learning
objectives
for preschoolers
Learning objectives are the standards by which we set expectations and guide a child’s growth and development towards readiness for the next step in their learning journey.
me + you
learning about my self and those around me
skills:
sense of self
self-competence
resilience
self-management
resilience
self-management
relationships
integrity
compassion
respect for self + others
compassion
respect for self + others
citizenship
good citizenship
mindfulness
helpful at school, home, community
mindfulness
helpful at school, home, community
leadership
courage
positive attitude
responsibility
positive attitude
responsibility
relationship building
positive relationships
global citizens — social studies
self, family + community
time + history
geography
civics
economics
time + history
geography
civics
economics
me + you
- learning objectives for preschoolers
- sense of self
self-competence
- Identifies and begins to advocate for own needs, preferences, opinions, and limitations
- Is able to identify and verbally express emotions with teacher support
- Begins to identify and show pride in own characteristics, abilities, and accomplishments
- Accomplishes routine tasks and is able to play and learn with growing independence
- With teacher support, is able to persist in carrying out a plan or action in spite of obstacles, disappointment, frustration, or failure
resilience
- Demonstrates ability to express and regulate emotions with teacher support
- Demonstrates adaptability and flexibility in a variety of situations, tasks, activities, and problem-solving, with support.
- Demonstrates ability to seek support and assistance from trusted adults and peers
- With teacher support, is able to use a variety of coping skills to bounce back from challenges and negative emotions
self-management
- Demonstrates beginning ability to follow rules, routines, and appropriate social behavior
- Begins to display motivation for learning about or accomplishing a range of ideas, concepts, and tasks that are of self-interest and necessity
- Makes plans and follows through on intentions with support, and manages personal time and responsibilities effectively
- Demonstrates beginning ability to express and regulate emotions with teacher support
- citizenship
good citizenship
- Begins to identify community members, characteristics, and functions
- Demonstrates beginning ability to follow rules, routines, and appropriate social behavior
- With reminders, demonstrates respect for possessions, equipment and materials belonging to self, others, and the classroom community
- Demonstrates responsible behavior with teacher support
mindfulness
- Shows strong attention skills during preferred activities
- Demonstrates beginning awareness of inner experience and ability to choose responses to challenging events
- Demonstrates emerging ability to cultivate positive emotions such as gratitude, joy, kindness, compassion, equanimity, and forgiveness
- Recognizes and expresses emotions and uses simple strategies to self-calm
helpfulness
- Is usually able to seek help from adults and identify support needed
- Is able to recognize when others need help, assisting with prompts
- Can identify and implement a few ways to be helpful at home, in school, and in the community
- relationships
integrity
- With help, is able to define integrity and some key characteristics, and begins to advocate for own beliefs
- Begins to consistently practice honesty
- Demonstrates responsible behavior with teacher support
- Is accountable and dependable for actions and words with teacher support
- With support, works to complete projects to own satisfaction based on personal standards of quality or completion
compassion
- Demonstrates beginning ability to recognize and predict others’ feelings and suffering, and perceive when they need help
- Demonstrates beginning ability to be tolerant towards another person’s feelings even when they create negative emotions (such as frustration, anger, fear, or disgust) in themself
- With adult support, begins to demonstrate empathy towards others through imagining their feelings, speculating on where they come from, and why they might be different from their own
- With adult support, is able to tolerate difficult emotions in themselves when confronted with someone else’s suffering
- Expresses concern for the needs and suffering of others and is motivated with reminders to assist them
respect for self + others
- Demonstrates beginning capacity for self-respect by practicing self-care, identifying and beginning to advocate for own needs, preferences, opinions and limitations, and valuing and appreciating themselves
- Demonstrates beginning respect for others by being sensitive to their feelings and well-being, as well as accepting and being supportive even when there are differences
- With adult reminders, demonstrates respect for social norms
- With reminders, demonstrates respect for possessions, equipment, and materials belonging to self, others, and the classroom community
- leadership
courage
- Is able to define courage and list one or two strategies to overcome fears
- Demonstrates emerging willingness to take on and handle new challenges with the support of a familiar adult
positive attitude
- Shows confidence in own abilities and independence with support
- Demonstrates increased willingness to participate in both familiar and new experiences
- Demonstrates optimism with teacher prompts
- With teacher support is able to use a variety of coping skills to bounce back from challenges and negative emotions
responsibility
- Is able to take care of self and belongings with minimal prompting
- Begins to understand how their actions affect others
- With teacher reminders, keeps promises and commitments given to others
- relationship building
positive relationship
- Manages separations without distress and engages with adults
- 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 other child, but the friendship might only last a short while
- Suggests solutions to social problems
- Initiates the sharing of materials in the classroom and outdoors
- global citizens social studies
self, family, community
- Describes characteristics of self and others, and begins to recognize each person's uniqueness and importance
- Describes family members and begins to understand simple relationships to one another, how families are similar and different
- Begins to develop awareness, knowledge, and appreciation of own and others' culture
time + history
- Demonstrates awareness of time by speaking about past, present, and future, though not always accurately
- Demonstrates an emerging awareness of history by understanding of past events, changes over time, and connections to the past
geography
- Demonstrates emerging geographic literacy by using some geographic terminology and concepts
- Begins to demonstrate knowledge of the various ways people communicate, travel, live, and work
civics
- Demonstrates emerging knowledge of rights and responsibilities of citizenship
- Demonstrates simple knowledge of the role and importance of government
economics
- Demonstrates beginning awareness of and describes how people interact economically and the exchange of goods and services
- Identifies some basic needs and how to meet them
- Demonstrates beginning knowledge of the concepts of scarcity and saving
brain power
learning how to think about the world around me
skills:
approaches to learning
learning strategies
reasoning + concept development
sorting
using symbols
using symbols
math
numbers
shapes + spacial relationships
comparison
patterns
shapes + spacial relationships
comparison
patterns
science
scientific method
living things
physical science
earth + space
living things
physical science
earth + space
technology
tech knowledge
engineering
design + building
brainpower
- learning objectives for preschoolers
- approaches to learning
learning strategies
- Shows eagerness to learn about a variety of topics and ideas
- Changes plans if a better idea is thought of or proposed.
- Tells about experiences in order, provides details, and evaluates the experience; recalls 3 or 4 items removed from view
- Draws on everyday experiences and applies this knowledge to a similar situation
- Shows strong attention skills during preferred activities
- reasoning + concept development
classification
- Groups objects by one characteristic; then regroups them using a different characteristic and indicates the reason
using symbols
- 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
- math
numbers
- Recites numbers in order to ten with increasing accuracy
- Recognizes and names the number of items in a small set (up to five) instantly; combines and separates up to five objects and describes the parts
- Recognizes numerals and quantities in the everyday environment
shapes + spacial relationships
- Uses and responds appropriately to positional words indicating location, direction, and distance
- Identifies a few basic shapes (circle, square, triangle)
comparison
- Compares and orders a small set of objects as appropriate according to size, length, weight, area, or volume; knows usual sequence of basic daily events and a few ordinal numbers
patterns
- Extends and creates simple repeating patterns
- technology
tech knowledge
- With support, can describe and creatively use a variety of technological tools and their uses
- engineering
design + building
- Demonstrates beginning awareness of benefits and uses of tools for humans and animals
- Explores principles of engineering by building and rebuilding with a variety of materials, experimenting with substance, height, breadth, and balance
- Makes and implements a simple engineering plan with some teacher support
- science
scientific method
- With support, engages in elements of the scientific process, including observing, making and recording predictions, developing plans for testing hypotheses, trying out ideas, and communicating outcomes
living things
- Begins to identify basic characteristics, traits, and properties of some living and non-living things
- Observes, explores, and describes in simple terms a variety of animals and plants, and their environments and life cycles
physical science
- Explores and identifies physical properties and states of matter of common objects
- Explores and identifies objects based on their position, speed, and motion
- Demonstrates emerging understanding of cause and effect
- Explores and discusses simple chemical processes and reactions with teacher assistance
- Demonstrates basic understanding of sound, light, and electricity
earth + space
- Demonstrates emerging knowledge of Earth's features, seasons, and weather
- Demonstrates emerging understanding about the impact people have on the environment, and participates in efforts to care for it
- Demonstrates emerging knowledge of space
healthy me
developing a healthy body + learning to take care of myself
skills:
body awareness + motor development
traveling
balancing
gross-motor manipulation
fine-motor strength + coordination
balancing
gross-motor manipulation
fine-motor strength + coordination
healthy habits
learning healthy habits
safety
making good choices
safety
making good choices
healthy me
- learning objectives for preschoolers
- body awareness + motor development
traveling
- Moves purposefully from place to place with control
balancing
- Sustains balance during simple movement experiences
gross-motor manipulation
- Manipulates balls or similar objects with flexible body movements
fine-motor strength and coordination
- Uses refined wrist and finger movements
- Holds drawing and writing tools by using a three-point finger grip but may hold the instrument too close to one end
- healthy habits
learning healthy habits
- Independently understands the importance of—and performs some tasks related to—health and self-care needs
- Eats and is knowledgeable about healthy foods, with reminders
- Identifies and practices good health habits, with reminders
- Recognizes and expresses emotions and uses simple strategies to self-calm
safety
- Can list and follow basic safety rules and emergency routines with reminders
- With support, identifies how adults keep us safe and knows how/when to seek help
- Beginning to identify situations that are safe vs. dangerous and knows what action to take
making good choices
- Demonstrates beginning flexibility in a variety of situations, tasks, activities, and problem-solving
- Displays understanding of engaging in routines, rules, and prosocial behavior with teacher support
- Begins to understand consequences of own actions with adult support
word smart
learning to communicate in the world around me
skills:
listening
language
speaking
using language
conversation
conversation
prereading
phonetics
letters
print
narrative
letters
narrative
prewriting
writing
wordsmart
- learning objectives for preschoolers
- listening
language
- Responds appropriately to specific vocabulary and simple statements, questions, and stories
- Follows directions of two or more steps that relate to familiar objects and experiences
- speaking
using language
- Describes and tells the use of many familiar items
- Is understood by most people; may mispronounce new, long, or unusual words
- Uses complete, four- to six-word sentences
- Tells stories about other times and places that have a logical order and that include major details
conversation
- Engages in conversations of at least three exchanges
- Uses acceptable language and social rules while communicating with others; may need reminders
- prereading
phonetics
- Decides whether two words rhyme
- Shows awareness that some words begin the same way and matches beginning sounds of some words
- Segments words into syllables with adult guidance
letters
- Recognizes and names a few letters in own name and recognizes familiar logos and environmental print
- Recognizes that the letters of the alphabet are a special category of visual graphics that can be individually named
- Begins to demonstrate enjoyment in books and reading
- Shows understanding that text is meaningful and can be read
narrative
- Uses pictures to predict story content
- Retells familiar stories using pictures or props as prompts
- Responds to simple questions about a story
- prewriting
writing
- Creates mock letters or letter-like forms
imagine that
learning to express myself creatively
skills:
art
visual arts
music
musical expression
dance + movement
dancing
dramatic play
drama
imagine that
- learning objectives for preschoolers
- art
visual art
- Expriments with colors, lines, shapes, textures, and designs
- Selects specific colors, textures, and materials to represent emotions and experiences
- Begins to describe elements of art: both their own and that of others
- music
musical expression
- Demonstrates an awareness of pitch, tempo, and volume
- Plays traditional and nontraditional instruments to accompany music or mimic sound
- Sings and chants to fingerplays/songs that use intonation to set the mood
- dance + movement
dancing
- Participates in movement games and begins to express creativity in movements
- Responds to music through movement
- dramatic play
drama
- Uses a variety of props to communicate themes about real life or imaginative experiences
- Begins to use language and visual expression to respond to theatrical performances
- Begins to communicate thoughts and feelings through theatrical performance