Cognition & General Knowledge

This domain recognizes a child’s search for meaning as the basis for intellectual development. 

Exploration, Discovery, and Problem Solving

Uses multi-sensory abilities to process information:

• Uses senses and a variety of strategies to investigate information
• Uses senses to generalize and apply prior learning

Understands new meanings as memory increases:

• Remembers and recalls events
• Recognizes functional uses of items in the environment
• Practices and applies new information or vocabulary to an activity or interaction (representation and symbolic thinking) 
• Generates a rule, strategy, or idea from a previous learning experience and applies to a new context

Applies problem solving skills:

• Demonstrates awareness of a problem
• Asks questions, seeks information and tests out possibilities
• Determines and evaluations solutions
• Makes statements and appropriately answers questions that require reasoning about objects, situations, or people
• Uses multiple strategies to solve problems

Mathematical Thinking

Demonstrates an understanding of numbers and counting:

• Explores numbers and imitates counting
• Arranges sets of objects in one-to-one correspondence
• Can rote count and counts concrete objects to 5 and beyond
• Recognizes some numerals and associates number concepts with print materials in a meaningful way. Names and writes some numerals

Understands number operations and relationships:

• Compares concrete quantities to determine which has more, less or the same
• Recognizes that a set of objects remains the same amount if physically rearranged.

Explores, recognizes, and describes shapes and spatial relationships:

• Explores shapes and spatial relationships
• Recognizes basic shapes
• Assembles puzzles of at least 15 intersecting pieces (5-10 at age 3, 15 at age 4; 25 at age 5)
• Categorizes objects based on physical or functional similarity
• Matches objects
• Sorts and/or describes objects by one or more attributes or characteristics

Uses the attributes of objects for comparison and patterning:

• Uses positional and comparative words to demonstrate understanding direction and location e.g., on-top, below, bottom, over, under, above, on, and next to
• Recognizes , duplicates, extends simple patterns and creates original patterns
• Locates which out of 5 objects does not belong in same class or category

Understands the concept of measurement:

• Recognizes objects can be measured by height, length, and weight
• Determines more, less, many, and few
• Compares and orders by size
• Categorizes and sequences time intervals and uses language associated with time in everyday situations

Scientific Thinking 

Uses observation to gather information:

• Recognizes and responds to differences in the environment
• Purposefully seeks information through observation to satisfy curiosity or need for answers.
• Discriminates properties of nature, using a variety of senses (part to whole, living/non-living, weather, etc.)

Uses tools to gather information, compare observed objects, and seek answers to questions through active investigation:

• Uses button/levers to produce desired responses
• Uses books to look for information
• Uses magnifying glass (hand lens), binoculars, and maps for investigation of the environment.
• Makes comparisons between objects that have been collected or observed.

Hypothesizes and makes predictions:

• Asks questions, seeks information and tests out possibilities
• Asks simple scientific questions and draws conclusions based on previous experience

Forms explanations based on trial and error, observations, and explorations:

• Identifies and investigates the physical qualities of living and nonliving things.
• Explores and formulates conclusions based on observation and past experiences.
• Makes reasonable explanations, using data gathered from observation and experiments