## 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: 30-33 Months

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

### Provides descriptions of observations in nature (e.g., squirrelis climbing the tree)

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child in the back yard or a park. Play “I See” and listen to child’s responses on a nature walk game.

Elicitation Strategy

The adult can introduce the “I See” game. Tell the child in the “I See” game she must say something about what she sees without naming it. Take turns guessing what the person is describing. For example, “I see something tall with leaves.” (tree)

Behavior Observed

The child will be able to provide a simple description (color, size, part, etc.) of objects seen in nature.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Encourage early childhood educators and parents to talk about and describe things they seen in nature. Learning descriptive words helps children see how things are alike or different (shiny, prickly, mushy, etc.) Descriptive words also expands the child’s vocabulary.

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/.