed Young
    • Anansi the Spider , by Gerald McDermott
  • Encourage peer partnerships, such as play partners or clean-up buddies
  • Tell the folk story of stone soup and make stone soup together as a class; discuss the value of working together
  • Include child-directed activities in the daily schedule in order to give children the opportunity to learn to cooperate and negotiate
F

Emotional Self-Regulation

Child expresses and manages their feelings and impulses.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Expresses strong feelings physically (e.g., kicks, hits, or throws items)
  • May feel overwhelmed by emotions such as excitement or disappointment
  • Talks to an imaginary friend about their thoughts and feelings
  • Assigns certain inanimate objects their own feelings (e.g., the stuffed dog is said to be mad because it can’t have a cookie before bed)
  • Talks about their emotions when someone notices they are sad and asks them about it
  • Asks “why” questions to show effort at understanding effects of behavior
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Talk to families about how emotions are expressed in their family, community, and culture
  • Reflect on personal beliefs regarding the acceptability and unacceptability of specific types of child behavior
  • Create a cozy area with books, pillows, soft fabrics, and a variety of objects they can pull or squeeze
  • Use self-talk to label own emotions and coping strategies (e.g.,” I am feeling frustrated, so I am taking a deep breath to calm down.”)
  • Incorporate books on feelings reflective of the language and cultural background of the children

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Tries to express strong feelings verbally, but then may resort to physical expression (e.g., breaking toys)
  • Acts out and resolves emotions in dramatic play
  • Explains the reason behind their emotions
  • Uses vocabulary for complex emotions, such as disappointed, frustrated, embarrassed, or thrilled
  • Advocates for what they want and what they like
  • Identifies some things that help them feel better when they are upset
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Reflect with colleagues to determine what message children’s feelings, behaviors, and impulses are conveying
  • Wait until you are calm before talking to a child about a moment in which they had strong feelings
  • When you and the child are both calm, talk to the child about what happened (e.g., “Earlier you cried when Ellen took the toy from you. How do you think you were feeling? What could you have said to tell Ellen how you felt?”)
  • Teach children coping strategies for self-regulating/or self-monitoring behaviors
  • Avoid stereotyping children’s expression of emotion (e.g., validate boys when they cry, and girls when they get angry)

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Often expresses strong feelings in socially and culturally accepted ways
  • Identifies emotions and uses words to describe them
  • Describes why people may feel differently about the same situation
  • Intentionally uses humor (e.g., begins to tell jokes)
  • Begins to understand and explain reactions to certain circumstances
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Talk to families and colleagues about their expectations for children’s behavior; acknowledge contrasting or conflicting beliefs
  • Try multiple strategies consistently to prevent child(ren)’s adverse feelings and impulses
  • Verbally reinforce children’s attempts at self-control (e.g., “I see that you are mad. I am happy to see you take some deep breaths.”)
  • Avoid removing the child from an activity or from the classroom as a consequence
G

Rhythms, Rules, and Routines

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

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Participates in routine activities such as meal time, snack time, and nap time
  • Follows simple rules with few reminders (e.g., handles toys with care, clears plate after lunch, cleans up before moving to another center)
  • Begins to follow basic safety guidelines and requirements, such as walking rather than running inside, but may not do so consistently
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Talk with families about their beliefs regarding discipline and how they would like their child to relate to authority figures
  • Design the schedule to include a balance of large and small group activities, and active and quiet times
  • Design the schedule to minimize the number of transitions in the day and the amount of waiting during transitions; this may involve breaking up the classroom into smaller groups
  • Recognize there are individual variations in what forms of acknowledgement are interpreted as positive by children and choose the best fit for each child (e.g., verbal, physical, non-verbal, etc.)
  • Provide frequent, clear, and consistent verbal and non-verbal positive feedback

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Adapts to changes in daily schedule (e.g., “Today is Wednesday, and we have our art lesson with our visiting artist.”)
  • Predicts what comes next in the day, when there is an established and consistent routine (e.g., “After nap we have a snack, then my Mom comes to get me.”)
  • Demonstrates understanding of the consequences of own actions on others (e.g., “I gave Anna the toy and so she feels better.”)
  • Waits for turn during group activities
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Implement the schedule consistently
  • Teach children about the schedule and encourage them to verbally express what comes next
  • Teach children the expectations for transition times
  • Provide clear verbal and visual warnings prior to transitions
  • Follow through with positive acknowledgement of children’s behavior and following of rules
  • Provide gentle reminders about rules of different areas, such as the playground and the classroom
  • Establish, e xplain, and model simple rules in ways children can understand (e.g., nap time might involve going to the bathroom, seeing the lights go off, getting into bed, and hearing calming music)

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Changes actions to meet expectations of different settings (e.g., takes off shoes at home but wears shoes at school)
  • Applies familiar rules in new but similar situations (e.g., uses a quiet voice inside)
  • Adapts to new environment by behaving and displaying emotions in expected ways (e.g., goes to a new friend’s house and is able to be calm, share, and take turns)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Create rules that are manageable (3–5 classroom rules around safety, for example), ask for children’s input about the rules, and discuss what makes a strong rule
  • Review the rules and classroom expectations regularly, at a time when things are calm
  • Post rules in words and pictures
  • Enforce rules and consequences consistently and fairly for all children
  • Reflect about which children are most commonly disciplined in the learning environment; do these children belong to marginalized groups?
  • Reflect with families and colleagues about how children may perceive the educator’s attempts to provide direction (e.g., Educator says, “Would you return to your seat?” and child perceives it as a question rather than a request)
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.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Asks questions such as “ ¿Quieres jugo? ” (“Do you want juice?”) along with “when” and “how” questions
  • Answers “who,” “what,” “where,” and “when” questions in preferred language (e.g.,“ Vivo en Nueva York. ” [“I live in New York.”])
  • Uses some pronouns correctly, such as “I,” “you,” “me,” “he,” and “they”
  • Uses some plural words, like “toys,” “birds,” and “buses”
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Conduct a home language survey at the start of the year and ask families
    • What languages does the child speak and understand?
    • What languages does the child speak to their siblings?
    • In what language does the child play with peers?
    • What has the child’s exposure to English been?
  • Set up the dramatic play area to resemble home and real-life situations to guide and promote language
    • Include details such as a tablecloth and flowers on a table
    • Turn the area into a laundromat, fire station, or other community location
    • Ask families to bring in empty boxes of food to include in dramatic play
    • Include items that are specific to children’s home cultures

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Uses past and future tenses (“Yesterday we went to the park, where I’m gonna have my birthday party!”)
  • Talks about a variety of topics for different purposes
  • Demonstrates more complex sentences and precise vocabulary in areas of interest, explaining, for example, “No, that’s not a digger, it’s an excavator!”
  • Emergent multilingual learners may ask to participate in activities using short sentences or approximations, for example, “Can I play?” or “I play?”
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Learn and use key phrases in the home language of the children
  • Sing songs, chants, rhymes, and finger plays in English and the home language to help children learn common phrases and words through music
  • Repeat new and interesting vocabulary in different settings and times throughout the day
  • Allow children to use translanguaging, which involves using their home language and English interchangeably; children should be encouraged to access all languages available to them
  • Sit with children during snack and lunch time to model language and encourage conversation

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Initiates and maintains a conversation with peers for exchanges over longer periods of time
  • Talks about language, as in “I know Spanish,” or “I think that is what you said.”
  • Responds to the question, “What did you say?”
  • Uses increasingly complex sentence structure to express thoughts (“I am going to the hospital, but I’m pretending. I’m not going to have the baby. The mommy is going to have the baby.”)
  • Talks in different ways depending on place and listener
  • Tells simple stories
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Set up your library with books in multiple languages
  • Value and make time for extended conversations, and engage in one-to-one exchanges around children’s interests and questions
  • Ask open ended questions:
    • Why do you think…?
    • What happened when…?
    • What would happen if…?
    • What is the story in this picture?
B

Listening and Understanding

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

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Answers questions that show knowledge of events
  • Asks questions that show attention to activities (e.g., “Why did the boy run away?”)
  • Follows two-step directions (e.g., “Please put the blocks away, then sit on the rug.”)
  • Begins to understand opposites (e.g., hot and cold, stop and go, up and down)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Bring the child to places where you can introduce new vocabulary
    • Neighborhood walk
    • Garden
    • Farm
    • Grocery store
    • Zoo
    • Museum
    • Post office
    • Laundromat
  • Give clear and simple directions with tasks that you know that the child can accomplish on their own, for example, “Please get the cup from the bottom shelf and place it onto the table.”
  • Incorporate opposites into everyday interactions; for example, point out hot and cold objects or cars stopping and going
  • Use increasingly complex words, in context, and explain their meaning when talking with child

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Answers open-ended questions
  • Follows directions that involve a twoor three-step sequence of actions, which may not be related (e.g., “Please pick up your toys, and then get your shoes.”)
  • Extends/expands the thought or idea expressed by another
  • Engages in conversation that develops a thought or idea (e.g., talks about a past event)
  • Listens to others in a group discussion for a short period; gains information through listening
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Engage in back-and-forth informal conversations about topics that are relevant and important to children’s own lives
  • Encourage children to engage in dramatic play in their home language
  • Create opportunities for informal extended exchanges between peers throughout the day
  • Use wait-time; after asking children a question, pause for at least 3 extra seconds to allow children time to think and respond

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Responds to multi-step directions or requests (e.g., “First, wash your hands. Then bring me the green towel, and then we will have snack.”)
  • Observes and interprets details about environment, events, or speakers
  • Understands words for time, like “yesterday,” “today,” and “tomorrow”
  • Role plays familiar events described by others, such as a friend’s story
  • Understands forms of social speech from their family, culture and community
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Take dictation of a story, and then have children act the story out as the educator reads it, turning text into action
  • Invite children to discuss a topic of study in whole group, small groups and pairs
  • Offer children instructions with sequential words (“First do this and then this.”); observe how they follow through
  • Encourage emergent multilingual learners to translate vocabulary into their home language and to make connections between topics of study and their own lives
C

Social Communication

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

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Asks questions about the current activity (“Can I have a brown crayon?”)
  • Begins to take turns during conversations
  • Makes formal requests or responses, such as “May I please...” and “Thank you.”
  • Recognizes what rising and falling speech sounds mean and attempts to answer questions
  • Acknowledges a partner’s message using fillers, such as “yeah” and “ok.”
  • Begins code-switching and uses simpler language when talking to very young children
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Model polite language in social situations, such as saying “Please” and “Thank You”
  • When asking questions, pause and wait for answers; the child may need time to think about the answer
  • If child interrupts another child, say something like, “Frank was talking. Why don’t we wait and see what he has to say and then respond? I know you have something else to say but let’s let Frank continue.”

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Adds to a conversation by retelling a similar experience (“I love ice cream too, and I had some vanilla yesterday.”)
  • Initiates an exchange to provide information or to clarify (“My teacher said today is Monday. On Mondays I go to karate!”)
  • Takes turns on topic in an extended exchange, and shows knowledge of the speaker/listener role
  • Switches language or mode of communication as appropriate with family member or person with whom they are speaking
  • Tells stories with chains of events and actions
  • Uses terms that have meanings that are dependent on context, such as “this,” “that,” “here,” and “there”
  • Experiments with the effects some words (such as “Poo-poo head”) can have on others
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Encourage children to speak to classmates who share their home language
  • Provide visual supports for turn-taking during group conversations
    • Write a list of who will be speaking next, and check it off
    • Use a “talking-stick” that the speaker holds and passes when they are done talking
  • Provide scripts for children to initiate social interactions (“I see you watching your classmate play in the sandbox. if you want to play with them, let’s think about what you could say.”)

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Pays attention to speaker in a conversation
  • Takes turns during group conversations, raising hand to speak, with reminders
  • Emergent multilingual children gauge and then speak in the dominant language of communication used by the person with whom they are speaking
  • Provides additional information to clarify when listener does not understand the child’s meaning
  • Uses language to persuade or to state an opinion
  • Uses body language, facial expressions, and tone to predict behavior
  • Tells stories with characters and a more complex sense of structure to events and actions
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Establish norms for structured group conversations, ensuring that all children have the opportunity to be heard (e.g., an expectation that there will be only one voice at a time)
  • Provide children with time to interact socially throughout the day
  • Discuss social dynamics with children (“Some kids have been asking to sit together at lunch every day. How does it seem if they sit together every day?”)
D

Engaging with Stories and Books

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

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Makes connections between their experience and the experience of a character in a story or text (e.g., telling a friend at the park, “I’m planting seeds, just like Harold.”)
  • Delights in stories and texts (e.g., looks at books independently, laughs at a humorous story, has a favorite book of poems, or treasures a birthday party invitation)
  • Demonstrates emergent reading behavior (e.g., holds a book and reads aloud to dolls or stuffed animals; shows pictures or repeats memorized part of text)
  • Turns pages of a familiar book in the direction that print follows in their home language
  • Demonstrates understanding of narratives by telling and retelling stories nonverbally and/or verbally
  • Asks and answers “what,” “where,” “who,” and “why” questions about books and during read-aloud sessions
  • Uses background knowledge to connect with culturally relevant stories or pictures
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Talk to families about joining the library
  • Visit the local library with children, and invite the librarian to visit your class
  • Read books one-on-one with a child; allow the child to gaze at pictures in books that have caught their interest, and talk about the pictures with them
  • Provide various texts, pictures, photographs, and books that reflect the home cultures of the children in the classroom
  • When reading a book, if the children become unengaged, gently close the book and move on to the next activity
  • When reading to the whole group, allow the children to sit in a group, not a circle, to promote optimal viewing of the text and pictures
  • Display books at the child’s level so that they are able to access them throughout the day
  • Keep favorite books available to children and rotate new books, including non-fiction books into the learning environment

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Looks for and finds texts that are enjoyable to look at or read from a library
  • Participates in dialogue about stories, images, or texts in preferred language (e.g. says, “ También me gusta .”)
  • Talks about characters in stories or texts, such as something funny that characters said or did
  • Retells a favorite story or text in play, imitating the rhythm or structure of the story/text (e.g., creating a coconut tree from a paper towel roll and using letter magnets to retell the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom )
  • Asks and answers open-ended questions about the meaning of pictures or texts (e.g., “How do the colors that the illustrator used make you feel?”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Before reading a book, look at the cover with the children; ask, “What do you think will happen in this story?”
  • Use self-talk to describe comprehension strategies (e.g., “I see that the illustrator used bright yellow, orange, and red, and those colors make me feel happy.”)
  • Read some story books from start to finish so that children may enjoy the plot
  • When reading non-fiction books, pause on a page to ask and answer questions about the pictures
  • Select and create texts related to children’s interests and unit of study to reread multiple times; create connections from these texts to learning centers
  • Include books in all areas of the learning environment

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Expresses an opinion about a story
  • Compares stories with one another (e.g., “In all the Skippy Jon Jones books, Skippy goes on adventures in his closet.”)
  • Asks questions about the stories and texts
  • Makes predictions about what will happen in stories or texts based on adult modeling
  • Responds to stories or texts by incorporating characters and narratives from them into dramatic play
  • Uses books to learn more about topics of interest (e.g., creates a map of the subway system based on text and their lived experience)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Read a variety of books aloud daily
    • Picture books with shorter and longer text
    • Chapter books
    • Non-fiction texts
    • Poetry
  • When reading, pause to define new, unfamiliar, and interesting words, and invite students to use them
  • Summarize and retell stories
  • Give children the opportunity to return to familiar books and stories, in order to play with storylines and characters (e.g., after reading several versions of Stone Soup , child writes “Stone Soup Recipes”)
  • Activate children’s background knowledge and encourage them to connect texts to their own lives
  • Build children’s background knowledge by helping them understand texts through field trips and experiential learning
  • Create book time for children to look at and “read” self-selected books on their own and with friends
E

Phonological Awareness

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

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Repeats simple familiar rhymes or sings favorite songs
  • Shows enjoyment of rhyme and alliteration (e.g., sings to themself, “Mee, gee, fee, tee”)
  • Participates in a read-aloud with a rhyming pattern, filling in the missing rhyming word
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Incorporate finger plays and interactive stories into everyday meetings (e.g., Here is the Beehive; 5 Little Ducks )
  • Make felt board characters for favorite rhymes that children can interact with outside of circle time
  • Encourage children to “fill in the blank” with rhyming words by using stories and pictures

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Demonstrates rhyme recognition, such as identifying which words rhyme from a group of three like hat, log, and cat
  • Recognizes phonemic changes in words, such as noticing the change in “Old Mc- Donald had a charm”
  • Provides a rhyming word such as “clay!” when given the clue “I’m thinking of something like play dough that we have out at the art area that rhymes with play.”
  • Notices and identifies words that start with the same sound
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include rhyming books and songs in the environment to encourage phonological awareness
    • The Very Hungry Caterpillar , by Eric Carle
    • Chicka Chicka Boom Boom , by Bill Martin Jr
    • I Ain’t Gonna Paint No Mor e, by Karen Beaumont
    • Mama Llama Red P ajama , by Anna Dewdney
    • There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly , by Pam Adams
    • “Juanito Cuando Baila”
  • Include alphabet books in the learning environment
    • Alphabet City , by Stephen T Johnson
    • Chicka Chicka Boom Boom , by Bill Martin Jr
    • I Spy An Alphabet in Art , by Lucy Micklethwait
    • Eating the Alphabet , by Lois Ehlert
    • Alligators All Around , by Maurice Sendak
    • On Market Street , by Arnold Lobel

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Demonstrates awareness that spoken language is composed of smaller sound segments (e.g., labels a drawing using initial sounds)
  • Shows word awareness by isolating a single word from a sentence
  • Produces one or more words that rhyme with another word (e.g., “What rhymes with log?”)
  • Provides a word that fits with a group of words sharing an initial sound (e.g., “Sock, Sara, and Song all start with the /s/ sound. What else starts with the /s/ sound?”)
  • Produces the sounds made by many letters
  • Uses initial and some final sounds in invented spelling (e.g. writes, “IATK” For “I ate cake”)
  • Emergent multilingual children show awareness of sounds from home language(s)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Sing songs and recite poems and rhymes, such as “BINGO,” and “I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas”
  • During read-aloud and other small and large group discussions examine words for sounds and letters that represent them; do this for words that are meaningful to children, such as letters/sounds of their names
  • Introduce longer songs that rhyme, which allow children to make up their own rhymes (e.g., sing “Down By The Bay” and incorporate lines like: “ Have you ever seen a fish making a wish? ”)
  • Point out sound-letter correspondences, especially in high-interest words and/or children’s names
  • Encourage children to label objects in their drawings with initial letters
  • T each word-learning strategies such as making connections to home languages
F

Composing

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

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Uses stuffed animals or small figures to recreate events from their lived experience or from media
  • Draws to represent an idea or experience; drawing may not be recognizable
  • Scribbles, or draws letter-like shapes and says they are writing
  • Dictates a short story to be read aloud and acted out (e.g., “Daddy came home and made dinner. Batman ate dinner too.”)
  • Plans dramatic play with peers (e.g., “You be the baby and I’ll be the mommy. And I’ll go to work, ok?”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Learn about, support, and show respect for children’s home languages and cultures
  • Encourage families to share photographs from home and write down children’s words about what is happening in the photo
  • Invite children to tell you about what they just wrote or drew
  • Observe children as they pretend to write. Are they moving their pencil in the same direction as the script in their home language?
  • Observe children’s composing in the dramatic play area
    • Are they planning roles?
    • Are they dramatizing characters?
    • W hat scenarios are they acting out?

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Uses visual art materials (e.g., drawings, paintings, sculptures, and collages) to express ideas, knowledge, and feelings
  • Begins to form letter shapes that resemble the script of their home language
  • Attempts to write own name
  • Combines drawing and emergent writing (e.g., child draws their friends and labels them with rows of scribbles and shapes that resemble home language or English)
  • Narrates a storyline that involves multiple characters and actions that occur in a specific setting (e.g., pretend family takes a trip to the beach)
  • Dictates a story to an adult to transcribe in their home language
  • Uses environmental print to communicate (e.g., draws orange circle with an “M” inside to tell about their trip to the Met’s game)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include text in the children’s home languages in the learning environment
    • Welcome sign on door
    • Labels for where learning materials go
    • Hand-washing directions
  • Take dictation of children’s narration of their drawing, showing the children that the words they say become text with writing; reread their words with them
  • Notice and acknowledge children’s various composing processes
  • Set up a letter-writing station for writing to their peers, parents, siblings, and other family members; have envelopes, pieces of paper that children can make into stamps, and other letter-making materials

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Collaborates on shared writing (e.g., contributes a sentence to a class letter thanking the custodial staff)
  • Uses drawing and invented spelling to tell an original story of connected events or related ideas on a topic
  • Shares expertise about a topic of interest though a verbal presentation, drawing, and/ or writing
  • Collaborates with peers to recount an event, each child adding to the story
  • Plans and extends dramatic and symbolic play with peers
  • Develops characters and settings within dramatic play
  • Composes messages that approximate the features and qualities of scripts in more precise ways (e.g., writes more recognizable letters; writes from left to right in English)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Create shared texts for the class by writing familiar songs, rhymes, and poems on posters
  • Provide writing paper with space for drawing and some lines for writing
  • Allow children to collaborate in groups with peers who share their home language
  • Assume that children are making sense with their early writing; when a child writes on their own a string of letters that do not make sense to the educator, the educator asks, “What story did you write?” or “What story do your words tell?”
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.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Collects and shares objects with others (e.g., on a nature walk collects acorns and leaves to show educators and peers)
  • Makes connections between documentation boards, drawings, and charts and past events (e.g., the child looks at a documentation board of the class trip to the fire station and says, “We saw the big hose.”
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Encourage families to share photos and videos documenting the child’s experience and development at home
  • Provide child with time to view image or object and reflect on related experience
  • Record children’s dictation as they look at documentation of experiences
  • Ask follow-up questions around child’s creations and utterances, focusing on having the child tell you more detail and expanding the story

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Uses documentation of previous experiences in the learning environment to plan their play (e.g., looks at a photograph of a block building from the day before and tries to recreate the building)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include children in documenting learning; provide them with paper, pencils, journals, and cameras
  • Provide opportunities for children to reflect on the documentation of their learning individually and in small and large groups
  • Use documentation as the basis for storytelling and curriculum planning

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Plans to use multimedia documentation to record and extend their work in the learning environment
  • Reflects on accuracy of visual documentation (e.g., looks at a picture of a dinosaur and says, “I think they were even bigger than that.”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Engage children in planning how to record experiences that are meaningful to them
  • Support children in creating displays to share their learning with educators, families and peers
  • Engage children in conversation about the accuracy of visual documentation
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.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Hides own eyes but leaves parts of their body exposed while playing hide-andseek
  • Uses phrases to initiate and identify make-believe play with others (“Let’s pretend…” or “I was just pretending!”)
  • Asks about the permanency of their gender and racial identity (e.g., “Will I always be a boy/girl? Will I always have my skin color?)
  • Offers magical explanations for change (e.g., says that a fairy puts the moon in the sky every night)
  • Uses language about death, without necessarily thinking it is a permanent state
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Ask follow-up questions to children’s magical explanations of how things change (e.g., ”Tell me more about that.” “What makes you think that?”)
  • Encourage child to draw or paint a picture to express their thoughts or feelings about change
  • Gently clarify when children suggest that a dead person or animal will come alive again; use simple language

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Plays hide-and-seek, fully hiding body, but laughing or otherwise staying in touch with playmates through sound
  • Plays with their shadow, trying to step on it or get away from it
  • Has difficulty imagining that their adult family members were once children
  • Investigates the permanence of death through observation of insects and animals and in dramatic play; will ask questions about where the insect or animal may go
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Provide concrete examples of changes that occur
    • Document the growth of a caterpillar into a butterfly
    • Collect different colored leaves (green, red, and brown)
    • Watch a pumpkin decompose
    • Trace their shadows at different times of the day
    • Observe patterns of change in weather conditions, daily and seasonally
  • Allow the children to have a ceremony when a classroom pet has died; answer their questions about death factually

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Begins to understand death as a biological event
  • Begins to understand how the body functions to sustain life
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include non-fiction books about life cycles in the learning environment
  • Include simple biological information in discussion of death (“Their heart has stopped beating. They are not coming back.”)
B

Representing

Child uses symbolic thought to represent.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Assigns peers, adults, or objects roles as characters in play
  • Plans with other children what they are going to pretend before starting to play (e.g, “Let’s play doggies!”)
  • Uses objects to make arrangements and represent a storyline; may repeat the story over and over again (e.g., uses blocks to make a house, then uses a toy fire truck to put out a fire in the house)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Ask child what would help further their play, such as what other materials they could use to represent something
  • Read familiar stories such as The Three Billy Goats Gruff many times and encourage the child to act it out
  • Reflect with children about their dramatic play, and talk about the different roles in a family, while being mindful of different kinds of families and cultural differences; what does it mean to the child to act like a mommy, daddy, aunt, grandma, or other family member?

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Constructs and experiments with longer, complicated storylines in dramatic play
  • Invents storyline and initiates play with a peer (e.g., “Are you coming to my restaurant? Can I take your order?”)
  • Negotiates roles with peers (e.g, “I’ll be the papa and you are baby bear.” “NOOO. I’m the sister bear. And you are my brother.”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Invite families to visit the class to share a folktale or family story
  • Encourage the child to add details; for example, build a fort to represent an animal’s home, and then discuss what would be needed in the fort to make it more cozy
  • Support the development of children’s understanding of gender roles in representation (“What does it mean to look like a girl? Does a girl have to look like that?”)

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Adds details from a scene to its visual representation (e.g., the landscape or the weather)
  • Differentiates fantasy from reality
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Observe and reflect on children’s dramatic play; consider what background knowledge they are drawing on
  • Offer large pieces of materials to be used in different ways, as well as costumes that suggest a role: worker’s hats (hard hat, bus drivers’ hat), vest and suit jackets, dresses, a doctor’s kit
  • Ask the child, “What story are you telling?” in their drawing or construction
  • Write or help children write a story based on what they drew, acted out, or built
C

Memory and History

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

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Uses time-related words and concepts (e.g., first/last, morning/night, yesterday/today), though not always accurately
  • Although the child’s birthday was a month ago, they may describe looking forward to their birthday, which they tell an educator “is coming soon.”
  • Uses phrases that suggest awareness of the past (e.g., “When I was a baby…”)
  • Identifies changes in themselves over time (“I’m bigger now. I don’t wear diapers anymore.”)
  • Retells a simple story or event in roughly sequential order (“Gabby took my soccer ball. I took it back. That’s why she’s crying.”)
  • In dramatic play, reenacts everyday experiences and events from books, television, or observations
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Invite families to share photographs of the child when they were younger, or of past family events; use these photographs to have conversations with the child about their memories
  • When recounting events, use visual representation
    • Artifacts, such as a ticket
    • Art made by the child
    • Photographs related to the experience
    • Natural objects, such as shells or leaves

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Reenacts multiple sequential scenes from personal experience, books, and media
  • Includes specific details of events when recreating them (e.g., pretending to add turmeric and paprika when cooking in the sand box)
  • Knows significant events from their family history (e.g., “Abuelito came from the Dominican Republic.”)
  • Describes significant changes in their own lives over time (e.g., “I used to live with my Auntie. Now I live in Mommy’s house in Buffalo.”)
  • Understands that things were different a very long time ago, but is unsure how long ago this was (e.g., “When grandma was little, were dinosaurs alive?”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Observe and reflect on children’s dramatic play; what personal histories are they are re-enacting?
  • Invite children to use drawing and dictation to tell about recent experiences
  • Create a schedule of the day and support discussion about what comes first and what comes next during the day, as well as what usually happens on what days of the week

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Retells an important life event in sequential order (e.g., draws a picture about something they did during summer vacation)
  • Believes that they can remember much more than they really can
  • Describes how memory works (e.g., says, “It’s easier to remember something that happened yesterday than something that happened last month.”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Support the child in making a timeline of their life
  • Write a book, About my Life , with pages of stories about what happened when they were a baby, a toddler, and more recently
  • Draw a picture of what life was like at a different time, such as before a sibling was born or before they moved
D

Investigating and Exploring

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

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Experiments with mixing different materials together (e.g., sand and water)
  • Asks many “why” questions (e.g., “Why do we have to put our jackets on?”)
  • Makes simple predictions (e.g., says they think the water in the sprinklers will be cold today)
  • Observes and wonders (e.g., watches a turtle and asks, “Why is it hiding inside? When is it coming out?”)
  • Applies their knowledge to understand observations (e.g., watches a snail and asks, “Which part are the eyes?”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Add natural materials, such as smooth stones or pieces of wood, to different centers
  • Conduct simple baking experiments with small groups, such as making muffins or quesadillas
  • Ask prediction questions (”What will happen to the flour when the milk is poured in?”)
  • Provide access to a sand and water table on a daily basis, and encourage children to mix the substances together
  • Use eye droppers to drop different colored oil into water to see what happens
  • Acknowledge that when children are asking “why” questions they are not questioning your authority, but needing additional information and trusting you to give it

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Uses feelings and imagination to understand the results of a science experiment (e.g., “Maybe the caterpillar just felt like becoming a butterfly.”)
  • Uses sources other than the adult to gather information, such as books and peers
  • Brainstorms solutions based on background knowledge (e.g., “Be quiet so the birds will come!”)
  • Asks a series of questions about their observations (e.g., when observing a worm on the sidewalk the child asks, “Where did it come from? Why doesn’t it have eyes? How will it find its way home to its family?”)
  • Asks “why?” but then rejects answers not to their liking
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • When a child asks a question, encourage the group to hypothesize what the answer may be; chart their responses and invite them to explain their thinking
  • Show children how to look for the answer to a question in a book or online
  • Provide opportunities for children to use polls (“Do you think it will rain today?’ “Which item will weigh more-a book, a leaf or a pencil?”)
  • Make big graphs to capture this “data” so that children can see and interpret it
  • Provide tools to explore the environment (magnets, magnifying glasses, light table)

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Asks “how” things were made (e.g., “How does a pigeon build a nest?”)
  • Generates ideas about how to find the answers to their questions (e.g., when wanting to learn more about trucks, the child decides to ask a family member who drives a truck)
  • Lists materials needed for an experiment
  • Records information from an experience (e.g., drawing, writing, storytelling, photographing)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Model the use of scientific vocabulary
  • Ask children to record observations of particular objects and outside scenes such as a cityscape, a tree, a garden
  • View wrong answers or explanations as theories in development
  • Ask for predictions about observable phenomena (“How do the apples get soft when we make apple sauce?”)
  • Provide unique pictures, such as X-rays or close ups of butterfly wings and snowflakes
E

Understanding Cause and Effect

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

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Asks “why” questions to show effort at understanding causation
  • Explains the effects that simple actions have on objects (“It will be dark when you turn out the light.”)
  • Sees themselves at the center of causation (“I have my own moon. I bring it with me wherever I go.”)
  • Offers magical explanations of causes (“The frost fairy came in the night and turned the grass white.”)
  • Assigns human characteristics to inanimate objects (“The leaves fell off the tree because the wind told them to.”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Encourage children to explain their thinking about magical causes without correcting them
  • Engage families in observing and recording their children’s poetic descriptions of causes
  • Offer simple experiments that develop children’s understanding of cause and effect
    • Color mixing
    • Ramp play
    • Objec ts frozen in ice

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Uses clues and background knowledge to find causes (“She’s wearing a coat so it must be cold outside.”)
  • Identifies objects or conditions that affect other objects (“The food coloring makes the water blue” or “The cold turned the water to ice.”)
  • Makes predictions, sometimes using unrelated information (“I think the gold car will win. Gold is for winners.”)
  • Uses the word “because” to show relationship between past and future events
  • Distinguishes between some magical and scientific causes, but still believes in magical causes
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Engage children in extended back-andforth conversations about the reasons for things
  • Use phrases such as
    • What do you think will happen when…?
    • What happened last time?
    • What made that happen?
    • Why do you think that?
  • Observe and record children’s hypotheses about causes, and revisit predictions with children to reflect on how their thinking has changed over time

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Predicts an outcome based on previous effects they have observed (“If we leave the seeds on the top of the dirt, the birds will come eat them.”)
  • Seeks but does not readily accept scientific causes for things
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Provide materials and opportunities to observe cause and effect
    • Blocks
    • Marble runs
    • Gears
    • Paints
    • Planting
    • Powders for mixing
  • Ask children “what if” questions
    • What if we took the bottom block out first?
    • What if we add more water to the corn starch mixture?
    • What if we add more red to the purple color paint you mixed?
F

Engineering: Problem-solving with Materials

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

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Adjusts plans based on prior experience (e.g., when rolling cars down a ramp, tries a smaller car when bigger ones keep falling off)
  • Imitates accepted solutions to problems with materials (e.g., moves hands on laces as if to tie shoes, although they are unable to successfully do so)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Have everyday materials accessible for building and creating
    • Pipe cleaners
    • Paper towel rolls
    • Different kinds of tape
    • Shoe boxes
    • Paper bags
    • Wheels from broken toy trucks
    • Clay
    • Recyclables
    • String
    • Glue
  • Experiment with the effect of natural forces on materials. For example, create a wind tunnel by blowing through a tube or float scarves, pompoms, and other objects through the tube

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Uses blocks or boxes to build bridges
  • When using materials, compares results to initial predictions and tries again (e.g., after discovering that the slime breaks if stretched quickly, stretches it more slowly)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Support children in thinking of themselves as engineers by asking questions such as
    • “How can you use these materials to make..?”
    • “What do you think would happen if…?”
    • “Why do you think that happened?”
  • Help children see that mistakes teach us important things

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe
  • Uses blocks to build stairs
  • Sticks with a problem-solving strategy that has been successful before, without considering other alternatives
  • Plans how to make a functional object from materials (e.g., a spinning top from Lego pieces)
  • Replicates engineering solutions from life in play (e.g., creating a door with a latch for a cardboard house)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Use fairytales to encourage building; for instance, read The Three Little Pigs , and ask groups of children to create houses that would withstand a wolf’s huffing and puffing
  • Challenge children with prompts such as
    • Make something with a window in it
    • Make something that floats
  • Ask the child about work they have done
    • “Tell me about your construction.”
    • “How do these parts work?”
    • “What is their function?”
    • “What’s another strategy that you could use?”
G

Math

1. Comparing and Categorizing

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

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool
What educators might observe
  • Shows understanding of the words “same” and “different”
  • Remarks on physical differences that they notice among members of the community
  • Recognizes and labels aspects of an experience (tall, long, fun)
  • Identifies categories of objects, for example, knows that dogs, cats, and cows are all animals
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Openly discuss differences children remark on in their community (“Yes, Mr. Brown has no legs. He uses his electric wheelchair to move around.”)
  • Extend this learning about differences (“In what other ways do people move around?”)
  • Play simple sorting games with children; for example, dress a paper doll for different kinds of weather
  • Read books, such as those by Ann Morris, that show types of shoes, hats, bread, or transportation around the world
4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool
What educators might observe
  • Sorts by a given attribute, forming categories
  • Uses comparative words (e.g., faster, slower, louder)
  • Identifies the measurable attributes of objects such as length or weight and describes them using the appropriate vocabulary (e.g., small, big, short, tall, empty, full, heavy, light)
  • Lines up objects in order to determine which is longer
  • Fills large containers with cups of water and counts how many cups fit in each container
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Make a simple Bingo game with 9 squares of colors, shapes, or animals; the cards from this game can also be used for a simple matching game
  • If children are comparing objects, offer them a standard or non-standard tool for measurement
  • Play “duck, duck, goose” using different categories, such as “train, train, car”
5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool
What educators might observe
  • Sorts by a single attribute and reclassifies according to another attribute (e.g., sorts writing implements by type and then re-sorts them by color)
  • Arranges 5–10 objects shortest to longest, biggest to smallest, or heaviest to lightest
  • Compares number of objects by counting, even when one of the objects is bigger, up to 10
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Compare characters in a story or subjects in a non-fiction text
  • Create class charts and surveys with student information such as siblings, caretakers, or ways of getting to school; use these to compare aspects of the class
  • Compare classroom materials, sorting different sizes or shapes of blocks, for example, and discussing how to use them

2. Number Sense and Quantity

Child understands and explores numbers and quantity.

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool
What educators might observe
  • Recognizes and names some numerals when pointing to them
  • Recognizes that numerals can be written and pretends or attempts to write some
  • Verbally counts to 10 with some correspondence, but skips some objects and counts others twice
  • Produces sets of three (e.g., “Bring me three paint brushes from the art center”)
  • When asked for five of something, counts out three and says, “One, two, five.”
  • Changes word order or gives up on one-to-one correspondence to make the answer the one they had predicted or their favorite number (e.g., “one, two, three, four, 100!”)
  • Matches small sets (one to four) of different items and shows they are the same quantity
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Use numbers and counting throughout the day, such as counting how many children are at the sand table
  • Present sets of one to four objects and ask “How many?” questions; encourage children to name the sets before counting (“How many blocks do I have? That’s right I have two blocks.”)
  • Point out quantities of items that the child possesses, such as two shoes, one hat, one jacket, or three stuffed animals; count each item out loud to correspond the number with the quantity of the items
  • Model placing the objects that the child wants to count in a line
  • Give child simple tasks that involve counting (“Give every child one cracker”)
4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool
What educators might observe
  • Attempts to count to 20 by ones
  • Recognizes the number of objects in groups of four without counting
  • Accurately counts five to 10 objects in a line and answers the “how many” question with the last number counted
  • Can match a number of objects with a written numeral 0 to 5 (0 representing a count of no objects)
  • When asked for five of something, counts out five objects
  • Compares groups of one to six objects by matching (e.g., gives each child a bagel and says that there are the same number of bagels as children)
  • Counts the number of objects in a group so they can compare and say which has more, up to five objects; however, if the objects in one group are larger, may say that group has more (e.g., says three large trucks are more than five small cars
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Observe children’s use of counting, oneto-one correspondence, estimating, and simple arithmetic in their play; connect to and extend this learning
  • Offer games that ask children to match a numeral to a number of things
    • String six beads on a pipe cleaner
    • P ick a card and fill the basket with that number of objects
    • Roll a dice and do a movement that many times
    • Jump, clap, or stomp one to five times and ask the children to hold up the number of fingers that matches the number of movements
  • Include books related to number and quantity in the learning environment
    • The Doorbell Rang , by Pat Hutchins
    • Anno’s Counting Book , by Mitsumasa Ann
    • Ten Black Dots , by Donald Crews
    • City by Numbers , by Stephen Johnson
    • Fish Eyes , by Lois Ehlert
5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool
What educators might observe
  • Quickly names the number of objects in groups of five without counting
  • Tells what number comes after any number between one and 20
  • Explains that numbers tell “how many” of something
  • Recognizes and writes numerals 1 through 10
  • Divides up to 20 objects between four or five people by dealing out an object to each person
  • Uses the words “first,” “second,” “third,” up to and including “tenth” (e.g., says, “I came in fourth” when describing a race with classmates
  • Counts on their fingers
  • Keeps track of objects that have and have not been counted (e.g., slides objects they have already counted to the side)
  • Counts backward from 10 by taking away objects
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Provide bags of objects to count (10 acorns, 14 keys, 19 cubes) and ask children to count and draw the objects in them
  • Allow children to freely play with math manipulatives before using them to solve problems
  • S et up the dramatic play area as a store, and invite children to use number cards to “purchase” objects
  • Analyze the mathematical thinking in children’s errors
  • Provide games with dice and dominoes so that children can practice recognizing the number of items in a small set without counting
  • Find math in the body, and play finger math; for example, hold up three fingers on one hand and ask children how many fingers are folded down

3. Patterning

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

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool
What educators might observe
  • Recognizes patterns in their environment (e.g., looks at a striped scarf and says, “It’s a pattern.”)
  • Plays with patterns in language (e.g., sings, “La di dee, la dee da, la dee di.”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Create simple patterns with music; play the drums and dance with children
  • Encourage children to point out patterns in the environment
  • Engage children in patterns of movement
4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool
What educators might observe
  • Describes simple AB patterns (e.g., when the teacher claps then stomps, child names whether to clap or stomp next)
  • Extends visual patterns; continues building a line of blocks that an older child has begun (e.g., triangle, triangle, square, triangle, triangle, square)
  • Identifies repeating patterns in numbers ( “10, 20, and 30 all end in 0.”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Invite children to join you in creating a pattern of music using simple instruments such as a tambourine and a triangle
  • Ask children to notice patterns in the world, such as in seasons or daily schedules
  • Provide materials such as pattern blocks and color tiles that suggest creating AB patterns
  • Use songs and games to teach patterns:
    • Red Light, Green Light
    • Duck, Duck, Goose
    • Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool
What educators might observe
  • Creates and identifies simple repeating patterns (e.g., draws a pattern of hearts and stars around the edge of their picture)
  • Creates and extends simple growing patterns (e.g., stacks one, then two, then three blocks to make a staircase)
  • Explains growing patterns such as the pattern of “plus one” in addition (“If I add one, I get the next number.”)
  • Describes a “jump, jump, clap” movement as two of something then one of something
  • Pays attention to the linguistic patterns in the names of numbers, “Four, forty, and four hundred all sound like four!”
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Provide materials such as wooden cubes to build a staircase to model a “plus one” pattern
  • Create ABC patterns together using clapping, tapping, and patting on the body; ask children to follow your pattern and then allow them to lead, with you following their pattern
  • Sing songs with patterns, such as “Everyone Comes from a Different Place”

4. Spatial Sense and Geometry

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

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool
What educators might observe
  • Uses words to indicate direction and position, but not always accurately
  • Builds vertical and horizontal components within a block building
  • Identifies and names circles and squares
  • Calls two shapes the same, if they have similar parts but are not identical (e.g., when both shapes have pointy parts)
  • Plays with combining shapes and pulling them apart
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Set up simple obstacle courses with children such as hopscotch, hopping over a hoop, jumping up and down, or twirling with a ribbon, use positional words such as “over,” “under” and “through” as children move through the obstacle course
  • Tape shapes on the ground, and ask children to do movements as they go around them
  • Name and identify shapes children make while drawing and writing
  • Invite children to reach into “feely boxes” and pull out a shape that matches the one the educator is holding
  • Identify shapes and angles in everyday life, such as a circles on the tops of cup, rectangular pieces of paper, the angle made when the scissors open, or the angle at the edge of the table
4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool
What educators might observe
  • Uses blocks to build in multiple directions, with multiple points of contact between components
  • Builds arches, enclosures, corners, and crosses
  • Follows a model to create simple shapes out of lines (e.g., organizes sticks to make a triangle or rectangle)
  • Slides and turns pieces to make them fit in a simple puzzle
  • Calls a shape a rectangle because it “looks like a door,” rather than naming sides and angles
  • Calls a variety of open or closed pointy shapes “triangles”
  • Experiments with combining shapes to make a new shape (e.g., in the block area, accidently puts two triangles together to make a square, and then repeats this action intentionally)
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Include materials in the classroom environment that develop geometric concepts
    • Blocks
    • Jigsaw puzzles
    • Magnetic shapes
    • Shape puzzles
    • Pattern blocks
    • Unit blocks
    • Legos
  • Go on community walks along different routes and discuss which route was longer or shorter and why
  • Describe the location of objects the child is trying to find, rather than pointing to them (e.g., “The tape is beside the construction paper.”)
  • Present many examples of squares and rectangles, varying orientation and size; include squares as examples of rectangles (If children say, “That’s a square,” reply, “It is a square, which is a special type of rectangle.”
5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool
What educators might observe
  • Correctly uses position words such as “beside,” “under,” and “inside” to describe objects
  • Slides, flips and turns pieces to make them fit in a puzzle, but does not always move them in the right direction at first
  • Recognizes that there are other shapes that are not common (e.g., rhombus and hexagon)
  • Spontaneously creates symmetrical buildings in the block area
  • Builds complex bridges with multiple arches, ramps, and stairs at the ends
  • Intentionally puts pattern block shapes together to make another shape for a picture
Ways educators might support the child's development
  • Invite children to draw maps of routes, illustrating what landmarks will be passed or seen on different routes
  • Draw maps of the playground and use them to go on a scavenger hunt
  • Challenge the child to cover hexagon pattern blocks with other pattern blocks and see what works
  • Introduce vocabulary such as “sides,” “angles,” and “parallel lines”
  • Identify and describe the symmetry children spontaneously create in their art work
  • Hunt for shapes outside and around the school; take photographs of them and print them out as shape books for the classroom

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