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Self-initiates, plans, and organizes problem solving without assistance
Understands and uses terms for family relationships
Describes what he likes about himself
Persists to combine things in unique ways to create imaginative representations
Adjusts to separation through interactions with others
Silly boisterous play with peers; demonstrates preference for play partners
Participates in small group activities
Shows self-control with wrongdoing
Full range of emotions evident including envy, pity, modesty, and shame
Accepts the consequences of own actions
Demonstrates awareness of others’ thoughts, feelings, and perceptions (Talks about how others
Walks downstairs with alternating feet
Activities: Drives any pedal car
Skills combined into Manipulation/Tool use
Skills combined into Manipulation/Tool use
Draws a face with features in proximity and understanding of the head (enclosure)
Parts of objects may not be connected (toothbrush may be a stick with separate "bristle" lines)
Holds and drinks from a cup with one hand
Puts socks on with correct heel orientation
Boys enter bathroom and urinate and have BM independently
Brushes own hair with supervision
Helps set the table with prompting
Understands words for shapes, sizes, and position (in front of, behind, top, bottom)
Understands descriptive terms (e.g., hard, soft, rough, smooth)
Follows two-step unrelated directions
Follows meaning in conversation among numerous people
Interrupts and talks over others to give own ideas in a group
Understands meaning, even if indirectly stated (e.g., “I need my shoe” implies “Give me my shoe”)
Still seeks out adults for conversations, but prefers peers
Understands “how many,” “whose,” and “why” questions
Regularly requests clarifications
May use cluster reduction (tuck/truck)
75% of children: No longer delete final consonants (e.g., ba/ball)
75% of children: No longer repeat syllables (e.g., baba/bottle)
Produces pronouns appropriately
Uses word order to understand communication
Discusses what props are needed and what should happen next in the play; dialogue is interactive
Infers meaning of words from illustrations in a book
Uses environmental context to figure out meanings of words
Tells story when looking at a familiar book
Recalls 1-2 elements from an unfamiliar story that was just read
Connects details, information, and events in a story to real-life experiences
Asks questions and makes comments to demonstrate understanding of literal meaning of story
Recognizes print in the local environment
Indicates enjoyment when hearing alliteration stories
Knows some letters in own name
Points out words that rhyme in songs, poems, and predictable books
Comments about words that have the same sounds
Organizes messages or stories written with scribble writing with adult assistance
Dictates words for the adult to write down
Uses 3 fingers to hold pencil to write
Scribbles begin to resemble letter-like designs (mock letters), uses scribbles frequently
Draws known letters in unique ways, using segments and sequences of marks
Copies models of horizontal and vertical lines and a circle
Constructs enclosures of different sizes in dramatic play
Dramatizes favorite stories and events
Asks about how things work and why things are done in a specific way
Describes own feelings and is aware of other peoples’ feelings and perspectives
Determines dramatic play themes and leads others
Imbues music, dances with emotion
Recognizes emotions in pictures
Dances and sings to familiar music
Asks adults to show them how to draw or create something
Makes collages with all kinds of materials, glues things together
Develops a theme in dramatic play (doctor, waitress)
Silly boisterous humor among peers and siblings
Frequent sibling rivalry and arguments
Prefers peer interactions to adult interactions
Follows classroom rules part of the time
Modifies language and interactions when playing with younger children
Demonstrates a preference for same-sex peers
Notices peers with similar interests
Keeps one-to-one correspondence of from 3 to 5 items, but doesn’t know “how many in total”
May be confused by amount if one set of items is physically larger
Recognizes several written numbers
Uses graphics to add small numbers by drawing pictures, then counting up to 3 items
Compares pictures, colors, shapes to do simple puzzles
Length/Height: Uses the terms longer/taller functionally in play or daily routines
Amount: Knows larger container holds more
Time: Knows yesterday, tomorrow
Time: Knows parts of the day when specific activities take place
Compares shapes and makes patterns
Recognizes simple pictures made with shapes (square and triangle look like a house)
Knows sequence of daily events
Classifies by shape, size, color individually (not two characteristics)
Matches colors (orange, purple, brown, black, pink gray, white)
Makes inferences about which category an item fits into
Matches familiar shapes of different sizes and orientation
Builds with blocks in all directions with the intent of make a representation of something
Makes observations about creatures and plants in nature
 North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 2015
©2015 by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.