BENCHMARKS

Social/Emotional Development

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Sense of Self

• Accepts change in daily schedule and routines
• Regards parents and teachers as resources and positive role models
• Identifies and labels own feelings
• Physically or verbally asserts needs and desires
• Completes a task of own choosing with adult assistance
• Uses self-help skills with occasional reminders
• Uses materials in appropriate ways
• Participates in classroom activities with occasional reminders
• Understands and follows classroom rules with occasional reminders
• Follows classroom routines: sitting at snack time, cleaning up, lining up, sitting at circle time for 5 minutes or more

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Responsibility for Self and Others 

• Demonstrates self-direction and independence.
• Takes responsibility for own well-being.
• Respects and cares for classroom environment and materials.
• Follows classroom routines.
• Follows classroom rules.

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Prosocial Behavior

• Works/plays cooperatively with one other child
• Begins to recognize that people may have different feelings about the same situation
• Shares toys or allows another child to take a turn when asked
• Accepts compromise when suggested by a peer or teacher

Language Development

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Listening and Speaking

• Plays with words, sounds and rhymes
• Uses longer sentences (5-6 words) to communicate
• Follows two-step directions
• Begins to answer questions with a complete thought
• Asks questions to further understanding
• Responds to comments and questions from others
• Can recite the ABC song

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Reading and Writing

• Begins to participate in story time interactively
• Knows that print carries the message
• Recognizes and names several letters
• Comprehends and interprets meaning from books and other texts
• Compares and predicts story events; acts out main events of a familiar story
• Understands there is a way to write that conveys meaning
• Writes some recognizable letters, especially those in his/her name
• Recognizes their name and can name the first letter of it

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Cognitive Development

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Learning and Problem Solving

• Notices and/or asks questions about similarities and differences
• Begins to experiment with materials in new ways when the first way doesn't work
• Sees simple tasks through to completion
• Notices examples of cause and effect
• Occasionally draws on everyday experiences and applies this knowledge to similar situations

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Logical Thinking

• Sorts objects by one property such as size, shape, color or purpose
• Notices similarities and differences
• Notices and recreates simple patterns with objects
• Demonstrates understanding of the present and may refer to the past and future
• Begins to understand and use positional words correctly
• Places objects in one-to-one correspondence with another set up to 5
• Recognize and name circle, square and triangle
• Rote count to 10

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Representation and Symbolic Thinking

• Offers a play theme and scenario
• Sometimes uses substitute objects or gestures to represent real objects
• Draws or builds a construction that represents something specific

Physical Development

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Gross Motor

• Moves with direction and increasing coordination
• Walks along wide beams such as the edge of the sandbox, stepping off occasionally
• Climbs up and down stairs and ladders and around obstacles with minimal adult assistance
• Throws, catches, and kicks with increasing control

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Fine Motor

• Manipulates smaller objects with increasing control
• Performs simple manipulations with increasing control
• Makes several basic strokes or figures; draws several recognizable objects
• Stack 5 or more blocks
• Uses scissors appropriately

Spiritual Development

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• Understands that God loves him/her
• Knows that Jesus is an important person in the Bible
• Is sorry and forgiving, even if unable to verbalize his/her feelings
• Shows love towards family and close friends
• Begins to sing parts of songs learned in chapel