0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

The guidelines don’t define behaviours for this area at this age.

8–16 months – See this age across all domains Infants

The guidelines don’t define behaviours for this area at this age.

15–24 months – See this age across all domains Toddlers

What educators might observe

• Makes decisions about how to manipulate and order objects in the environment (e.g., drops crayons into a paper towel tube)

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Set up an overhead projector, and allow children to experiment with making shadows against the wall
• See children’s manipulation of objects as holding meaning and or significance for them even if temporary
• Acknowledge the marks children intentionally or accidentally make with crayons or markers

24–36 months – See this age across all domains Toddlers

What educators might observe

• Uses objects such as stuffed animals or action figures to act out simple stories (e.g., going to bed and waking up)
• Organizes visual materials (e.g., play dough, paint, collage); may not intend to represent something or may change what they are representing throughout the process
• Pretends to be a character (e.g., puts on cape and flies like Superman)

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Observe children’s interactions with toys and art materials
  • Are they telling a story as they play?
  • Are they arranging objects and marks with greater intentionality?
  • Are they pretending to be a character?
• Acknowledge and extend children’s story-making
• Provide many and varied writing tools and materials, including markers, crayons, pencils, and chalk

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?”

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

What educators might observe

• Uses drawing and invented spelling to write about an experience, idea, or topic
• Follows some social rules for composition (e.g.,, begins messages with “Dear” or “To” and concludes with “Love” or “From”)
• Adds their own ideas to a story their peers are making up
• References known stories and styles in their own composing (e.g., reads several versions of Jack and the Beanstalk and dictates their own version.)

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Brainstorm ideas for compositions with children
• Make time for children to share a scene or to act out parts of a story for a peer audience with props
• Celebrate children’s completed compositions with a publishing party

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

What educators might observe

• Varies the types of sentences that they use in their compositions
• Writes stories with a beginning, middle, and end
• Collaborates with a peer to plan, write, and illustrate a story
• Plans and develops a writing composition over the course of several days
• Uses an editing checklist to try to incorporate features of non-fiction (For example, to revise the non-fiction book All About Birds , the child uses a checklist and adds a Table of Contents)

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Discuss contrasting features of a child’s home language with English, such as use of accent marks in Spanish and English
• Explore the scene or setting of a play by talking about the author’s word choice
• Model writing the beginning of a story, and revise it to introduce the main character’s personal voice
• Ask children for explanations of why they made certain choices while authoring
• Challenge children to use rich vocabulary and complex sentences in their compositions

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

What educators might observe

• Composes a letter to a friend that uses their home language variation
• Makes a case in a debate by stating an argument, investigates information, and includes reasons with relevant supporting details in writing
• Writes a version of a fairy tale with a character using a particular voice
• Seeks to master mature styles of composition (e.g., draws scenes for a comic book or graphic novel)
• Uses resources to enhance their compositions (e.g., uses a thesaurus to find a word with a particular nuance to express an emotion or idea)

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Welcome and celebrate the variety of children’s composing processes
• Discuss what makes an argument effective and how to find an equally effective counterargument
• Provide models of approaches to composition; discuss and chart an author’s intent or purpose across various types of texts in an author’s body of work (e.g., discuss the purpose of Patricia Polacco’s Chicken Sunday , Thank You, Mr. Falker , and Pink and Say )