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

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

#### Subdomain: Creative Expression

#### Goal: Children demonstrate self-expression and creativity in a variety of forms and contexts, including play, visual arts, music, drama, and dance.

#### Skill Progression: Art

You may choose a different domain, visit the page for this domain, or click on a skill below for more information.

List of Skills by Age

1-2 Months

No observable skills

2-4 Months

No observable skills

4-6 Months

No observable skills

6-8 Months

No observable skills

8-10 Months

Makes marks on paper

10-12 Months

Makes random scribbles with crayon or marker using fisted grasp

12-15 Months

Makes random scribbles with crayon or marker using fisted grasp

15-18 Months

Makes random scribbles with crayon or marker, begins to use fingers in grasp some of the time

18-21 Months

Makes circular marks on paper

Uses stamps to make a picture

Tries to imitate adult's drawing strokes, but without representational intent

21-24 Months

Names scribbles as representing something

Combines sand, water for tactile play

Snips with scissors

24-27 Months

Makes circles inside of circles, radiating lines from circles, and repetitive line formations

Engages in sensory art such as play dough, finger paints, etc.

27-30 Months

Experiments with making marks on all different surfaces to see the results (walls, table, floor)

Squeezes, flattens, and puts chunks of play dough together and takes them apart

30-33 Months

Tries to draw lines, angles, zigzags

Draws circles to represent everything

33-36 Months

Constructs structures or items for dramatic play (e.g., makes box into a car)

Creates pictures with fingers in writing position

36-42 Months

Draws faces

Asks adults to show them how to draw or create something

Makes collages with all kinds of materials, glues things together

42-48 Months

Uses tools with play dough (cookie cutters, rollers, scissors)

Uses glue, sparkly materials to make art projects

48-54 Months

Creates representations with paper, clay, sand, small boxes, etc.

Makes art projects with a variety of tactile materials and fasteners

Draws squares and rectangular shapes

Draws people

54-60 Months

Uses a variety of tools, scissors, markers, fasteners to create scenes, props, etc.

Artwork shows novel ideas or methods of expression

Draws whole scene

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/.