4 Years-Kindergarten

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT DOMAIN

APPROACHES TO LEARNING DOMAIN

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT DOMAIN

LANGUAGE AND LITERACY DOMAIN

MATHEMATICAL THINKING DOMAIN

SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY DOMAIN

SOCIAL STUDIES DOMAIN

CREATIVE EXPRESSION THROUGH THE ARTS DOMAIN

HEALTH AND WELLBEING

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

EAGERNESS AND CURIOSITY

PERSISTENCE

CREATIVITY AND INVENTIVENESS

PLANNING AND REFLECTION

EMOTIONAL FUNCTIONING

MANAGING EMOTIONS

BUILDING AND MAINTAINING RELATIONSHIPS WITH ADULTS AND PEERS

SENSE OF IDENTITY AND BELONGING

LISTENING AND UNDERSTANDING

SPEAKING

VOCABULARY

SENTENCES AND STRUCTURE

CONVERSATION

EMERGENT READING 

EMERGENT WRITING

NUMBER SENSE

NUMBER AND OPERATIONS

PATTERNS

GEOMETRY

SPATIAL RELATIONS

MEASUREMENT AND DATA

SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY THROUGH EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY

 LIFE SCIENCE

PHYSICAL SCIENCE

EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE 

ENVIRONMENT

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

CULTURE

INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY

INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS

SPACES, PLACES AND ENVIRONMENTS 

TIME, CONTINUITY AND CHANGE

GOVERNANCE, CIVIC IDEALS AND PRACTICES 

ECONOMICS AND RESOURCES

TECHNOLOGY AND OUR WORLD

SENSORY ART EXPERIENCE 

MUSIC

CREATIVE MOVEMENT

IMAGINATIVE AND CREATIVE PLAY

APPRECIATION OF THE ARTS

Active Physical Play

Safety

Personal Care Routines

Feeding and Nutrition

Gross Motor Development

Gross Motor Perception (Sensorimotor)

Fine Motor Development

Engages in physical activities with increasing balance, coordination, endurance and intensity

Shows awareness of safety and increasingly demonstrates knowledge of safe choices and risk assessment when participating in daily activities

Responds to and initiates care routines that support personal hygiene

Responds to feeding or feeds self with increasing efficiency and demonstrates increasing interest in eating habits and making food choices

Demonstrates use of large muscles for movement, position, strength and coordination

Demonstrates use of large muscles to move in the environment

Uses perceptual information to guide motions and interactions with objects and other people

Demonstrates increasing precision, strength, coordination and efficiency when using hand muscles for play and functional tasks

Increasingly coordinates hand and eye movements to perform a variety of actions with increasing precision 

Shows increased curiosity and is eager to learn new things and have new experiences

Attends to tasks for a brief period of time

Approaches daily activities with creativity and inventiveness

Demonstrates some planning and learning from experiences

Expresses, identifies and responds to a range of emotions

Demonstrates appropriate affect (emotional response) between behavior and facial expression

Demonstrates ability to self-regulate 

Attends to sights, sounds, objects, people and activities

Develops positive relationships with adults

Develops positive relationships with peers

Develops increasing ability to engage in social problem solving

Exhibits empathy by demonstrating care and concern for others 

Develops sense of identity and belonging through play

Develops sense of identity and belonging through exploration and persistence

Develops sense of identity and belonging through routines, rituals and interactions 

Develops sense of self-awareness and independence

Demonstrates understanding when listening 

Increases knowledge through listening

Follows directions

Speaks and is understood when speaking

Shows an understanding of words and their meanings (receptive) 

Uses increased vocabulary to describe objects, actions and events (expressive) 

Uses age‐appropriate grammar in conversations and increasingly complex phrases and sentences

Connects words, phrases and sentences to build ideas

Uses verbal and nonverbal communication and language to express needs and feelings, share experiences and resolve problems

Asks questions, and responds to adults and peers in a variety of settings 

Demonstrates understanding of the social conventions of communication and language use

Shows motivation for and appreciation of reading

Shows age-appropriate phonological awareness 

Shows alphabetic and print knowledge

Demonstrates comprehension of books read aloud

Begins to show motivation to engage in written expression and appropriate knowledge of forms and functions of written composition

Subitizes (immediately recognizes without counting) up to five objects

Counts and identifies the number sequence “1 to 31” 

Demonstrates one-toone correspondence when counting objects placed in a row (one to 15 and beyond)

Identifies the last number spoken tells ”how many” up to 10 (cardinality)

Constructs and counts sets of objects (one to 10 and beyond)

Uses counting and matching strategies to find which is more, less than or equal to 10 

Reads and writes some numerals one to 10 using appropriate activities

Explores quantities up to eight using objects, fingers and dramatic play to solve real-world joining and separating problems

Begins to demonstrate how to compose and decompose (build and take apart) sets up to eight using objects, fingers and acting out

Identifies and extends a simple AB repeating pattern

Duplicates a simple AB pattern using different objects

Recognizes the unit of repeat of a more complex pattern and extends the pattern (e.g., ABB or ABC)

Recognizes and names two-dimensional shapes (circle, square, triangle and rectangle) of different size and orientation

Describes, sorts and classifies two- and three-dimensional shapes using some attributes such as size, sides and other properties (e.g., vertices)

Creates two dimensional shapes using other shapes (e.g., putting two squares together to make a rectangle)

Constructs with three-dimensional shapes in the environment through play (e.g., building castles in the construction area)

Describes relationships between objects and locations with words and gestures by constructing models to demonstrate an understanding of proximity (beside, next to, between, below, over and under)

Uses directions to move through space and find places in space

Measures object attributes using a variety of standard and nonstandard tools

Identifies measurable attributes such as length and weight and solves problems by making direct comparisons of objects

Seriates (places objects in sequence) up to six objects in order by height or length (e.g., cube towers or unit blocks)

Represents, analyzes and discusses data (e.g. charts, graphs and tallies)

Begins to predict the results of data collection

Uses senses to explore and understand their social and physical environment

Uses tools in scientific inquiry

Uses understanding of causal relationships to act on social and physical environments

Demonstrates knowledge related to living things and their environments 

Demonstrates knowledge related to physical science

Demonstrates knowledge related to the dynamic properties of earth and sky

Demonstrates awareness of relationship to people, objects and living/non-living things in their environment

Shows interest and understanding of how simple tools and machines assist with solving problems or creating objects and structures

Identifies self as a member of a culture 

Understands everyone belongs to a culture

Explores culture of peers and families in the classroom and community

Explores cultural attributes by comparing and contrasting different characteristics (e.g., language, literature, music, arts, artifacts, foods, architecture and celebrations)

Identifies characteristics of self as an individual

Identifies the ways self is similar to and different from peers and others

Recognizes individual responsibility as a member of a group (e.g., classroom or family)

Identifies differences and similarities of self and others as part of a group

Explains the role of groups within a community

Demonstrates awareness of group rules (e.g., family, classroom, school or community)

Exhibits leadership skills and roles (e.g., line leader and door holder) 

Identifies the relationship of personal space to surroundings

Identifies differences and similarities between own environment and other locations

Identifies differences and similarities of basic physical characteristics (e.g., landmarks or land features)

Uses spatial words (e.g., far/close, over/under and up/down)

Recognizes some geographic tools and resources (e.g., maps, globes or GPS)

Begins to identify the relationship between human decisions and the impact on the environment (e.g., recycling and water conservation)

Identifies changes within a sequence of events to establish a sense of order and time

Observes and recognizes changes that take place over time in the immediate environment

Recognizes and follows rules and expectations in varying settings

Participates in problem solving and decision making

Begins to explore basic principles of democracy (e.g., deciding rules in a classroom, respecting opinions of others, voting on classroom activities or civic responsibilities) 

Recognizes the difference between wants and needs

Begins to recognize that people work to earn money to buy things they need or want

Uses and shows awareness of technology and its impact on how people live (e.g., computers, tablets, mobile devices, cameras or music players)

Combines with intention a variety of open-ended, processoriented and diverse art materials 

Actively participates in a variety of individual and group musical activities

Expresses and represents thought, observations, imagination, feelings, experiences and knowledge in individual and group music activities

Continues to engage in individual and group movement activities to express and represent thoughts, observations, imagination, feelings, experiences and knowledge

Expresses and represents thoughts, observations, imagination, feelings, experiences and knowledge, verbally and non-verbally, with others using a variety of objects in own environment 

Uses appropriate art vocabulary to describe own art creations and those of others

Compares own art to similar art forms

Begins to recognize that instruments and art forms represent cultural perspectives of the home and the community, now and in the past

Seeks to engage in physical activities or active play routinely with increased intensity and duration

Consistently follows basic safety rules independently across different situations

Identifies consequences of not following safety rules 

Initiates and completes familiar hygiene routines independently

Assists adults in preparing simple foods to serve to self or others 

Recognizes nutritious food choices and healthy eating habits

Balances, such as on one leg or on a beam, for longer periods of time both when standing still and when moving from one position to another

Demonstrates more coordinated movement when engaging in skills, such as jumping for height and distance, hopping and running

Engages in more complex movements (e.g., riding a tricycle with ease)

Engages in physical activities of increasing levels of intensity for sustained periods of time

Combines and coordinates more than two motor movements (e.g., moves a wheelchair through an obstacle course)

Acts and moves with purpose and independently recognizes differences in direction, distance and location

Demonstrates spatial awareness through play activities

Shows hand control using various drawing and art tools with increasing coordination

Easily coordinates hand and eye movements to carry out tasks (e.g., working on puzzles or stringing beads together) 

Uses developmentally appropriate grasp to hold and manipulate tools for writing, drawing and painting

Uses coordinated movements to complete complex tasks (e.g., cuts along a line, pours or buttons, buckles/unbuckles, zips, snaps, laces shoes, fastens tabs)

Recognizes the emotions of peers and responds with empathy and compassion

Demonstrates cognitive empathy (recognizing or inferring other’s mental states) and the use of words, gestures and facial expressions to respond appropriately

Recognizes and names own emotions and manages and exhibits behavioral control with or without adult support

Increases attention to preferred activities and begins to attend to non-preferred activities

Shows enjoyment in interactions with trusted adults while also demonstrating skill in separating from these adults 

Plays with peers in a coordinated manner including assigning roles, materials and actions

Maintains friendships and is able to engage in prosocial behavior such as cooperating, compromising and turn taking

Responds appropriately to bullying behavior

Able to independently engage in simple social problem solving including offering potential solutions and reflecting on the appropriateness of the solution 

Able to take the perspective of others and actively respond in a manner that is consistent and supportive

Engages in associative play and begins to play cooperatively with friends

Persists at individual planned experiences, caregiverdirected experiences and planned group activities

Demonstrates willingness to be flexible if routines must change

Uses words to communicate personal characteristics, preferences, thoughts and feelings

Recognizes preferences of others

Uses words to demonstrate knowledge of personal information (e.g., hair color, age, gender or size)

Identifies self as a unique member of a group (e.g., class, school, family or larger community)

Engages in multiple back-andforth communicative interactions with adults (e. g., teacher-shared information, readaloud books) and peers to set goals, follow rules, solve problems and share what is learned with others

Shows understanding by asking and answering factual, predictive and inferential questions, adding comments relevant to the topic and reacting appropriately to what is said 

Identifies the main idea, some details of a conversation, story or informational text and can explicitly connect what is being learned to own existing knowledge

Demonstrates increased ability to focus and sustain attention, set goals and solve dilemmas presented in conversation, story, informational text or creative play

Achieves mastery of two‐step directions and usually follows three‐step directions

Speaks and is understood by both a familiar and an unfamiliar adult but may make some pronunciation errors

Demonstrates understanding of age‐ appropriate vocabulary across many topic areas and demonstrates a wide variety of words and their meanings within each area (e.g., world knowledge, names of body parts and feelings)

Demonstrates understanding of functional and organizational language (e.g., same and different, in front of and behind, next to, opposite, below) in multiple environments

Understands or knows the meaning of many thousands of words including subject area words (e.g., science, social studies, math and literacy), many more than he or she routinely uses (receptive language)

Uses a large speaking vocabulary, adding new wordsweekly (e.g., repeats words and uses them appropriately in context) (typically has a vocabulary of more than 1,500 words) 

Uses a variety of word-meaning relationships (e.g., part‐ whole, object‐function, object‐location)

Identifies unfamiliar words asking for clarification 

Uses words in multiple contexts, with the understanding that some words have multiple meanings

Typically uses complete sentences of five or more words, usually with subject, verb and object order

Uses regular and irregular plurals, regular past tense, personal and possessive pronouns and subject‐verb agreement

Uses sentences with more than one phrase

Combines more than one idea using complex sentences (e.g., sequences and cause/effect relationships)

Combines sentences that give lots of detail, stick to the topic and clearly communicate intended meaning 

Engages in conversations with two to three back-andforth turns using language, gestures, and expressions (e.g., words related to social conventions like “please” and “thank you”)

Asks and responds to more complex statements and questions, follows another’s conversational lead, maintains multi-turn conversations, appropriately introduces new content and appropriately initiates or ends conversations

Demonstrates increased awareness of nonverbal conversational rules 

Demonstrates knowledge of verbal conversational rules (e.g., appropriately takes turns, does not interrupt, uses appropriate verbal expressions and uses appropriate intonation)

Matches language to social and academic contexts (e.g., uses volume appropriate to context)

Selects books for reading enjoyment and reading related activities including pretending to read to self or others 

Makes real-world connections between stories and real-life experiences

Interacts appropriately with books and other materials in a print-rich environment

Asks to be read to, asks the meaning of written text or compares books/stories

Initiates and participates in conversations that demonstrate appreciation of printed materials

Distinguishes individual words within spoken phrases or sentences

Combines words to make a compound word (e.g., “foot” + “ball” = “football”) 

Deletes a word from a compound word (e.g., “starfish” – “star” = “fish”)

Combines syllables into words (e.g., “sis” + “ter” = “sister”) 

Deletes a syllable from a word (e.g., “trumpet” – “trum” = “pet” or “candy” – “dy” = “can”)

Combines onset and rime to form a familiar one-syllable word with and without pictorial support (e.g., when shown several pictures and adult says “/c/” + “at,” child can select the picture of the cat)

Recognizes that print conveys meaning

Recognizes almost all letters when named (e.g., when shown a group of letters, can accurately identify, verbally or nonverbally, the letter that is named)

Names most letters (e.g., when shown an uppercase or lowercase letter, can accurately say its name) 

Recognizes some letter sounds (e.g., when shown a group of letters, can accurately identify, verbally or nonverbally, the letter of the sound given)

Retells or reenacts story with increasing accuracy and complexity after it is read aloud

Asks and answers appropriate questions about the story (e.g., “What just happened?” “What might happen next?” “What would happen if…?” “What was so silly about…?” “How would you feel if you…?”)

Intentionally uses scribbles/writing to convey meaning (e.g., signing artwork, captioning, labeling, creating lists, making notes)

Uses letter‐like shapes or letters to write words or parts of words

Writes own name (e.g., first name, last name, or nickname), not necessarily with full correct spelling or well‐ formed letters

Identifies each of the five senses and their relationship to each of the sense organs 

Begins to identify and make observations about what can be learned about the world using each of the five senses

Begins to understand that individuals may experience sensory events differently from each other (e.g., may like sound of loud noises or feel of fuzzy fabric) 

Uses tools and various technologies to support exploration and inquiry (e.g., digital cameras, scales)

Makes predictions and tests their predictions through experimentation and investigation 

Collects and records data through drawing, writing, dictation and taking photographs (e.g., using tables, charts, drawings, tallies and graphs)

Begins to form conclusions and construct explanations (e.g., What do the results mean?)

Shares findings and outcomes of experiments

Identifies characteristics of a variety of plants and animals including physical attributes and behaviors (e.g., camouflage, body covering, eye color, other adaptations, types of trees and where they grow)

Notices the similarities and differences among various living things

Understands that all living things grow, change and go through life cycles

Begins to distinguish between living and non-living things 

Observes that living things differ with regard to their needs and habitats

Discusses what makes objects move the way they do and how the movement can be controlled 

Makes predictions about how to change the speed of an object, tests predictions through experiments and describes what happens

Distinguishes between the properties of an object and the properties of which the material is made (e.g., water and ice)

Investigates and describes changing states of matter — liquid, solid and gas

Explores the relationship of objects to light (e.g., light and shadows)

Describes properties of water including changes in the states of water – liquid, solid and gas (e.g., buoyancy, movement, displacement and flow)

Discovers, explores, sorts, compares, and contrasts objects that are naturally found in the environment, including rocks, soil, sand and mud, and recognizes relationships among the objects (e.g., nature walks with hand lenses, collection bag) (e.g., rocks, twigs, leaves and sea shells) 

Begins to explore and discuss simple observations of characteristics and movements of the clouds, sun, moon and stars

Compares the daytime and nighttime cycle

Uses appropriate vocabulary to discuss climate and changes in the weather and the impact it has on their daily lives (e.g., types of clothing for different environments)

Demonstrates how people use objects and natural resources in the environment

Participates in daily routines demonstrating basic conservation strategies (e.g., conserving water when washing hands or brushing teeth)

Identifies examples of organized efforts to protect the environment (e.g., recycling materials in the classroom)

Identifies problems and tries to solve them by designing or using tools (e.g., makes a simple tent with a chair and cloth for protection from the sun)

Explains why a simple machine is appropriate for a particular task (e.g., moving something heavy, moving water from one location to another)

Uses appropriate tools and materials with greater flexibility to create or solve problems

Invents and constructs simple objects or more complex structures and investigates concepts of motion and stability of structures (e.g., ramps, pathways, structure, Legos, block building and play)