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News Articles and Media Coverage The latest news and coverage about STREAMin³ SEPTEMBER 2025 What Policymakers in Virginia — and Across the Country — Can Learn From New Mexico’s Free Childcare Policy New Mexico just became the first state to offer free universal childcare. UVA’s Amanda Williford, an expert in early childhood education, weighs in […]

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Five Tips for Maximizing Your Time and Space with Infants and Toddlers

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Here are five affordable ways to maximize time, space, and resources in your classroom.

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Five Tips for Maximizing Your Time and Space with Infants and Toddlers

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Here are five affordable ways to maximize time, space, and resources in your classroom.

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About STREAMin³ At STREAMin³, we’re all about sparking a love for learning. We inspire little minds to think big, be problem-solvers, and embrace their identities and curiosity – setting them up for success in kindergarten and beyond! We’re more than just a curriculum. In addition to engaging activities and routines, we focus on building educators’ […]

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Approaches to Play and Learning - January - ECE Resource Hub

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ELDS Core Area: Approaches to Play and Learning Part of the Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS) Exploration Webinar Series JANUARY 14, 2025 Approaches to Play and Learning Approaches to Play and Learning is all about the skills and habits that young children need to engage in learning. These include curiosity, initiative, creativity, imagination, and […]

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Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS) Exploration Webinar Series Explore the 5 ELDS core areas and find ECE Resource Hub strategies to foster learning in each area Virginia’s Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS), Birth-5 Learning Guidelines articulate the skills and knowledge children need to demonstrate by the end of preschool in order to be […]

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Early Childhood Standards & Instructional Supports | Virginia Department of Education

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View CLASS videos, blogs, webinars, and printable resources organized by CLASS domain.

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Join the CLASS Learning Community to share ideas, ask questions, and connect with other educators interested in improving classroom interactions.

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How do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? I posed that question to a random selection of contacts via text message. What did I discover? One behavior stood out: everyone spreads on the PB first, then the J. There are a variety of ways though to apply the jelly (sometimes on the separate piece of bread, sometimes right on top of the peanut butter; some use the same knife, some use a new knife, etc.), but in my sampling group the jelly always comes second.

Are you still here or have you run off to the kitchen to contemplate your technique? If you are still here, this is how I like to think about our "Behavior" dimensions in Toddler and Pre-K. One (Toddler) is the peanut butter! It goes first. That layer of peanut butter is the base for the jelly (Pre-K). The peanut butter is not debatable-as for the jelly though, there is some flexibility.

Okay, admittedly, this comparison may be a bit cheesy, but if it helps you during your next observation training, my work here is (almost) done.

Let's break down the two dimensions in a "talking points" way to support you as participants add one age or the other to their portfolios. The Toddler's Behavior Guidance has three indicators vs. Pre-K's Behavior Management's four indicators. While the verbiage is similar, there are some differences in what the tools are asking you to consider:

Proactive and Clear Expectations
The indicator "proactive" in Toddler is a blend of the indicators "clear expectations" and "proactive" in Pre-K. While both tools ask you to consider monitoring, the Toddler indicator "proactive" considers behaviors such as clear expectations and children demonstrating an awareness of expectations as well as reactivity. As a trainer, I would say these indicators are reflected in a similar way across the two tools, though the narratives in the descriptive paragraphs reflect developmentally appropriate expectations of the two age groups.

Redirection of Misbehavior and Suppporting Positive Behavior
"Redirection of misbehavior" (Pre-K) and "supporting positive behavior" (Toddler) share similar behaviors. In spite the indicator title, the Pre-K tool's emphasis is focusing on the positive. Both tools ask observers to note specific, positive phrasing of expected behaviors, as well as noting when teachers point out when students/children are behaving. Both indicators consider the effectiveness of redirection, as well as how much time is being taken from lessons, or the flow of activities.

Student Behavior and Problem Behavior
Finally, let's consider "student behavior" (Pre-K) and "problem behavior" (Toddler). Here there are more marked differences. While both indicators ask the observer to consider the disruptiveness or potential danger of children's actual behavior, there is a distinctive departure. In the Pre-K tool the manual states we are to consider "...active misbehavior, not just disengagement, which is coded under other dimensions" (pg. 45). The Toddler tool does not have the dimension of Instructional Learning Formats, which captures student engagement in Pre-K. Instead the high range of "problem behavior" asks observers to consider whether children are "...consistently engaged in and actively participating in activities and tasks..." (pg. 45). Wandering and waiting in this Toddler indicator also reflect a bit of the dimension of Productivity from the Pre-K tool, an absent dimension in Toddler. These subtle differences hint at the developmental appropriateness of the Toddler tool for the age group at hand. If toddlers are wandering and waiting, then potentially dangerous behaviors may ensue, as happens in our Toddler training video "Songs and Cereal."

A Note on Footnotes
There is one more important difference about the dimensions in Pre-K and Toddler that begs attention. It's that "jelly" part I was mentioning above. Pre-K offers the observer a bit of flexibility in making a holistic coding decision in the dimension. There is a footnote in Pre-K that invites observers to consider that, in the absence of other indicators, if "...there is no evidence of student misbehavior, it is assumed that effective behavioral strategies are in place and a classroom may score in the high range" (pg. 44).

The Toddler tool does not have the same footnote. Because developmentally the teacher is laying the foundation (the peanut butter) for toddlers to begin to understand what behaviors are acceptable, it is important that all indicators under Behavior Guidance be present. As toddlers move from other-regulated to self-regulation, it is vital to consider the teacher's importance in this process, and his or her active role in guiding the behavior of toddlers.

I hope these "talking-points" support your trainings in the field. Participants who are "leveling-up" use their knowledge from one tool, and apply it to the new age group. While this is a helpful strategy, it can be a detriment if trainees miss the subtle differences that are reflective of the developmental stage within a particular tool.

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Toddler's "Behavior Guidance" & Pre-K's "Behavior Management": They're Like a PB&J Sandwich

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The Toddler and Pre-K CLASS tools have similar verbiage when it comes to behavior, but there are some differences in what each tool asks you to consider.

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Promoting Friendships in Infant Toddler CLassrooms

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Fostering Peer Relationship - Infant/Toddler - ECE Resource Hub

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Supporting Infant and Toddler Friendships A strategy for helping young children connect with their peers and lay the foundation for developing friendships As young children develop, they may begin to show interest in other children. When caregivers support early friendship skills, they help children understand how to interact with others in positive ways. As a […]

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Promoting Friendships in Infant Toddler CLassrooms

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Fostering Peer Relationship - Infant/Toddler - ECE Resource Hub

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Supporting Infant and Toddler Friendships A strategy for helping young children connect with their peers and lay the foundation for developing friendships As young children develop, they may begin to show interest in other children. When caregivers support early friendship skills, they help children understand how to interact with others in positive ways. As a […]

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Mary Margaret-Gardiner and Sarah Hadden discuss the Toddler CLASS dimension Regard for Child Perspectives. You'll learn why there isn't a student expression indicator and the importance of non-verbal choices. Before you watch, check out their previous vlog, Regard for Student Perspectives in Pre-K, and think about the differences between these two dimensions.

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Vlog: Regard for Child Perspectives in Toddlers

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Mary Margaret-Gardiner and Sarah Hadden discuss the Toddler CLASS dimension Regard for Child Perspectives. You'll learn why there isn't a student expression indicator and the importance of non-verbal choices. Before you watch, check out their previous vlog, Regard for Student Perspectives in Pre-K , and think about the differences between these two dimensions.

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Understanding how to effectively employ Regard for Student Perspectives while maintaining a constructive learning environment can be challenging. In the following paragraphs the fictional preschool professional, Mrs. Jones, will illustrate the indicators of Regard for Student Perspectives at circle time. I'll then discuss her exemplary examples:

At 9:02, Mrs. Jones calls all 22 of her preschool students over for circle time. "Choose a place to sit," she says as she points to the different colored carpet shapes already laid out on the floor.

The children excitedly exclaim, "Oh! I get the pink circle. I want the blue square!"

Mrs. Jones states, "Ok children once you find your spot, find a comfortable way to sit so everyone can see. I see Jessica and Brad are sitting on their bottom." As Mrs. Jones looks around her circle she notices Johnny is sitting on his knees, "Johnny it looks like you are comfortable sitting on your knees, but others can't see, can you sit behind Suzie so others can see?"

Restriction of Movement

Although teachers should have clear behavioral expectations for children, teachers high in this indicator set behavioral expectations that are appropriate for the activity at hand. In this scenario, the children were able to chose where to sit on the carpet, as well as how they wanted to sit. The children were allowed to move freely as long as it didn't interfere with the other children viewing the activity.
Circle time continues:
"Now that we are settled let's sing our Good morning song," says Mrs. Jones.

"Mrs. Jones can we sing a different song?" asks Marco.

Mrs. Jones looks at the clock and knows she is already running late and needs to still get through the days of the week, the weather, read the story, and introduce the activity for the day. She takes a deep breath and says "Sure, Marco we can sing a different song today, what song would you like to sing?"

"Wheels on the Bus!"

Mrs. Jones thinks to herself about how many verses this song has and that she'll never get to all the activities that took her so long to plan. She asks, "Would everyone like to sing Wheels on the Bus?"

"Yes! Yes!" exclaim the children.

Flexibility and Student Focus

In this indicator being flexible and going along with student's ideas does not distract from the lesson but allows the teacher to incorporate the student's interest and ideas into the planned lesson. In this scenario Mrs. Jones' original plan was to sing the regular welcome song, however upon hearing Marco's request she instead was flexible in those plans. She changed the song to follow the children's interests, and incorporated that interest into her circle time activities, even though the length of the song may take away from previously planned activities.

Circle time continues:

"Marco why don't you come up and lead us in singing Wheels on the Bus?" After five verses Mrs. Jones says, "That was a great idea Marco! Can you tell us why you wanted to sing wheels on the bus today?"

Marco replies, "I saw a big blue bus on the way to school today!"

"You did! Tell me more about that bus, what did you like about it?"

"The big wheels and the horn!"

"Does anyone else want to tell me why they like buses?"

"Well because they are so big!" says Connor.

"I like the driver. Honk, honk!" yells Sophie.

Mrs. Jones thinks about what's left on her lesson plan to accomplish during circle time including the weather and storytime. "I was going to read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom today, but since everyone is so excited about buses today, let's read Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. "

"Julian, I know you love that book, can you please walk over to the library and get it for us?"

Support for Autonomy and Leadership

In this indicator the teacher enables children to be as independent as possible within a given activity. In this scenario Marco was able to choose the song and lead the activity of singing 'Wheels on the Bus', and Julian was given a responsibility to get the new book from the library.

Student Expression

In this indicator the teacher is genuinely interested in understanding how the students see the world and in getting them to express these thoughts. In our scenario the students were encouraged to talk about why they liked buses, eliciting their ideas.

Flexibility and Student Focus

Once again Mrs. Jones demonstrates her flexibility by changing her originally planned book of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to Don't Let Pigeon Drive the Bus , inviting the students to be more autonomous.

Circle time goes on:

When Mrs. Jones finishes the story, she thinks about her initial lesson plan on letters. "How can I incorporate the children's interests of buses into my planned lesson of focusing on the alphabet?"

Thinking on her feet she says, "We have talked a lot today about buses, what letter do you think bus starts with? Ba ba ba..."

"Balloon! Button!" exclaim the children.

"Yes! And on the bus there are windows, what words do you think start with the letter W?"

This continued for a few more letters as long as the children were interested, "D for driver, H for horn.."

As circle time draws to an end, Mrs. Jones says, "While we walk outside why don't we pretend to be a bus driver? How can we do that?" And off they drove to the playground.

Flexibility and Student Focus

During this part of circle time Mrs. Jones is highly flexible by following the students' interests of buses and incorporating her lesson of the alphabet to match their interests.

Student Expression

In this scenario Mrs. Jones listens closely to what the children are saying, and the lesson is not dominated by teacher talk. Children have many opportunities to talk and express their ideas including how they can drive the bus.

Looking deeper into this scenario, notice how the children responded. They were excited, eager to take part in the activities, and they showed genuine enthusiasm for continuing the discussion and play around the bus.

Imagine what the outcome might have been if this teacher was rigid and stuck to her lesson plans, despite what the children wanted to do. Would there have been as much excitement and enjoyment from the activities? Would children be as motivated to sing the song or listen to the story that was selected by the teacher? Most likely not. Although the teacher strayed from her plans and allowed the children to influence how the lesson would proceed, she still managed to incorporate the concept from her original lesson plans in a way that was much more meaningful for the children.

It is also important to note that this teacher had a predetermined plan and desired outcome for the activity. Including Regard for Student Perspectives doesn't mean that we have to throw out all plans or structure, but it does allow for flexibility when a child's interest sparks a new conversation or direction to the lesson. Taking students' interests into account will lead to further engagement which, in turn, leads to happier, more motivated children.

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The Complete Guide to Incorporating Regard for Student Perspectives at Circle Time

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Understanding how to effectively employ Regard for Student Perspectives while maintaining a constructive learning environment can be challenging. In the following paragraphs the fictional preschool professional, Mrs. Jones, will illustrate the indicators of Regard for Student Perspectives at circle time. I'll then discuss her exemplary examples: At 9:02, Mrs.

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One Pager on Lunchtime Conversations

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Emotional Support podcast-Teachstone

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Free Ebook on PreK Domain Emotional Support

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PreK - Regard for Student Perspectives-VLOGS

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Vlog: Regard for Student Perspectives in Pre-K

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Learn more about recognizing Student Expression, a CLASS indicator, in Pre-K classrooms.

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Infant Teacher Sensitivity and Facilitated Exploration

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All Things Class - CLASS Learning Community

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ECE Strategy Library

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Strategy Library Find strategies you can use to support children's development of Core Skills Classroom Strategies This library contains strategies to foster a variety of Core Skills, both with individual children or within a group setting. Our strategy offerings include short video lessons with printable resources.

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Encouraging Children to Explain Their Thinking

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S4E11 - From Curiosity to Clarity Encouraging Children to Explain Their Thinking

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Enhanced Storytelling with STONE SOUP for PreK a perfect FALL story!! suggestions, ideas, and resources for making your storytime come alive!

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Tips and Tricks for Enhanced Story Telling.docx

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View CLASS blogs, videos, webinars, and printable resources organized by age level.

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Pre-K E Resource Guide

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Once you have been through CLASS Observation Training, it is hard not to notice interactions everywhere you go! You even start to sort those behaviors into dimensions mentally-at least I know I do! When this happens, it can lead us to our own "ah-ha!" moments when preparing for training and gives us some great examples to use with participants who may be experiencing CLASS for the first time. Being able to connect the tool with a relevant, real world examples helps participants connect new content with something they may have experienced, too!

We want to help add to your collection of examples to use during trainings, and thus the "Real World Examples" series is born. Each post in this series will take a look at one dimension and give real world examples of its indicators. Today we will start by looking at Positive Climate.

Positive Climate

Relationships
The Example: Getting To Know New Neighbors
Consider the process in getting to know new neighbors. It starts by talking in passing and asking how things are going. As you get to know them, perhaps you offer to help them out with a garden chore (peer assistance). As the relationship builds, you begin talking about everything from kids to work to family (social conversation). Soon, you're planning trips to the park together or even neighborhood barbecues (shared activities) where everyone pitches in and comes together to talk and eat around the picnic table (physical proximity).

Positive Affect
The Example: Grocery Store Demonstrations
Think about a trip to the grocery store, when the management thoughtfully places a tasting cart close to the entry. What makes these trips memorable is not just the placement of the tasting cart, but the demonstrator that consistently greets customers. Upon arrival, she greets you with a big smile and says, "Welcome back!" Her enthusiasm draws you in to look at the product on display, and when you approach the table, she is so enthused about what she is serving that you can't help but take a taste! You leave feeling a bit more cheery, which makes shopping in a busy store more enjoyable.

Positive Communication
The Example: Kid's Soccer Teams
Have you ever experienced children's sports games, the ones where they are just learning their sport of choice? Take soccer, for example: imagine one team of girls learning the game and trying to find their coordination all at the same time. It's adorable but also a time of great influence for the girls trying to find their way in a new experience. Here, you will often find ample examples of positive communication. You might notice the coach greeting each girl with an enthusiastic, "I'm so glad you are here today!" (verbal affection) and high-fives (physical affection). During a water break, the coach crouches down and tells the team, "I am so proud of how hard you are working today! I know if we work together, we can make some goals" (positive expectations).

Respect
The Example: A Visit to the Doctor
Taking a child to the doctor can be a great experience-especially if you have a doctor who respects the child they are working with. Respectful doctors greet the child when they enter the examination room: "Good morning Joe, good morning mom" (using names). They use a warm, calm voice, and always ask for the child's permission before checking eyes and ears. At the end of the appointment, they thank their patients (respectful language) for coming in for the visit.

By connecting CLASS indicators to your life, CLASS will be more meaningful and relevant! Stay tuned for additional dimensions in this series. What are some of your favorite real-world examples of Positive Climate?

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Real world examples help explain CLASS in ways that bring the content to life. Use these everyday examples to explain Positive Climate to anyone.

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How can you spark a child's love for learning right from the start? Imagine a classroom where children are highly engaged, and educators artfully and intentionally guide development throughout the day. You can find classrooms like this across Virginia where STREAMin³ is in action. STREAMin³ is a comprehensive curriculum model for birth-to-five classrooms that seamlessly [...]

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View CLASS blogs, videos, webinars, and printable resources organized by age level.

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Educational resources to support our youngest learners, from birth to five Explore strategies, recommendations, and professional development resources to help you promote children's development. Check out the latest update EXPLORE THE SITE Foster Core Skills Explore what children's skills look like, and learn ways you can support them with your everyday interactions see the core [...]

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Infant E Resources

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Toddler E Resources