Regulates own emotions and behaviors

• Is able to look at a situation differently or delay gratification
• Manages classroom rules, routines, and transitions with occasional reminders
• Takes responsibility for own well-being

Establishes and sustains positive relationships

• Begins to engage with trusted adults as resources to share mutual interests
• Identifies basic emotional reactions of others and their causes accurately
• Initiates, joins in, and sustains positive interactions with a small group of two to three children
• Establishes a special friendship with one child, but the friendship might only last a short while

Participates cooperatively and constructively in group situations

• Initiates the sharing of materials in the classroom and outdoors
• Begins to resolve problems through basic negotiation and compromise

Demonstrates traveling skills

• Coordinates increasingly complex movements in play and games

Demonstrates balancing skills 

• Begins to sustain balance during complex movement experiences

Demonstrates gross-motor manipulative skills

• Manipulates balls or similar objects with a full range of motion

Demonstrates fine-motor strength and coordination

• Begins to use small, precise finger and hand movements
• Begins to use three-point finger grip and efficient hand placement when writing and drawing

Listens to and understands increasingly complex language

• Begins to respond appropriately to complex statements, questions, vocabulary, and stories, asking questions when needed; offers opposites for frequently occurring verbs and adjectives; understands the difference between similar action verbs 
• Begins to follow detailed, instructional, multistep directions

Uses language to express thoughts and needs

• Describes and tells the use of many familiar items
• Is understood by most people; may mispronounce new, long, or unusual words
• Begins to use long, complex sentences and follow most grammatical rules; uses common verbs and nouns (including plural nouns)
• Tells stories about other times and places that have a logical order and that include major details

Uses appropriate conversational and other communication skills

• Begins to engage in complex, lengthy conversations of five or more exchanges 
• Begins to use acceptable language and basic social rules during communication with others

Demonstrates positive approaches to learning

• Sustains work on age appropriate, interesting tasks; can ignore most distractions and interruptions
• Plans and pursues a variety of appropriately challenging tasks
• Solves problems without having to try every possibility
• Shows eagerness to learn about a variety of topics and ideas
• Begins to change plans if a better idea is thought of or proposed

Remembers and connects experiences 

• Tells about experiences in order, provides details, and evaluates the experience; recalls three or four items removed from view
• Draws on everyday experiences and applies this knowledge to a similar situation

Uses classification skills

• Groups objects by one characteristic; then regroups them using a different characteristic and indicates the reason

Uses symbols and images to represent something not present

• Plans and then uses drawings, constructions, movements, and dramatizations to represent ideas
• Interacts with two or more children during pretend play, assigning and/or assuming roles and discussing actions; sustains play scenario for up to 10 minutes

Demonstrates phonological awareness, phonics skills, and word recognition 

• Decides whether two words rhyme
• Shows awareness that some words begin the same way
• Shows awareness of separate syllables in words
• Shows understanding that a specific sequence of letters represents a spoken word

Demonstrates knowledge of the alphabet

• Recognizes as many as 10 letters, especially those in own name
• Begins to produce the correct sounds for a 10-20 letters

Demonstrates knowledge of print and its uses

• Knows some features of a book (e.g. title, author, illustrator, front and back covers); connects  specific books to authors
• Indicates where to start reading and the direction to follow

Comprehends and responds to books and other texts

• Asks and answers questions about the text; refers to pictures
• Begins to pretend to read, reciting language that closely matches the text on each page and uses reading-like intonation
• Retells familiar stories and recounts details from a nonfiction text using pictures or props as prompts

Demonstrates writing skills

• Writes partially accurate first name
• Uses drawing, dictation, and early invented spelling to convey a message

Uses number concepts and operations

• Verbally counts to 20; counts 10-20 objects accurately; knows the last number and states how many in all; tells what number (1-10) comes next in order by counting
• Makes sets of 6-10 objects and then describes the parts; identifies which part has more, less, or the same (equal); counts all or counts on to find out how many
• Identifies numerals to 10 by name and connects each to counted objects

Explores and describes spatial relationships and shapes

• Begins to use and respond appropriately to positional words indicating location, direction, and distance
• Describes basic two- and three- dimensional shapes by using own words; recognizes basic shapes when they are presented in a new orientation

Compares and measures

• Uses multiples of the same unit to measure; uses numbers to compare; knows the purpose of standard measuring tools
• Relates time to daily routines and schedule
• Begins to create and read simple graphs; uses simple comparisons and ordinal terms to describe findings

Demonstrates knowledge of patterns

• Extends and creates simple repeating patterns