Instances of young children celebrating their special skills or qualities.
Self-confidence and Self-esteem
The challenges that children set themselves such as climbing on to a big chair and turning to sit down.
How children grow in confidence as they adapt to a setting.
Occasions when babies become confident to play happily on their own but near a familiar adult.
How babies watch your face and facial expression to guide them in new situations.
How babies cling when tired or afraid.
How babies begin to assert themselves and show resistance to adults.
How babies demonstrate their growing independence, wanting to do things for themselves and learning to say "No".
Making Relationships
How children look to others to check the acceptability of their actions.
The different ways in which young children show their concern for other children.
How children express jealousy, defiance, pride and pleasure.
Behaviour and Self-control
Children's awareness of their own belongings, and those of others, such as when they show they know which is their comforter, or get another child's toy to give to them when they are upset.
Self-care
The efforts young children make to take off their own clothes.
Children's choices.
Sense of Community
Young children's interest in similarities and differences, for example, their footwear, or patterns on their clothes and in physical appearance including hair texture and skin colour.
Communication, Language and Literacy
Look, listen and note
Language for Communication
The meanings young children generate in their language through the creative ways in which they use words.
Young children's use of their first language, with peers and adults, and how children with several languages may use their home language in some circumstances, perhaps when they are very enthusiastic or excited about something, and English in others.
How children show that they understand instructions.
The different purposes for which children use language, for example, to name things and people, to comment on what is happening or to protest.
How children show they understand the 'to and fro' nature of conversation, for example, by looking at you to get your attention before pointing at something.
How children participate in repetitive games and rhymes, for example, do they show understanding and anticipation by waiting for "Go!" in Ready, steady, go! games?
The different ways that children respond to general talk around them and to talk that is directed at them.
The rate at which children's vocabulary grows.
How children begin to sing along with favourite action rhymes.
Which phrases children copy when you say them.
Language for Thinking
The ways in which young children respond to adults and other children and the circumstances in which this takes place.
Linking Sounds and Letters
Young children's responses to music, rhymes and stories.
How children listen and participate in nursery rhymes by trying to join in with actions and words.
Early attempts at words by children compared with how an older child or adult would say that word.
The range of vowel and consonant sounds used by children as they produce their first words.
Reading
Children's responses to picture books and stories you read with them.
Writing
Marks young children make when given a crayon, a brush or other tools.
Handwriting
The different ways young children make marks, for example, in dough or clay.
Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy
Look, listen and note
Numbers as Labels and for Counting
Awareness of number during play, such as the number words used and when and why they use them.
How children notice or choose a larger quantity.
Calculating
Occasions when young children gather things together, such as collecting several books or lining up cars.
Children's interest in helping when an adult sorts the fruit at snack time, for example, putting all the apples together.
Shape, Space and Measures
Children's strategies as they select and fit shapes in a puzzle or balance blocks on one another.
Children's interest in and familiarity with the shapes of everyday objects.
Knowledge and Understanding of the World
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Exploration and Investigation
The things young children investigate repeatedly, for example, becoming absorbed in opening and shutting.
How a child shows they are curious about the world.
The strategies children use to find out more about objects and toys.
The circumstances in which children ask adults for help so they can find out more.
How children play with objects of different sizes that go together, to learn about relative size.
Evidence that a child knows and remembers where things belong.
Skill in operating simple mechanical toys, for example, by turning a knob.
How children explore and play with bricks and jigsaw puzzles.
Designing and Making
The things young children enjoy building, opening and closing or pushing and pulling.
ICT
The ways in which young children investigate how to push, pull, lift or press parts of toys and domestic equipment.
Time
Actions that show young children understand the sequence of routines, for example, going to the cloakroom area when you say it is time to go outdoors.
Place
Responses to sights, sounds and smells in the environment and what they like about playing outdoors.
Communities
Young children's questions about differences such as skin colour, hair and friends.
Physical Development
Look, listen and note
Movement and Space
How young children move with their whole bodies to show their excitement, interest, amusement or annoyance.
The sensory experiences of, for example, rolling, spinning, rocking and physical contact with adults enjoyed by children.
The ways in which young children are developing skills, sometimes creeping, crawling, climbing, walking or throwing.
The circumstances in which children ask for help and want to hold an adult's hand to help them walk or climb up and down stairs.
How independent children want to be as they climb into a child's chair or sit at a table.
How aware children are of obstacles when they walk or run and how they learn to negotiate furniture and other objects safely.
Health and Bodily Awareness
Young children's interest in bodily functions and when they communicate their needs.
The choices young children make, for example, asking for the same story again and again.
Patterns of play, such as repeatedly climbing on to and off a step.
Feeding:
How children begin to participate in mealtime routines with other children and adults.
How children learn to scoop food up with a spoon for themselves and learn to use a fork.
How children hold a cup and learn to drink without spilling.
How the range of food textures and tastes enjoyed by a child increases and how they learn to eat larger pieces of food.
Washing:
The way children learn to wash their hands.
Toileting:
How children tell you their nappy or pants need changing.
How children begin to show that they understand what a potty or toilet is used for.
Using Equipment and Materials
Ways babies prefer to eat their food, such as grasping a spoon, using their fingers, or holding a fork.
How young children begin to recognise the conventional uses of some objects, such as a cup for drinking.
How children show they are beginning to prefer their right or left hand.
How children play with bricks and how they learn to build taller towers using more bricks as time goes by.
How children use both of their hands, for example, holding a toy with one hand and manipulating it with the other.
How children play with pieces of a puzzle.
How children explore the properties of new objects by turning, pressing or rolling them.
Creative Development
Look, listen and note
Being Creative - Responding to Experiences, Expressing and Communicating Ideas
The ways that young children may repeat actions or make tuneful sounds as they climb steps, or step up and down from a stool.
Exploring Media and Materials
The processes which children engage in as they explore and experiment with media.
Creating Music and Dance
How children like to use shakers, blocks and body movement when they hear music, or to explore sound.
Making music - In a reception class, the practitioner and a group of children work out different rhythms using percussion instruments. [transcript]
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Developing Imagination and Imaginative Play
How children may turn to pretend play when an object comes to hand, for example, when a child uses a wooden block as a telephone.
