Iowa Early Learning Standards 3 - 5
Area 1: Physical Well-Being &
Motor Development Benchmarks
1.1
Healthy & Safe Living:
Standard Children understand healthy and safe living practices.
The child:
1. begins to
recognize and select healthy foods.
2. follows
healthy self-care routines (e.g., brushing teeth and washing hands).
3.
demonstrates safe behaviors regarding environment (e.g., stranger, tornado,
fire, traffic), substances (e.g.,
drugs, poisons), and objects (e.g., guns knives, scissors).
1.2
Play & Senses: Standard
Children engage in play to learn, develop their physical bodies, and develop
sensory skills.
The child:
1.
participates in a variety of indoor and outdoor play activities that increase
strength, endurance, and
flexibility.
2. uses sights,
smells, sounds, textures, and tastes to discriminate between, explore, and
experience activities and materials.
1.3
Large Motor Development: Standard
Children develop large motor skills.
The child:
1. shows
control and balance in locomotor skills, such as walking, running, jumping
hopping, marching, galloping, and skipping.
2. shows
abilities to coordinate movements with balls, such as throwing, kicking, catching and bouncing balls.
1.4
Fine Motor Development: Standard
Children develop small motor skills
The child:
1. uses
hand-eye coordination to perform self-help and fine motor tasks with a variety
of manipulative materials.
2. shows
increased skills in using scissors and writing tools for various learning
activities.
Area 2: Approaches toward Learning
Benchmarks
2.1
Initiative & Curiosity:
Standard Children express curiosity, interest, and initiative in
exploring the environment, engaging in experiences, and learning new skills.
The child:
1. explores
and experiences activities and ideas with eagerness, flexibility,
imagination, independence, and
inventiveness.
2. chooses to
explore a variety of activities and experiences with a willingness to try new
challenges.
2.2
Persistence: Standard Children
purposefully choose and persist in experiences and activities.
The child:
1.
persists in and completes a variety of both adult-directed and self-initiated
tasks, activities, projects, and
experiences.
2. maintains
concentration on a task.
2.3
Problem Solving: Standard Children
demonstrate strategies for reasoning and problem solving
The
child:
1. shows
interest in and finds a variety of solutions to questions, tasks, or problems.
2. recognizes
and solves problems through active exploration, including trial and error, and
through
interactions and discussions with peers and adults.
Area 3: Social & Emotional
Development Benchmarks
3.1
Self: Standard Children express a
positive awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and
preferences.
The child:
1. expresses
sense of self in terms of specific abilities.
2. expresses
needs, wants, and feelings in socially appropriate ways.
3. shows
increasing confidence and independence in a variety of tasks and routines, and
expresses pride in accomplishments.
3.2
Adult Relationships: Standard
Children relate positively to adults who work with them.
The child:
1. interacts
comfortably with a range of familiar adults.
2. accepts
guidance, comfort, and directions from a range of familiar adults.
3. shows trust
in familiar adults.
4. seeks help as
needed from familiar adults.
3.3
Self-Control
Standard
Children show increasing ability to regulate their behavior and express their
emotions in appropriate ways.
The child:
1. shows
increasing capacity to monitor own behavior, following and contributing to
classroom procedures.
2. uses
materials purposefully, safely, and respectfully.
3. begins to
accept consequences of own actions.
4. manages
transitions and changes to routines.
5. states
feelings, needs, and opinions in difficult situations without harming self,
others, or property.
3.4
Peer Interactions: Standard Children develop the ability to interact with peers
respectfully, and to form positive peer relationships.
The child:
1. sustains
interactions with peers.
2. develops
friendships with other peers.
3. negotiates
with others to resolve disagreements.
4. takes turns
with others.
3.5
Awareness of Community
Standard
Children have an increasing awareness of belonging to a family, community, culture and program.
The child:
1. shows that
he/she values others within the classroom/program, family and community.
2. shows early
understanding of the concepts of justice, fairness, individual rights, and the
welfare of the community and its members.
3. shows
responsibility as a member of a community.
4. shows
acceptance of persons from different cultures and ethnic groups.
Area 4:
Communication, Language, & Literacy Benchmarks
4.1
Language Understanding and Use:
Standard Children understand and use communication and language for a
variety of purposes.
The child:
1. shows a
steady increase in listening and speaking vocabulary.
2. initiates,
listens and responds appropriately in conversations with peers and adults.
3. speaks in
sentences of increasing length and grammatical complexity.
4. follows
simple oral directions that involve several actions.
5. asks and
answers a variety of question types.
4.2
Early Literacy: Standard Children
engage in early reading experiences.
The child:
1. shows an
interest and enjoyment in listening to books and attempts to read familiar
books.
2. displays
book handling knowledge (e.g., turning the book right side up, using left to
right sweep, turning one page at a time, recognizing familiar books by cover).
3. shows an
awareness of environmental print.
4. identifies
some alphabet letters by their shapes, especially those in his/her own name.
5. recognizes
the printed form of his/her name in a variety of contexts.
6.
demonstrates comprehension of a book.
7.
demonstrates awareness that language is made up of words, parts of words, and
sounds in words.
4.3
Early Writing: Standard Children
engage in early writing experiences.
The child:
1. attempts to
communicate with others using scribbles, shapes, pictures and/or letters to
write.
2. experiments
with a variety of writing tools (e.g., pencils, crayons, brushes, chalk) and
materials.
3. tells
others about intended meaning of drawings and writing.
Area 5: Mathematics & Science
Benchmarks
5.1
Numbers & Operations: Standard
Children understand amount, including use of numbers and counting.
The child:
1. shows
recognition and naming of numerals (e.g., 1, 2, 3).
2. counts
objects, matching numbers one-to-one with objects.
3. uses
language such as more or less to compare quantities.
5.2
Patterns: Standard Children
understand patterns.
The child:
1. shows
skills in recognizing and creating some patterns.
2. predicts
what comes next in a pattern.
5.3
Shapes & Spatial Relationships: Standard Children understand shapes and
spatial relationships.
The child:
1.
demonstrates understanding of spatial words such as up, down, over, under, top,
bottom, inside, outside, in front, and behind.
2. shows more
recognition for some simple shapes.
3. notices
similarities and differences among shapes.
4. notices how
shapes fit together to form other shapes.
5.4
Measurement: Standard Children
understand comparisons and measurement.
The child:
1. sorts,
classifies, and puts objects in series, using a variety of properties.
2. makes
comparisons between several objects based on one or more attributes, such as
length, size, and weight, using words such as shorter, taller, bigger, smaller,
or heavier, lighter.
5.5
Scientific Problem Solving:
Standard Children apply and adapt strategies to solve problems.
The child:
1. uses
his/her senses and variety of strategies to solve problems.
2. invents
strategies to figure out answers to problems.
3. when
unsuccessful at solving problems, experiments and adapts strategies.
5.6
Science Knowledge & Processes:
Standard Children observe, describe, and predict the world around them.
The child:
1. shows
curiosity about living and non-living things.
2. notices,
describes, and predicts changes in the environment.
3. shows
respect for living things.
Area 6: Creative Arts Benchmarks
6.1
Visual Art: Standard Children
explore art through a variety of media.
The child:
1. uses a
variety of two- and three-dimensional media (e.g., drawing materials, paint,
clay, wood, markers) to create
original works, form, and meaning.
2. expresses
ideas about own artwork and artwork of others, relating artwork to what is
happening in the environment, life, classroom, etc.
6.2
Music & Movement: Standard
Children participate in a variety of music and movement experiences.
The child:
1.
participates in a variety of musical and rhythmic experiences, including
singing, listening, and
fingerplays.
2. notices
differences in pitch, tempo, dynamics, and timbre.
6.3
Dramatic Play: Standard Children
engage in dramatic play experiences.
The child:
1. shows
creativity and imagination to use materials and assume different roles in
dramatic play situations.
2. interacts
with peers in dramatic play activities that become more extended and complex.