PRESCHOOLERS MAY

• Listen to others and take turns in a group discussion for a short period.
• Respond to simple open-ended questions.
• State point of view, likes/dislikes, and opinions using words, signs or picture boards.
• Use multiple word sentences.
• Relay a simple message (from grandparent to parent).
• Repeat words or ideas to be sure information is communicated.
• Use pre-writing (also known as “print approximations”) in play with other children when pretending to communicate.
• Enjoy and participate in jokes and humor with peers (make up silly knock-knock jokes).
• Use and respond to a variety of more complex non-verbal cues (facial expressions for pride, displeasure, encouragement).
• Begin to understand that non-family adults and peers may not understand home language (code switching for children learning English as an additional language, using more or less formal language for different contexts).
• Work with caregivers and peers to solve simple problems verbally, and is progressing toward independence. (Caregiver identifies feelings and states problem “You both are upset...you both want the swing.” Child states “I want swing”). 
• Begin to understand that non-family adults and peers may not understand home language.
• Listen to others and responds in group conversations and discussions.
• Enjoy telling jokes or creating humorous dramatic play.
• Enjoy listening to stories from different sources (in person, audiobooks, podcasts).
• Begin conversation by making statements or asking questions.
• Use language appropriately depending upon the purpose (to tell stories, get information, ask for help), most of the time.
• Adjust intonation and volume in a variety of settings (whispers when a baby is sleeping).

YOU CAN

• Provide child with objects and toys to encourage talking and discussion (“What sound does an airplane make?”).
• Increase the length and complexity of books read and stories told to child.
• Talk with child about pictures and stories in books, magazines, and catalogs.
• Encourage children to listen to each other (“Let’s listen to Susie tell about her new cat.”).
• Play games that require listening and understanding (Simon Says, Red Light Green Light).
• Invent games where a child retells a message verbally or in written form (“message relay”).
• Share simple joke books with child. Create opportunities to use humor at circle time.
• Play games that use the body to tell a story or express an idea (mime or charades).
• Encourage use of traditional communication during play such as dance, music, drumming, and singing.
• Pair child with another child who speaks the same home language.
• Make special time to sit down for conversations of interest to child (turn off screens, turn phone ringer off).
• Interact with child within his or her own social conventions including home language and cultural group.
• Pause video or TV periodically and discuss what is being viewed.
• Help child develop reasoning skills through shared problem solving in play and routines.
• Sing songs that incorporate words from two languages (Pollito-Chicken, Galina-Hen).
• Create opportunities for children who speak English as an additional language to share words and phrases in their home language.
• Listen to children and encourages them to listen to others.
• Invite guests to talk to children informally and formally (elder tells story during circle time, carver explains significance of totem pole characters).
• Listen to an audio story or a story on the radio or musical selection with child and help him/her to interpret the story (through words, artforms, dance, acting). If told to a second language learner, help them understand without translation (use gestures, props, demonstrations).
• Provide recorded stories from child’s home culture and home language.
• Engage child in play and conversations that help him/her practice appropriate social conventions (pretend to go to the grocery store or post office).
• Provide opportunities for child to engage in conversations in a variety of situations (at the playground with peers, at the post office with the postal worker, with elders at family and community gatherings).
• Be supportive in situations of stress, exhaustion, or emotional strain when child uses “interlanguage” (i.e., neither home language nor English but third language system based on both languages, often a pidgin).
• Use home language alongside English in a variety of activities. 
• Limit screen use to one hour per day of high-quality programs. Watch with children to help them understand what they are seeing and apply it to the world around them.

PRESCHOOLERS MAY

• Follow directions that involve a two- or three-step sequence of actions which may not be related (“Please pick up your toys and then get your shoes”).
• Show understanding of more concept words, such as on, under, behind, next to, first, last, above, below, basic colors).
• Show understanding of several shapes, colors (child able to find the green pillow when asked).
• Answer “who, where, why, and how many” questions.
• Know the difference between gender of self and peers.
• Show increased understanding of vocabulary words for most toys, pictures, objects, and materials in the household and familiar environments.
• Follow two- and three-part directions unfamiliar to the daily routine.
• Use and understand complex sentences in home language.
• Enjoy humor through word play (jokes, riddles, words that sound fun together).
• Begin to identify pairs of words that rhyme.
• Begin to represent a storyline through drawing, acting, or singing, with assistance, 
• Make grammatical adjustments in English (men instead of “mans,” went instead of “goed”).
• Show increased understanding of advanced concept words, such as more/less, first/last, big, bigger, biggest, morning/daytime/nighttime.
• Be able to stay engaged for longer periods of time for books, in conversations and/or stories.

YOU CAN

• Play games with child that involve following directions (“Simon Says,” “Follow the Leader,” “Hokey Pokey”).
• Create conversations while reading books together asking the child to recall or make predictions within familiar and unfamiliar books (“What will happen next?”).
• Show child traditional activities and dances and encourage them to do them.
• Provide materials and opportunities for children to act out or retell stories using dress-up materials, puppets, props, etc.
• Demonstrate, explain, and provide opportunities for child to play word games (making puns, asking riddles).
• Ask child to categorize by naming things that are alike or different, such as types of clothing, holidays, things we use for transportation (bicycles, cars, four-wheelers, trucks, buses, snow machines).
• Engage child in activities where they
  listen to stories, allowing time for discussion and interaction with storyteller or person reading the book.
• Turn off a video after 5-10 minutes of viewing to discuss. Encourage child to respond with questions, opinions, or observation.
• Tell traditional and family stories and encourage child’s response and questions.
• Use a game or song in home language to help child learn to repeat multi-step directions by acting out the directions.
• Engage child in acting out or role play a story or legend to show comprehension; “interview” child afterward from his/her character’s perspective.

PRESCHOOLERS MAY

• Use new vocabulary in spontaneous speech.
• Ask the meaning of unfamiliar words and then experiment with using them.
• Use words to further describe actions or adjectives (“running fast” or “playing well”).
• Use multiple words to explain ideas (when talking about primary caregiver says “mother/father” and/or “parent”).
• Use words to express emotions (happy, sad, tired, scared).
• Talk in sentences with five to six words to describe people, places, and events.
• Use words with past and future.
• Use verb tenses to denote and describe events from the past or future. (He jumped on the bed, I am going to grandma’s house).
• Describe a task, project, and/or event sequentially in three or more segments.
• Use prepositions in everyday language, sometimes needing assistance (at, in, under).
• Child may go through a period of normal non-fluency or “stuttering”.
• Be able to recall and describe a previous event, such as what they ate for breakfast.
• Use increasingly complex language in response to questions to show understanding of new ideas, experiences and concepts.
• Define words, with assistance (“Firefighters put out fires”).
• Be able to retell a 3-part story or event in sequence. 
• Use sentences in home language that show an emerging understanding of grammatical structure.
• Speech is 90 to 100 percent understandable.
• Express an idea in more than one way
• Expand vocabulary to include 1,000 to 2,000 words.
• Ask others for assistance to define new words in their vocabulary.
• Show an interest in playing with language through joke telling and word play.

YOU CAN

• Show child how to use and expand language (jokes, rhymes, songs).
• Encourage child to repeat rhymes, short poems, expressions of courtesy (“Like the dinner, thank you”), etc.
• Interact with child by talking about books, laughing at his/her jokes.
• Support children learning English as an additional language, by avoiding translating everything for child; use props, gestures, role-plays, physical movements, and demonstrations to deepen understanding of new language.
• Explain household tools and objects when using them (“I am using a can opener to open a can of corn”).
• Read wordless picture books so child can tell the story.
• Set aside a regular time to talk to child about an interest (if child is bilingual, in both languages separately at different times of the day).
• Point to words, sentences and paragraphs to show text progression when reading to child.
• Encourage child to repeat phrases with prepositions in a story (“Over the mountains ...” “Through the forest ...” “Around the lake ...” etc.).
• Ask open-ended questions (“Why do you think …?” “What do you think will happen if ...?” “What if …?”). After child answers, repeat the answer in a complete sentence or sentences.
• Create daily routines for family to share individual experiences (At dinner table, ask each family member to share favorite experience that day).
• Continue to support child in noticing and naming emotions in self and others.
• Engage child in making up rhymes.
• Ask questions that encourage child to use vocabulary to express complex or abstract ideas (“What would this look like if ...?”).
• Demonstrate and explain how a word with the same sound can mean two different things (here and hear).
• Describe and explain the benefits of learning two or more languages and compare words and concepts between the languages with child.
• Engage child in conversations that use culture-specific language in play and learning activities (“smoking fish,” “regalia,” “umiak,” traditions from the home country, names, etc.).
• Use mealtimes as an occasion to encourage child to talk about the events of the day and things of interest.
• Repeat what a child says, using correct grammar, rather than correcting the child.
• Encourage child to respond to questions using extended responses (“Tell me more about that” ... “What else did you notice?”).
• Encourage child to indicate location or proximity using prepositional phrases in answer to questions (“Where are your shoes? They are under the bed.”).
• Engage child in motor activities in which they are demonstrating relationships to objects in the environment. Describes what they are doing (“Crawl under the table, walk around the tree, crawl in the box, crawl out of the box, etc.).
• Provide opportunities for child to retell and/or respond to a story or event in their own words.

PRESCHOOLERS MAY

• Participate in and create songs, rhymes, and games that play with sounds of language (claps out sounds or rhythms of language).
• Find objects in a picture with the same beginning sound, with assistance.
• Know that alphabet letters can be individually named and begin to show interest in naming them (letters from their name, letters common in their environment).
• Know first and last page of a book.
• Begin to understand that print progresses from left to right (Exceptions are Arabic, Chinese, Japanese text, etc.).
• Recognize some signs and symbols in environment (stop signs).
• Use pictures to predict a story.
• Recite some words in familiar books from memory.
• Fill in missing information in a familiar story.
• Pretend to read a familiar book.
• Enjoy a variety of genres (poetry, folk or fairy tales, nonfiction books about different concepts).
• Compare stories with real life.
• Recognize and name at least half of the letters in the alphabet, including letters in own name (first name and last name), as well as letters encountered often in the environment.
• Produce the sound of many recognized letters.
• Make up an ending for a story.
• Be interested in reading a variety of printed materials (books, newspapers, cereal boxes) and may ask for help.
• Use signs he/she sees for information (“no fishing” sign on dock).
• Give opinion on books in terms of sections enjoyed.
• Enjoy a variety of genres (poetry, folk or fairy tales, nonfiction books about different concepts).
• Use picture clues for information (attempts to predict weather by looking at picture of clouds and rain in newspaper or on television news).
• Start to make letter-sound associations (begins to recognize that the sound “b” is present in the words ball, boy, and baby). 
• Recognize beginning sound and letter in his or her name as well as some classmates.
• With prompting and support, run their finger under or over print as they pretend to read text.
• Demonstrate understanding of some basic print conventions (the concept of what a letter is, the concept of words, direction of print).
• Recognize differences among letters, words, and numerals.
• Read own first name.
• Find objects in a picture with the same beginning sound, with assistance (all items that begin with a “b”).
• Differentiate among similar-sounding words in pronunciation and listening skills (three and tree).
• Provide one or more words that rhyme with a single word (What rhymes with log?).
• Use character voices when retelling a story or event.
• Begin to create and invent words by substituting one sound for another (Band-Aid/dambaid).
• Recognize function of common labels in the environment (bathroom sign).
• Use a simple cookbook, map, or similar printed material with assistance.
• Enjoy “how-to” books, non-fiction, and reference books.
• Share and talk about books with peers.
• Look for books of interest.
• Show interest in learning to read and make attempts at ‘reading’ favorite books aloud.
• Pay attention to story and engage during entire picture book read aloud.
• Have a favorite author/illustrator or series of books.
• Identify book parts and features such as the front, back, title and author.

YOU CAN

• Make up silly songs and chants with child.
• Play rhyming games.
• Sing words, leaving out parts as you sing along.
• Use books that have a lot of repetition or are predictable.
• Involve children in reading a book (omit a word that they fill in, encourage them to make appropriate sounds and hand motions, ask them to answer open-ended questions).
• Play letter games with child (start with the beginning letters in child’s name, family members, etc., then point to objects with the same beginning letter as their name).
• Incorporate letter books and puzzles alongside other play materials.
• Point out and discuss letters present in the environment and how they build into words or link to language.
• Create word games using familiar objects (I like to eat apples and bananas, or fishing).
• Provide opportunities for child to make picture books and generate other printed materials in home language.
• Keep a variety of fiction and non-fiction books, poetry, etc., where child can reach and look through them. Place books near couch, chairs, pillows and or bed.
• Add books and print-rich material to all play areas (cookbooks and shopping lists in play kitchen, mechanic manuals with play cars, etc.).
• Ask the child to tell what the story might be about, based on what they see on the cover.
• Provide opportunities after reading for a child to act out a story like a play.
• Change roles when reading or telling stories with child. Have child become the storyteller and “read” to you.
• Have child draw a part of a story (drawing can be a simple shape and child says “that’s the bear”).
• Read books by Alaska authors or that represents Alaska cultures.
• Use books to enhance other activities (if child is making a castle, find books about castles; find books about children doing a favorite activity such as fishing, sledding, or bike riding).
• Provide opportunities for child to have “quiet time” daily to spend with books.
• Ask child to act out the story using props.
• Include books throughout the classroom to encourage children to use books as a resource (books about fish near the fish tank, books about cooking in the play kitchen).
• Play simple word games.
• Using commonly used language and key vocabulary, create a Word wall (place word and picture side by side and create opportunities for children to interact with the different terms and images).
• Show the cover of a book and ask child to predict what might happen in the story.
• Have child draw his/her favorite part of a story.
• Engage child in retelling a recently read or listened to story. 
• Demonstrate that books provide information (look up information prior to answering question; provide books that have information they are interested in knowing more about).
• Provide scaffolding (identify words with the same meanings that are similar in home language and English, familiar terms, using picture clues and context) for children who speak English as an additional language to understand a book in English without translation.
• Point out letters and words in the environment.
• Adapt the game “I spy” to help children locate uppercase and lowercase letters.
• Provide opportunities for children to use books and magazines.
• Share written instructions with child and let him/her assist in putting something together.
• Demonstrate, explain, and provide opportunities for child to pronounce words correctly, enunciating each part of word clearly.
• Focus on parts of the word when presenting new words to child.
• Play listening games with the child where he/she blends the onset (the first part of a syllable) and the rhyme (the ending part) into one word (m-a-man).
• Introduce the parts of a book (title page, front and back covers).
• Use punctuation to create natural breaks when reading with child (“Let me finish this sentence before I answer your question.”) When sentence is completed, point to period to indicate the end of the sentence.
• Acknowledge child when he/she uses printed matter appropriately (looks at picture on the cover page to find what book is about).
• Include clipboards with graph paper in the block area.
• Read part of a story in a book and ask child to predict how it will end.
• Use simple stories to help child understand cause and effect (Why did Humpty-Dumpty break into pieces?).
• Discuss the theme of a book or the “heart of the author’s message.”
• Allow time for child to discuss ideas, feels, and opinions about a book after reading.
• Read books that represent Alaska cultures to children (Hungry Giant of the Tundra, Kitaq Goes Ice Fishing, Kumak’s House, Berry Magic, Dance on a Sealskin, etc.).
• Talk about weather-related icons with child (picture of clouds, rain drops, etc.).
• Promote family participation in reading (read favorite books in home language).
• Follow a family recipe and cook a dish.
• Place auto repair manuals in car and truck play area.
• Refer to gardening books and instructions on seed packets when planting seeds.
• Take child to the local library and ask him/her to select books to check out.
• Provide opportunities for child to listen to books on tape in both home language and English.
• Demonstrate to the child how to extend knowledge, learn more, and enjoy the same information from a book that he/she obtains from a television show or website.
• Tell children about a favorite story.
• Encourage the child to share his/her favorite books with younger  siblings and playmates.

PRESCHOOLERS MAY

• Know the difference between printed letters and drawings.
• Create increasingly recognizable drawings, including attempts to represent human figures, older preschool expands drawings to include other objects, pets, scenery.
• Child may identify and refine or revise symbols to represent concepts and ideas they are exploring (squiggly lines for curly hair).
• Attempt to copy letters of the alphabet.
• Label pictures using letter-like marks.
• Try to connect sounds in spoken words with the written form.
• Show interest in using approximations of letters to write their own name or other familiar words.
• May use invented spelling with consistent or logical beginning sound substitutions.
• Attempt to convey meaning through writing.
• Dictate a story for an adult to put in print.
• Begin to hold marker/pencil in a tripod grasp (48 months).
• Write/draw/illustrate for a variety of purposes.
• May attempt to write a short phrase or greeting.
• May print several alphabetic letters for given letter names.
• Show an interest in writing his or her first name.
• Make a simple storybook using pictures, personal experience or culture and some words, with assistance.
• Create a variety of written products that may or may not communicate intended message phonetically.
• Show an interest in copying simple words posted in the classroom or in the environment.
• May attempt to independently write some words using invented spelling.
• Demonstrate understanding of print conventions when creating documents (text moves from left to right, page order, etc.).

YOU CAN

• Use household items and recycled materials to construct and create. Use markers to draw on creation (Child builds a truck out of egg cartons and draws windows on sides, an appliance box becomes a boat.)
• Make lists and write notes in front of child.
• Offer tongs and tweezers to use finer movement skills in the hands and fingers to pick up small toys and objects.
• Write short notes to child with their names (sticky note saying “Aaron, I hope you have a good day).
• Continue to provide a variety of writing materials.
• Identify or highlight letters of the alphabet as they come up in real life situations (the “M” in McDonalds; the “P” in Pilot Bread).
• Call attention to names of children or pets whose names begin with the same letter of the alphabet.
• Print upper and lower case letters side by side for child to see relationship.
• Assist child in writing letters of their name when child shows interest (Help child label or sign artwork; when a child wants to have attribution for or to save a project).
• Create alphabet games with child.
• Allow child to tell you a story or idea and write the story out slowly and reread. Highlight that the dictation shows that writing represents words. 
• Encourage the child to retell experiences or events using pictures and letters.
• Use paper or white board to draw pictures and words representing children’s ideas at circle time (teacher draws what children report as their favorite play that day).
• Provide play opportunities for the child to engage in practicing emerging written/picture communication with appropriate materials (paper, writing implements, envelopes, markers). 
• Watch for children’s interest in writing letters and provide opportunities and materials to practice (creating a menu for the restaurant in the dramatic play area).
• Engage child in writing cards to friends or family.
• Use upper and lower case letters when labeling items or writing for child.
• Help child make his or her own books with pictures and labels.
• Point to the initial letters of words when reading a book and make the corresponding letter sound.
• Provide writing materials and embed writing opportunities within play areas to encourage the use of print and drawing (children write on vessel inspection checklist/clipboard during Coast Guard play).
• Make available a variety of writing opportunities and materials such as sticky notes, labels, clip boards, white boards, pens, pencils, makers, stationary, journals, rubber stamps, newsprint rolls, recycled materials.
• Create opportunities for child to label familiar objects (with adult support).

Screen time

Protecting children from negative impacts of screen time is a challenge, especially when there are older siblings or a mixed age group. Healthy brain development, language development, social emotional development, and physical health are all impacted by screen time. For children younger than 18 months, avoid use of screen media other than video-chatting. Parents of children 18 to 24 months of age who want to introduce digital media should choose high-quality programming, and watch it with their children to help them understand what they’re seeing. (American Academy of Pediatricians Guidelines).