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

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

#### Subdomain: Mathematical Thinking and Expression

#### Goal: Children identify and use common shapes and concepts about position during play and other activities.

#### Skill Progression: Spatial understanding

#### Age: 54-60 Months

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

### Creates a map using toy objects to recreate a space such as the classroom

Situations for Observation of Skill

Have a low box (the same shape as the classroom) with the flaps removed. Cut a door to correspond to the door in the classroom on one side. Have small blocks or tiny boxes, paper, thin cardboard, markers, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, tape and other miscellaneous items for making classroom furniture and people. Also have any available dollhouse furniture that corresponds to what is in the classroom. Let the child create a replica of the classroom.

Elicitation Strategy

Ask the child to study the room and where everything is in relation to the classroom door. Have them work to make the model of the room.

Behavior Observed

Observe the child and listen to his discussion of where things should be located in the box. Check for accuracy. Once items are identified and created, see where the child places them in the box.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

This type of activity is highly motivating and can be replicated for other parts of the school, including the playground, library, gym, lunchroom, etc. Making dioramas helps children develop spatial reasoning skills, while at the same time building a scene for dramatic play later.

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/.