S.F. takes a hands-on approach to learning and enjoys exploring materials and concepts to construct knowledge.

S.F. also has been observed singing frequently during different activities and connecting her actions to her songs.

S.F. chooses books to flip through independently. In this photo, S.F. is recognizing letters on the pages. She asks questions about the letters on the page and how it relates to the photo. For example, in this photo she is looking at the letter M. She says, "M." Then she asks, "What is in the picture?"

In this photo, S.F. is pretending to be an astronaut. She is wearing a dramatic play astronaut helmet and engages in a dramatic play activity in her own way. She describes the planets she sees as she pretends to be an astronaut.

1.2 PK.C With prompting and support, make connections between information in a text and personal experience.

In this photo, S.F. is using the scissors prop from the flannel board (Lesson 4) and pretending to cut her hair. S.F. says, "My mommy cut my hair with the scissors. I'm giving myself a haircut." When asked if anyone in the story gets a haircut, S.F. says, "Yeah, the mouse got a haircut and now I am getting a haircut too."

S.F. frequently occupies the dramatic play area within the classroom. She enjoys dressing up and costumes, "cooking" in the kitchen and taking care of the baby dolls.

The dramatic play area seems to promote S.F.'s language and literacy development by encouraging her to narrate her play. She comes up with stories by using props and narrates what is occurring in the scene she set up.

For example, in this photo, S.F. set up food on a tray and put two baby dolls in the side pockets. She said, "I put my babies in the highchairs. It's time to eat now." S.F. and T.M. sat down with the dolls and T.M. asked, "What did you make us to eat?" S.F. began to list all of the foods she saw on placed on the table.

This connects to Letter Knowledge because S.F. is able to identify the letters by memory.

In the second photo, S.F. is pointing to and reading off the letters of her name in order. The also connects to letter recognition because it shows how she is able to identify familiar letters and remember the letter names with assistance.

This connects to narrative skills because she described her actions and the events of her play (Creating stories as part of her play).

During lesson plan 1, S.F. made predictions about animals in a story. She responded to questions by answering based on what she knew about the animals. In this example, she is explaining what kind of animal would have a ribbon and predicting the next animal that would appear in the book.

S.F. shows empathy for T.M. when she is having a difficult time during drop off. She asks her, "Are you okay?" S.F. also offers to let T.M. play with the "brown baby" first when T.M. is upset. This shows how S.F. is able to demonstrate empathy towards others using verbal language.

This connects to the learning standard because S.F. is using the stick puppets as a picture support to re-tell the events of the story.

This demonstrates how S.F. uses tools and materials within her environment to support her learning.

In the photo above, S.F. is using a seasons chart to talk about the seasons. She points to each word and says the word out loud. When she gets to "Autumn" she says "Fall". With a little bit of guidance, she identified that fall starts with and "F" and the word in a picture starts with an "A". Then she starts over and repeats the seasons, saying "Autumn" the next time. This demonstrates how S.F. is curious about print/text and how she uses it to support her language skills.

S.F. had some challenges with expressing her emotions in an appropriate manner when conflicts arose with her peers. Using books, labeled feelings charts or even dramatic play experiences to teach positive coping skills may strengthen S.F.'s social and emotional development, while also supporting her language and literacy development.