## North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

#### Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Cognitive Development (CD)

#### Subdomain: Scientific Exploration and Knowledge

#### Goal: Children observe and describe characteristics of living things and the physical world

#### Skill Progression: Observe and describe characteristics of living things and the physical world

#### Age: 27-30 Months

You may choose a different domain, go back, or click on a skill below for more information.

### Uses tools to explore the environment (shovel in the sand)

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child in the back yard or a park. Take a pail and shovel, a car, and cup with you.

Elicitation Strategy

Have the child turn around and hide his eyes while you hide a rock in the sand. Tell the child you buried a rock treasure in the sand to see if he can find it. (Provide a stick, shovel, and cup).

Behavior Observed

The child will dig, poke, and pour with tools to search for treasure.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Encourage early childhood educators and parents to let the child discover how tools can help solve problems. Instead of telling the child what to do, provide options and let the child investigate on his own. He will be proud to share what he has learned.

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/.