Module 1: Overview

How does the promotion and support of Early Learning and Development standards prepare preschoolers for Kindergarten?

ANSWER SHEET

Scenario:

Your principal is observing your preschool classroom during playtime. You move to a group of children who are building houses with blocks on a rug designed to look like the layout of a town. You remark on the neat arrangement of the houses and ask if you can build something too. The children make room for you. You build a structure and ask children if they know what it is. One child says it is a house. You tell the child that the structure is actually a little store. The children begin to build stores near their houses. You ask what children’s families often buy when they go to the store. Children talk about things their families buy, such as cereal and juice. One child goes to the toys, brings over a car, and drives it around the block of houses. Other children bring cars to the block area. You ask children where they are going in their cars. They talk about going to the store or to their Grandma’s house. You get a toy car and drive it around the block town and comment that you are going to visit a child’s house and that you are bringing chocolate chip cookies for a backyard picnic. Children begin driving their toy cars to one another’s block houses while talking about what they might bring and do while visiting. You comment on the different plans children have for their ‘visits.’

After the observation, the principal asks why you spent that time playing with children instead of providing instruction. You reply that you were using and modeling strategies for joining children’s play that support their development of social interactions and assist them in expanding their ideas during play sequences. You add that this instructional practice supports and promotes one of the Foundations for Early Learning and Development standards: Children demonstrate the social and behavioral skills needed to successfully participate in groups (ESD-5).

Question:

The principal asks how playing with children is going to prepare them for Kindergarten. How do you respond? Use your crosswalk document to find information that will help you create the response.

(Participant response)

Targeted response (cue as necessary for the following information)

Participants should locate the following Kindergarten standards on the Foundations-NC Standard Course of Study crosswalk:

CCSS Kindergarten English Language Arts Speaking & Listening Standards (SL)

SL.K.1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

  • Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion).
  • Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.

NCES Guidance – Readiness/Exploratory/Discovery (RED) – Social-Emotional (SE)

RED.SE. 2: Understand the relationship between self and others in the broader world.

Participants should create a response to the principal explaining that the Early Learning and Development standard from the emotional-social domain – ‘children demonstrate the social and behavioral skills needed to successfully participate in groups (ESD-5)’ – helps prepare children to participate in groups, follow conversation rules, and understand the relationship between self and others.

Effective Teacher Practices Supporting

North Carolina Foundations for Early Learning and Development
NC Early Learning Network, a joint project of NC-DPI and UNC-FPG, 2016