Approaches to Play & Learning
Curiosity, Information-Seeking, and Eagerness
- Children show curiosity and express interest in the world around them.
- Children actively seek to understand the world around them.
Play and Imagination
- Children engage in increasingly complex play.
- Children demonstrate creativity, imagination, and inventiveness.
Risk-Taking, Problem-Solving, and Flexibility
- Children are willing to try new and challenging experiences.
- Children use a variety of strategies to solve problems.
Attentiveness, Effort, and Persistence
- Children demonstrate initiative.
- Children maintain attentiveness and focus.
- Children persist at challenging activities.
Emotional & Social Development
Developing a Sense of Self
- Children demonstrate a positive sense of self-identity and self-awareness.
- Children express positive feelings about themselves and confidence in what they can do.
Developing a Sense of Self with Others
- Children form relationships and interact positively with familiar adults who are consistent and responsive to their needs.
- Children form relationships and interact positively with other children.
- Children demonstrate the social and behavioral skills needed to successfully participate in groups.
Learning about Feelings
- Children identify, manage, and express their feelings.
- Children recognize and respond to the needs and feelings of others.
Health & Physical Development
Physical Health and Growth
- Children develop healthy eating habits.
- Children engage in and sustain various forms of physical play indoors and outdoors.
- Children develop healthy sleeping habits.
Motor Development
- Children develop the large muscle control and abilities needed to move through and explore their environment.
- Children develop small muscle control and hand-eye coordination to manipulate object and work with tools.
Self-Care
- Children develop awareness of their needs and the ability to communicate their needs.
- Children develop independence in caring for themselves and their environment.
Safety Awareness
- Children develop awareness of basic safety rules and begin to follow them.
Language Development & Communication
Learning to Communicate
- Children understand communications from others.
- Children participate in conversations with peers and adults in one-on-one, small, and larger group interactions.
- Children ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.
- Children speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.
- Children describe familiar people, places, things, and events.
- Children use most grammatical constructions of their home language well.
- Children respond to and use a growing vocabulary.
Foundations for Reading
- Children develop interest in books and motivation to read.
- Children develop book knowledge and print awareness.
- Children comprehend, and use information presented in books and other print media.
- Children develop phonological awareness.
- Children develop knowledge of the alphabet and the alphabetic principle.
Foundations for Writing
- Children use writing and other symbols to record information and communicate for a variety of purposes.
- Children use knowledge of letters in their attempts to write.
- Children use writing skills and writing conventions.
Mathematical Thinking & Expression
Foundations for Number Sense
- Children demonstrate a beginning understanding of numbers and quantity during play and other activities.
- Children demonstrate a beginning understanding of numbers and operations during play and other activities.
Foundations for Algebraic Thinking
- Children demonstrate a beginning understanding of algebraic thinking by sorting, describing, extending, and creating simple patterns during play and other activities
Foundations for Geometry and Spatial Understanding
- Children begin to identify, describe, classify and understand shape, size, direction and movement during play and other activities
Foundations for Measurement and Data Analysis
- Children demonstrate a beginning understanding of measurement (the idea of repeating the use of an object to measure) and a beginning understanding of data analysis through comparing, and interpreting data during play and other activities
Mathematical Thinking and Reasoning
- Children use mathematical thinking to solve problems in their everyday environment
Cognitive Development
Construction of Knowledge: Thinking and Reasoning
- Children use their senses to construct knowledge about the world around them.
- Children recall information and use it for addressing new situations and problems.
- Children demonstrate the ability to think about their own thinking: reasoning, taking perspectives, and making decisions.
Creative Expression
- Children demonstrate appreciation for different forms of artistic expression.
- Children demonstrate self-expression and creativity in a variety of forms and contexts, including play, visual arts, music, drama and dance.
Social Connections
- Children demonstrate knowledge of relationships and roles within their own families, homes, classrooms, and communities.
- Children recognize that they are members of different groups (e.g. family, preschool class, cultural group).
- Children identify and demonstrate acceptance of similarities and differences between themselves and others.
- Children explore concepts connected with their daily experiences in their community.
Scientific Exploration and Knowledge
- Children observe and describe characteristics of living things and the physical world.
- Children explore the natural world by observing, manipulating objects, asking questions, making predications, and developing generalizations.