Elements and Performance Criteria
- Elements define the essential outcomes.
- Support physical development
- Use daily routines as opportunities to support children to acquire and practise skills
- Assist in selecting and arranging equipment that will develop fine and gross motor skills, and to challenge and encourage choice and spontaneity in physically active play
- Help to create opportunities to support the emerging physical skills of individual children
- Support children to take increasing responsibility for their own health and wellbeing
- Support social development
- Support children to understand and accept responsibility for their own actions appropriate to their level of understanding
- Create opportunities for one-on-one interactions
- Model care, empathy and respect for children, educators and families
- Join in play and social experiences with other children
- Assist and support children when they are having difficulty understanding or communicating with each other
- Model language that children can use to express ideas, negotiate roles and collaborate to achieve goals
- Assist children to develop trusting relationships with educators and other adults
- Encourage children to respect and regard each other’s individual differences
- Offer children play choices and respect children’s choice to watch and observe
- Support emotional development
- Provide children with a range of strategies to make informed choices about their behaviours appropriate to their level of understanding
- Ensure children experience pride and confidence in their achievements
- Provide acknowledgement and support if a child experiences frustration, and encourage children to see mistakes as an opportunity to learn
- Encourage children to express and manage feelings appropriately
- Support children’s efforts, assisting and encouraging as appropriate
- Motivate and encourage children to persevere with challenges
- Share children’s successes with families
- Support cognitive development
- Support communication development
- Value the child’s linguistic heritage and encourage the use and acquisition of home languages
- Select, read and tell developmentally appropriate stories
- Use puppets and other props to stimulate children’s enjoyment of language and literature
- Model and encourage two-way communication through questions and careful listening
- Encourage children to explore symbols, patterns and their relationships
- Draw children’s attention to symbols and patterns in their environment and talk about patterns and relationships, including the relationship between letters and sounds
- Create opportunities for group discussions and exchange of views between children
- Ask and answer questions during the reading and discussion of books or other text
- Model language and encourage children to express themselves through language in a range of contexts and for a range of purposes
- Create an environment for holistic learning and development
- Support and initiate inquiry processes, try new ideas and take on challenges
- Provide resources and materials that offer challenge, intrigue and surprise
- Assist to promote children’s sense of belonging and connectedness
- Engage children in sustained shared conversations to extend their thinking
- Provide the opportunity for scaffolding learning and development
- Assist children to see their mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow
- Facilitate families’ diverse contributions to the learning community
- Share information with colleagues about child development and wellbeing