Children's curiosity and drive to explore things around them.
Situations in which children show confidence and independence.
Children's reactions to and relationships with peers and adults, particularly those whose company they enjoy.
Self-confidence and Self-esteem
Instances of children's confidence and how they express their needs.
Children's ability to talk about, and take pride in, their homes and communities.
Examples of when children like to sit, have a cuddle and share the events of the day with a familiar adult.
Occasions when children form a particular friendship with another child for the first time.
Making Relationships
Ways in which children show that they feel safe and cared for.
Children who like to be with others, and those who need support to join in.
Children's strategies for coping with change.
How adult approval or disapproval affects what children do.
Children's awareness of the feelings other people have, for example, that another child is crying because a toy is broken.
The different ways in which children show they know their own mind and what they want.
The circumstances in which children like to perform for other people.
Behaviour and Self-control
Children's recognition of the needs of others.
How children show their care for others and the environment.
Self-care
Instances of children celebrating their achievements.
How children use their own ideas to develop play.
Sense of Community
Instances of children drawing upon their experiences beyond the setting, for example recognising that the lunchtime helper is somebody who lives near to them.
Communication, Language and Literacy
Look, listen and note
Language for Communication
The gestures and body language children use.
Children's responses to stories and information books you read with them.
How children act out rhymes and stories.
Instances of children recalling and recounting their own experiences and sharing them with others.
How children take account of what others say during one-to-one conversations.
Children's understanding of instructions and the questions they ask.
The range and variety of words that children use.
How children are beginning to develop and expand on what they say, for example, "Come in, it's time for dinner. You'll get hungry if you stay out there".
Children's developing use of a preferred language and whether this has changed since, for example, attending the current setting.
The different ways children answer "Yes", "No", "What?" and "Where?" questions. Do they provide appropriate information in response to different types of language?
How children begin to add grammatical markers to the ends of words to indicate verb tense, possession or plurality, for example, "Play", "Playing", "Played".
Examples of how children participate in group discussions. Can they wait for their turn while other people are talking?
Language for Thinking
How children use talk to think through and revise what they are doing. For example, following a farm visit, Fiona talks as she rearranges toy farm animals, "Put baby sheep here... oh no... no mummy... that sheep has lost its mum".
How children use talk to connect ideas and explain things.
Linking Sounds and Letters
The rhymes and rhythms that children enjoy, recite and create in words and music, for example, tapping out the rhythms of their names.
How long children are able to listen to a story being read to them one-to-one or in a group of children.
Occasions when children express their enjoyment of stories and rhymes and how they participate as part of a group.
How many items children can remember when talking with an adult or looking at a picture book and talking about the things they see.
Ways in which children begin to combine more than one consonant sound together into consonant blends as their use of spoken language develops.
Reading
The stories and poems children choose and know how to follow. For example retelling a story, using words and phrases from a well-known story.
Children's familiarity with the way books work. For example, turning the pages and telling the story using the pictures and using phrases such as "Once upon a time".
Children's references to and understanding of how print works. For example, asking what a word says or what instructions mean.
Children's recognition of their names, or letters or words, in scripts other than English.
Writing
The marks children make and the meanings that they give to them, such as when a child covers a whole piece of paper and says, "I'm writing".
Reading a letter - In a nursery, a practitioner shares a letter with two children discussing the marks one child has made. [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.
Handwriting
The way children control equipment and materials.
The marks children like to make.
Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy
Look, listen and note
Numbers as Labels and for Counting
Children knowing that different numbers have different names.
Children using the names for numbers accurately.
The range of numbers that children refer to, and why they use certain numbers.
Children's guesses about numbers of things and their ability to check them.
Accuracy in the use of ordinals (first, second, third and so on).
The strategies that children use to match number and quantity, for example, using fingers or tallying by making marks.
Calculating
The strategies children use that show they are working out whether a group of objects is the same or different.
How children work out a solution to a simple problem by using fingers or counting aloud.
Shape, Space and Measures
Children's skills in matching shapes and in completing puzzles.
Children's recognition of shapes in the environment, for example, that a roof has a triangle at one end.
Children's ideas about why something is the correct size, for example, a piece of paper to wrap a gift.
How children apply their understanding of shape and space, for example, knowing they need one flat shape and one that is 'pointy'.
Children's use of mathematical names for shapes, such as 'circle' and 'triangle'.
Knowledge and Understanding of the World
Look, listen and note
Exploration and Investigation
How children examine objects and living things to find out more about them, for example, observing plants and animals, or noticing the different materials that things are made of.
How children express choices and preferences where verbal communication is through a language other than English.
How children give reasons for what they observe and reasons for their own actions.
How children use one object to represent many different things.
How children begin to use construction materials as a means to an end, for example, making a bridge for toy animals to cross.
Designing and Making
How children are using tools, for example, using a stick to make holes in dough.
How children link experiences and use their knowledge to design and make things.
Children's developing skills in using tools, including which tools they choose for particular tasks.
ICT
The skills children develop as they become familiar with simple equipment, such as twisting or turning a knob.
Taking photographs - In a nursery school, a child explores using a digital camera, and a practitioner supports her in viewing and assessing the photos. [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.
Time
How children remember and recount a significant event, such as finding a dead jellyfish at the beach.
The comparisons children make about what they can do now with what they could do when they were younger.
Place
Children's interest in things they see while out for a walk.
The questions children ask about features of the built environment, such as road signs.
Communities
How children respond to a significant event, such as the birth of a baby or the death of a pet.
The ways children recall special events such as a wedding they have attended.
Physical Development
Look, listen and note
Movement and Space
How children move enthusiastically, using their arms and legs in a spontaneous dance, or shaking their bodies in time to music, when they are sad, happy or excited.
Children's increasing confidence in what they can do and their enjoyment of physical activities.
Some of the strategies children find to avoid banging into one another, and objects, as they negotiate space.
Children's skill development, deciding if it is exploratory and experimental or repetitive, and whether they are ready for a new challenge.
Efforts to try something new and persevere at a skill.
The ideas that children suggest to make things 'fair'.
Children's developing confidence and competence walking up and down stairs.
Playing outdoors - In the outdoor area of a reception class, most of the children are involved in physical play and the practitioner joins in with a group who are pretending they are on boats. [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
Children's recognition of their own needs, such as when they tell you their lace is undone and need help to fasten it.
The ways children demonstrate understanding of healthy practices such as by saying they need a tissue, or putting a cup in the sink ready to be washed.
Children's understanding that they need a rest or a drink after a burst of activity.
Feeding:
Children's growing confidence using a range of different eating utensils.
How children pour liquid from a jug into cups.
Washing:
How children learn to wash and dry their own hands and face, including turning on the taps at a wash basin for themselves.
When children learn to blow their noses if a tissue is held up.
Toileting:
The different ways children ask for the toilet using voice, gestures or actions.
The pattern of children's learning as they become mostly dry during the day and later, reliably dry and clean.
How children behave in the toilet. Can they flush the toilet for themselves and do they wait to be wiped?
Using Equipment and Materials
The ways children manage to make things work successfully, such as when they wheel a buggy, turn a whisk or 'vacuum' the carpet.
The things that inspire children to want to create or construct.
The variety of skills children use to manipulate materials and objects, such as picking up, releasing, threading and posting objects.
Children's strategies, efforts and achievements in fastening and unfastening items such as containers, clothing and cupboards.
Children's skills in fixing, creating play worlds and using materials and equipment safely and appropriately.
Creative Development
Look, listen and note
Being Creative - Responding to Experiences, Expressing and Communicating Ideas
The ways children capture their experiences by, for example, finding materials to make wings from large pieces of red paper after watching some ladybirds in the garden.
The ways in which children explore materials and the effects they can create, for example, making swirling lines with scarves and streamers by twirling round.
Exploring Media and Materials
Children's responses to different textures, for example, touching sections of a texture display with their fingers, or feeling it with their cheeks to get a sense of different properties.
Children's growing interest in and use of colour as they begin to find differences between colours.
How one child spontaneously makes lots of 'spiral' marks and movements on their paper, while others may imitate each other's movements.
How children begin to describe the objects they represent.
The patterns and structures children talk about, make or construct.
Creating Music and Dance
The ways children choose to explore sound, song or movement, for example, a group of children explored a rainforest theme through music and movement. Some used instruments to make the sounds of the rainforest, while others imitated the movements of rainforest animals.
Developing Imagination and Imaginative Play
The range of experiences children represent through imaginative play.
How children respond in different ways to stories, ideas and their own life experiences.
