Dear Parents/Guardians, The Office of Head Start (OHS) defines school readiness as children possessing the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary for success in school and for later learning and life. School readiness means that your child is ready for school, your family is ready to support your children's learning, and schools are ready for your child to transition to their new learning environment. As a Head Start grantee, we are required to have school readiness goals and are responsible for measuring child outcomes to ensure children’s development and learning is progressing throughout the school year. Child outcome data is gathered in November, February, & May and your child’s individual growth is shared with you in a report card during conferences and home-visits. These resources were utilized in the development of the school readiness goals: Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) Head Start Health & Nutrition Performance Standards Ohio’s Early Learning & Development Standards (ELDS) Ohio’s Early Learning Assessment (ELA) Creative Curriculum’s GOLD Assessment (Learning Objectives) Alignment to Ohio's Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) Input from Head Start staff, parents and early childhood community. In this document you will see skills, knowledge and attitudes for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, which illustrate a progression of development and learning over the following domains: Social & Emotional Development Language & Literacy Approaches Towards Learning Cognition, Math & Science Physical Well-being, Motor Development & Health Safety & Nutrition Parents/Guardians can support their child’s development and learning by working on these goals, as you are your child’s first teacher. These goals will be supported throughout your child’s Head Start experience through our researched-based curriculum, developmentally appropriate activities, exploration in their learning environment and through interactions with their peers and teachers.
Thank You For Choosing Head Start!
Language & Literacy Children will use language to express their wants and needs, engage in conversation, and follow directions. Infant: Uses sounds and gestures in different ways to express wants, needs and feelings. Toddler: Combines 2-3 words to communicate needs and wants (Ex. “More milk�). Preschool: Initiates and engages in conversations with at least three exchanges. Follows two-step directions or requests.
Children will recognize that print has meaning. Infant: Shows interest in books, pictures, songs and rhymes. Toddler: Shows an appreciation in books, songs, and rhymes and actively participates. Preschool: Recognizes and retells familiar books. Orients books properly and describes their features (Ex. front, back, spine, etc.). Children will use writing to convey a message. Infant: Makes marks on paper with a large crayon or marker. Toddler: Makes scribbles on paper to represent an object or convey a message. Preschool: Uses drawing, controlled scribbles and mock or actual letters to convey a message. Children will demonstrate awareness that spoken language is composed of smaller segments of sounds. Infant: Coos, babbles and experiments with vocal sounds. Toddler: Explores sounds with objects and distinguishes between sounds that are the same and different (e.g., environmental sounds, animal sounds, etc.). Preschool: With modeling and support, recognizes and produces rhyming words (Ex. cat/ hat) and hears and shows awareness of separate syllables in words. (Ex. Clap out pen and cil to make pencil). Children will identify letters of the alphabet and produce correct sounds associated with letters. Infant: Not applicable Toddler: Begin an awareness of letters, such as singing the ABC song and observing letters within the environment. Preschool: Recognizes and names at least half of the letters of the alphabet, including letters in own name (first and last), as well as letters encountered often in the environment. Produces the sound of many recognized letters.
Social & Emotional Children will manage feelings, emotions, actions, and behaviors with the support of familiar adults. Infant: Seeks comfort from familiar adult. Toddler: Begins to self-soothe using familiar items (Ex. blanket, stuffed animals or adults). Preschool: Utilizes a variety of coping skills with support from a familiar adult. (Ex. breathing, using words, etc.) Children will form relationships with peers and familiar adults to foster positive relationships. Infant: Points or reaches for familiar adult, makes eye contact. Toddler: Manages separation with familiar adults; play near other children and shows pleasure when seeing a friend. Preschool: Begins to engage in cooperative play and seeks out familiar adults.
Perceptual, Motor, Physical Development & Health Children will demonstrate fine motor, balance, and coordination skills. Infant: Demonstrates strength and control of head, arms, legs and trunk. Reaches, touches and holds objects purposefully. Toddler: Moves with increasing coordination and balance and experiments with different ways of moving the body. Coordinates the use of arms, hand and fingers to accomplish tasks. Preschool: Maintains controlled muscle movement and balance during active play. Coordinates the use of hands, fingers and wrist to manipulate objects and perform tasks. As part of daily routines, children will develop knowledge and skills on self-care and healthy habits with increasing independence. Infant: Demonstrates emerging participation in self-care tasks like dressing, tooth brushing, safety practices, washing hands and healthy food choices. Toddler: Participates in self-care tasks and healthy habits with adult assistance. Preschool: Independently completes self-care tasks (Ex. Brushing teeth, washing hands, getting dressed) and recognizes healthy food choices.
Cognition Children will demonstrate an awareness that numbers have value and represent quantity. Infant: Reaching for 1 or more objects and using beginning words like more and all gone. Toddler: Understands concepts of 1, 2 or more. Preschool: Identifies numerals to 10 by name and connects each to counted objects. Children will explore spatial relationships and describe shapes in their environment. Infant: Examines and watches objects as they move. Toddler: Demonstrates how things fit together and/ or move in space with increasing accuracy. Preschool: Uses positional words (Ex. in, on, over, under, etc.) and identifies basic shapes. Children will use tools and observational skills to explore a variety of materials and objects in their environment. Infant: Examines objects by mouth, touch, shaking or dropping. Toddler: Experiments to see how things work. Begins to ask “how” and “why” questions. Preschool: Engages in simple experiments using a variety of tools, makes predictions, and asks “how” and “why” questions to gain knowledge.
Approaches Toward Learning Children will show curiosity by asking questions and show initiative by searching for answers. Infant: Uses senses and expressions when engaged in immediate environment. Toddler: Explores and investigates ways to make things happen and begins to ask questions. Preschool: Eagerly seeks new and varied experiences and challenges. Children will maintain interest and demonstrate persistence in completing challenging tasks. Infant: Repeats actions to obtain similar results. Toddler: Practices an activity many times until successful. Preschool: Carries out tasks, activities, projects or experiences from beginning to end. Focuses on tasks even when frustrated or challenged. Children will use creativity and imagination to manipulate materials and assume roles in dramatic play situations. Infant: Make discoveries of self, others and the environment. Toddler: Uses materials in new and unconventional ways. Preschool: Engages in inventive social play by using imagination and creativity to interact with objects and materials.