Developmental Areas

Emotional Development 

• Demonstrates awareness of self, including own body, abilities, thoughts, and feelings

• Shows confidence in increasing abilities

• Demonstrates an awareness of others as having thoughts and feelings separate from own

• Expresses a variety of emotions through facial expressions, sounds, gestures, or words

• Manages emotions with the support of familiar adults

• Recognizes and interprets emotions of others with adult support

• Adapts to safe, but unfamiliar environments

Social Development 

• Demonstrates the ability to identify and take appropriate risks in play in order to learn new skills

• Expresses care and concern towards others

• Shows interest in, interacts with, and develops relationships with other children

• Plays by themselves and cooperatively with others

• Begins to develop problem solving skills by negotiating conflicts and differences

• Follows routines and participates appropriately in small and whole group

• Demonstrates willingness to investigate new and different activities and environments

• Uses classroom materials responsibly with modeling and guidance from adults

Language Development

• Shows understanding of basic English vocabulary and familiar phrases used in conversation

• Expands personal working vocabulary

• Listens to and follows one or two-step directions

• Demonstrates interest or enjoyment when participating in language activities

• Speaks in simple sentences to communicate needs, wants and ideas

• Uses non-verbal communication and language for a variety of purposes (to learn and gain information, to engage others in interaction) 

• Asks and answers simple questions in conversation with others

• Repeats simple, familiar rhymes, phrases or refrains from songs and stories

• Shows interest in books

• Makes marks/scribbles on paper to represent an object or action

Cognitive Development 

• Plays with materials of different textures to investigate characteristics and behaviors in the physical and natural world

• Observes and responds to different causes and effects 

• Asks “why” and other simple questions to investigate the physical and natural worlds, to hypothesize, and to make predictions 

• Begins to develop a sense of number and quantity 

• Uses matching and sorting of objects or people to understand similar and different characteristics

• Explores the position of objects in space

• Begins to collect and organize materials and information to inform play

Creative and Aesthetic Development 

• Expresses curiosity and wonderment about new experiences

• Participates in simple creative activities for sensory experience and/or exploration 

• Notices shapes, textures, temperature, light colors, sounds, tastes, aromas, and movements

• Appreciates, displays, and describes their own work

• Responds to an external stimulus with vocal and facial expressions

• Expresses ideas and feelings in creative ways 

• Demonstrates an interest in listening, vocalizing, singing, and moving

• Engages in imaginative play

Physical Development

• Demonstrates increasing body strength, flexibility, and control 

• Coordinates movements to perform simple tasks

• Shows awareness of their body and movements in relation to space and objects 

• Coordinates hand and eye movements to perform simple actions

• Shows increasing independence in self-care routines

• Uses senses to explore people, places, and things 

• Explores with various drawing tools

• Responds to sensory clues