Any patterns in what children choose to do or not to do.
The decisions that children begin to make.
Self-confidence and Self-esteem
Children's ability to value what they do themselves and what others do.
How children show their enthusiasm for things they like, or their anxiety about things that concern them.
How children show they are becoming more confident with a range of different carers.
How children begin to show affection and concern when other children are upset.
How children search out adults when they are hurt or distressed.
The circumstances in which children continue to be shy, for example, with strangers.
Making Relationships
The strategies that children use to join in play with individual children or groups of children.
How children behave when they are the centre of attention.
In what circumstances children have tantrums or express frustration.
Whether children show embarrassment.
Behaviour and Self-control
Responses to stories in which someone could be hurt or harmed.
Self-care
Examples of independence, for example, a child playing happily with building blocks, or putting their cup back on a table.
What children choose to do when presented with several options.
Sense of Community
Children's references to groups, people and places in the different communities of which they are members.
Communication, Language and Literacy
Look, listen and note
Language for Communication
How children begin to use words to question and negotiate.
Features of adult/child interaction, remembering these are culturally determined, and that conventions for interaction vary, both within and across speech communities.
How children show they understand more complex sentences and instruction.
The different ways in which children begin to combine words into short phrases and sentences.
Ways in which children use language to ask for help.
How children vary their intonation and stress patterns to ask questions or express surprise.
Language for Thinking
Situations where children use actions and some talk to support and think about what they are doing.
How children show what they understand, by what they do and say, for example, actions, questions, new words and the rhythms and intonations they use.
Linking Sounds and Letters
The words, phrases and sounds children like to say or sing.
The languages they understand and use.
How the words and phrases used by a child become easier to understand as time goes by.
Efforts by children to imitate words, even though they may only be able to manage an approximation of how adults and older children would say them, at first.
Children's responses to music and how they signal they know that music has stopped.
How children react when you make a deliberate mistake or miss out words or phrases in a familiar rhyme or storyline. Can they fill in the missing words?
Ways in which children respond to familiar sounds, for example, by looking at the door when the doorbell rings or looking towards the food preparation area when the microwave pings.
How the range of recognisable vowel and consonant sounds used by a child increases with time.
Reading
Children's favourite stories, rhymes, songs, poems or jingles.
Writing
What children tell you about the marks they make.
Handwriting
Ways in which children begin to develop fine motor skills, for example, the way they use their fingers when trying to do up buttons, pull up a zip, pour a drink or use a watering can.
Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy
Look, listen and note
Numbers as Labels and for Counting
How young children show their understanding of number labels such as 1, 2, 3.
The contexts in which young children use marks and symbols.
Situations that prompt children to talk about numbers.
The numbers children recite spontaneously in their games.
Children matching one thing with another, for example, glasses and straws.
Children putting things in order of 'turn'.
Calculating
The deductions children make about whether there is some juice left, or whether it is 'all gone'.
Children's attempts at estimation and their efforts to check by counting.
How children engage with simple counting songs and games, for example, 'Five Currant Buns'.
When children begin to know about dividing things equally into two groups.
Shape, Space and Measures
Observations made by children relating to shapes or patterns.
When children begin to use some words that describe time, amount and size, for example, when children say things like "me bigger" to a smaller friend.
Knowledge and Understanding of the World
Look, listen and note
Exploration and Investigation
Children's actions and talk, in response to what they find and the questions they ask.
How children express curiosity, match objects and ask questions about things that are the same and different.
Children's developing skills in remembering and telling someone else about a sequence of activities or events.
The ways in which children show they are beginning to understand simple 'if... then' logic, for example, "If I stand on a step, then I can reach the toy".
How children respond to simple explanations and reasons given to them by other people.
How children show they are becoming more independent in their thinking, exploration and understanding of the world.
Children's anticipation and forward planning, for example, when they gather together the toys they want to play with before they begin.
Designing and Making
How children investigate by, for example, taking all the cushions from several areas, piling them up and jumping on top of them.
ICT
How children use the control technology of toys, for example, a toy electronic keyboard.
Time
How children talk about the special events they experience in the home and in the setting.
The ways children show their growing understanding of the past, for example, familiarity with places or people seen previously.
Place
The things children say about their environment.
Communities
How children play, socialise and talk about family life.
Physical Development
Look, listen and note
Movement and Space
The new skills children continue to achieve such as jumping, kicking a ball or balancing on one leg.
Chosen ways of moving and the way children experiment with movement and balance, turning upside down, crawling or rolling.
How a child responds physically to stimuli such as seeing an aeroplane flying overhead.
How children respond to different types of music.
The ways children try to copy movements or repeat skills they have achieved.
How children join movements such as running, stopping and jumping, climbing and turning.
The different ways children use their bodies to express themselves imaginatively.
How children begin to show an interest in climbing equipment and how they explore it.
Sitting by the sea - In a pre-school, the practitioners involve the children in a rhyme about the sea using physical actions and parachute play. [transcript]
You can watch the video, via modem or slow / fast / superfast broadband connections. If you are behind a network firewall, why not click here to view a flash file of the video. You do need to have the flash plugin.
Health and Bodily Awareness
The signs, gestures or words young children use to convey what their needs are at any time.
Feeding:
How children tell you that they are hungry.
Toileting:
How children tell you they need the potty or toilet.
When children learn to sit on a potty or toilet.
Using Equipment and Materials
How children are developing fine movements of their fingers and hands to grip, twist, bang and make marks.
How they are building up strength in their arms and hands through large muscle activities such as climbing.
How children learn to put objects down neatly and precisely.
How children learn to pick up very small objects.
How children's control of fine movement develops as they begin to turn the pages in a book, one at a time, or to fold paper.
How children begin to use scissors on paper.
The strategies children use to open a screw-topped jar.
Creative Development
Look, listen and note
Being Creative - Responding to Experiences, Expressing and Communicating Ideas
Word plays, signs, body language and gestures that young children use in response to their experiences, for example, a child may jump up and down or whirr around when they are excited, or eagerly engaged.
Exploring Media and Materials
The inventive ways in which children add, or mix media, or wallow in a particular experience.
Creating Music and Dance
Children's responses to different songs, dance or music.
Developing Imagination and Imaginative Play
Children's make-believe play in order to gain an understanding of their interests.
