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Creates elaborate socio-dramatic play scenarios, songs, stories, etc.
Uses language to explain, justify, and argue own actions and beliefs
Believes he can do everything well
Creates own complex socio-dramatic play themes, scenarios, and props with great attention to detail
Completely independent in self-care; wants to choose all clothing and activities
Feels the importance of being accepted by friends
Demonstrates a strong sense of right and wrong for self and others
Feelings easily “hurt” by others saying or doing something that offends him
Judges right and wrong by what gets punished, refrains from actions that get punished
Skips with coordination (alternate step-hop pattern)
Catches small ball by adjusting body position in line with the ball and elbows at sides
Imitates a variety of actions in a game or song
Walks on a curb or balance board without falling
Jumps over something 10” off the ground
Jumps up and turns around 180°
Throws and releases a ball smoothly with accurate directionality
Steps forward with same leg as throwing arm
Skills combined into Reach/Grasp/Release
Completes 10+ interlocking piece puzzles
Draws stick figures with head, body, arms, and legs
Uses scissors to cut out shapes
Draws what is known, rather than what is actually seen (four legs on dog)
Draws more important things larger (e.g., person larger than the house)
Uses a knife to spread food items
Puts shoes on the correct feet
Showers independently, but may need help with washing hair
Completely cares for self at toilet
Fastens and zips front fastening zippers
Understands “what happens if…?”
Communicates in group activities by taking turns most of the time
Begins to understand humor; tries to tell jokes or make others laugh with stories
Talks about another person’s likes, dislikes, and point of view
Understands “What happens if...” questions
Asks about another person’s perspective (e.g., “What do you think about…?”)
100% intelligible, though errors on /s, sh, r, l, z, zh, ch, j, th/ may persist
Demonstrates few omissions or substitutions
75% of children: No longer omit /s/ in an initial position of a cluster (e.g., tep/step)
Produces 4-8 word (or longer) sentences
Creates elaborate stories with peers for dramatic play
Dictates stories in appropriate narrative sequence, with characters, unorganized plot, and dialogue
Produces indefinite negatives, including nothing, nobody, and no one
Produces all types of simple and complex sentences
Uses complex directional and time relational words (e.g., then, first, next, forward, backward)
Names the category when examples are given (e.g., apple, pear, grape)
Uses expanded number words and concepts: Knows counting words up to 100 and names coins
Approximately 70% of vocabulary is concrete
Asks adult to buy or check out specific topics, books, or authors
Tells a suitable ending to a simple story
Differentiates, identifies, and reproduces letters in the alphabet (at least in approximations)
Understands that letters function to represent the sounds in spoken words
Selects an appropriate letter to represent a sound that an adult isolates
Recognizes a few sight words (e.g., words in familiar books, stores, etc.)
Replaces scribbles with letter approximations and actual letters in a message or story
Writing formats differ for different purposes (e.g., list, card, story)
May reverse letters when writing
Replaces scribbles with letter approximations and actual letters
Writes at least the most commonly first-learned letters: B, D, S, T, O, A, H, K, M, and C
Writes simple consonant-vowel-consonant words
Writes some upper and lower case letters, but may mix them together
Writes left to right and top to bottom of page
Puts spaces between some writing to represent words, but may run other words together
Replaces scribbles with letter approximations and actual letters
Understands orientation of objects, letters and pictures as an important characteristic
Gives detailed descriptions of past events, stories, movies, etc.
Remembers sequences of words and numbers
Describes her plan, and what she is going to do in a logical sequence
Compares and negotiates his ideas with others in play
Sense of pitch, rhythm, and melody emerging
Examines art and sees similarities and differences across artists
Dance movements are precise and coordinated
Includes music and dance in dramatic play or performance
Uses a variety of tools, scissors, markers, fasteners to create scenes, props, etc.
Artwork shows novel ideas or methods of expression
Discusses and negotiates roles, actions, and dialogue with other players in dramatizations
Attempts to please peers, make friends
Participates well in groups; raises hand to talk, takes turns, listens to others
Names special friends in the classroom
Converses with people outside of the family and asks them questions
Demonstrates a good understanding of how to behave in different environments
Group rough and tumble play; more prevalent for boys
“Counts on” from a given number without starting at 1
Knows the number before and the number after a number but has to count from 1 to figure it out
Counts to 100 by ones (with emphasis on the pattern)
Uses counting to compare amounts in sets even if items are different sizes
Keeps track of number counted even when not in a structured arrangement
Writes and draws to represent 1 to 10 and 20 and 30
Breaks up a total number of objects in many different combinations to make the whole set (up to 10)
Adds up the total of two same or different sets of objects up to as high as the child can count
Compares sets of objects to find the difference in amount
Finds how many objects need to be added to a set to get a specific total
Meaningfully uses words equal, more, less, and fewer
Knows to count and compare regardless of the attributes in the set
Identifies and uses ordinal numbers from 1st to 10th
Puts items in serial order of size from one to six units
Length: Compares lengths using another object
Length: Compares the length of two objects using an object with standard units
Size: Orders six objects from smallest to largest
Time: Knows day before yesterday, day after tomorrow; learns days of the week and seasons
Extends a simple pattern by adding a new pattern set
Identifies the class, when items are named (apple, banana, grape)
Knows penny, nickel, dime (but not their worth)
Classifies toys, tools, number, letters, people, objects by function
Recreates a picture or pattern using shapes
Recognizes a wide range of rectangular shapes, with varying sizes and orientations
Counts sides of a shape to identify the geometric configuration
Recognizes and counts angles to the geometric configuration
Recognizes basic shapes and typical hexagon, rhombus, and trapezoid
Recreates a picture composed of shapes or tangrams
Decomposes or takes apart shapes to make smaller shapes
Creates a map using toy objects to recreate a space such as the classroom
Describes characteristics of living things
Talks about the similarities and differences among different animals, insects, and plants
Differentiates between manmade and natural materials
Notes the physical properties of different aspects of the environment
 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/.