Connect4Learning: Curricula de Preescolar

Evaluation for 2.1
Materials are cross-curricular and integrated in an authentic way to support students’ unified experience throughout the day and/or unit.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

“Correlaciones” in the Teacher’s Portal provides a list of each domain and clearly identifies where each skill is developed within activities in the lesson. For example, the first domain says, “Dominio de desarrollo social y emocional (1.A1a) El niño es consciente de dónde está su cuerpo en el espacio,” and it indicates exactly where this domain/skill and student outcome is addressed in a specific unit, lesson, and activity: “Unidad 1, Conexión: ¿Cúantos hay aqui hoy?, Semana 1, Día 1, Párrafos 1-5.” This section of the online portal provides teachers with a friendly document to find content-building information about the domains being taught or reinforced and how multiple domains are integrated and connected. However, the product does not make reference to the Prekindergarten Guidelines in the Spanish materials, thus making it difficult to know which domains and guidelines are being addressed in the units and lessons.

The materials engage students in related but varied experiences across multiple activities in each unit. The six units develop the themes that are present throughout all the units in the materials and consistently provide cross-curricular connections to create a unified experience for students. The “Centers” section of the unit applies the theme to all centers and creates a unified experience for students. For example, in Unit 2, Nuestro Medio Ambiente, the materials focus on “Nuestro Entorno” and provide teachers with guidance on how to develop the concept of where we live. The centers focus on a coral reef, “el enfoque se traslada a un entorno más intrigante: el arrecife de coral. Las lecciones y los libros proporcionados respaldan este enfoque; sin embargo, si desea estudiar otro entorno natural, siéntase libre de hacerlo.” The book selection is around this topic, and students can make art, write, and complete vocabulary building activities. 

In Unit 5, the gardening theme “Cultivando la huerta” provides lessons that integrate multiple developmental domains. A science and literacy activity follows a read-aloud of A Bean’s Life Cycle by Mary R. Dunn. The teacher shows the students pictures of the bean life cycle cards and talks about the parts of the bean at different stages. For instance, “Pídales a los niños que describan los pasos del ciclo de vida del frijol. Asegúrese de destacar la naturaleza cíclica del ciclo de vida.” The lesson supports development in emergent literacy and science domains as students retell the story and appropriately sequence their ideas. Later in Unit 5, the theme includes math skills when students create a mural of a vegetable garden by learning about the longitude of different plants like “zinnias.” The script says, “Use la cinta métrica para medir esa longitud y muestre cómo buscar el número que corresponde a la altura de las zinnias.” The plant theme is also integrated into centers supporting the fine arts domain when the teacher instructs students to draw their favorite flower and gives books as visual aids.

Evaluation for 2.2
Materials utilize high-quality texts as a core component of content and skill integration.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include a book list of 20 Spanish titles that are used to support the development of multiple content areas and skills. This book list includes mostly non-fiction and two fiction fairy tale titles in Spanish, with the other titles being in English. In Unit 2, “Nuestro medio ambiente,” literacy center, “Rincón de la lectura,” students can select a book to complete the felt board activity (“Tablero de fieltro y cuentos”) to retell the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears from Unit 1. The children participate in acting out the main events of the story using felt pieces and felt boards provided in the “Goldilocks and the Three Bears del Kit de preescolar C4L”.

In Unit 4, the students are exposed to different fairy tales such as The Knight and the Dragon by Tomie dePaola and On Monday When It Rained by Cherryl Kachenmeister as they develop retelling skills; however, these titles are in English and not available in Spanish. In the literacy center, “Rincón de la lectura,” students can select the retelling activity “Volver a contar las historias” to practice retelling with felt boards by reenacting the story or record themselves retelling the story. 

The materials provide texts that are directly translated into Spanish that have errors with no authentic Spanish titles. The nonfiction text “Nuestros sentidos” is a poor quality translation of the book Our Senses with mistakes in the translation. Errors in translation include the use of the word “huelemos” in the sentence, “Vemos, huelemos, escuchamos, saboreamos y tocamos con nuestros sentidos.” The word “huelemos” should be “olemos,” but the translation was conjugated incorrectly. 

The materials include evidence of just two books that are culturally relevant and diverse; however, both titles are in English and not in Spanish. For example, in Unit 5, the read-aloud title “The Tortilla Factory” by Gary Paulsen is used as an informational text to provide a how-to guide for making tortillas. Science concepts of a life cycle are also integrated into this lesson, and math is reinforced through ordinal numbers. The Unit 6 read-aloud Sonia Sotomayor, A Judge Grows In the Bronx by Jonah Winter is a biography of Judge Sotomayor and how she rose from a childhood of poverty and prejudice to become the first Latino to be nominated to the US Supreme Court. Though these examples show evidence of culturally relevant literature, it is not evident throughout all units.

Evaluation for 2.3
Materials support developmentally appropriate practice across all content domains.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The Principal’s Manual includes research-based information that supports the teacher’s understanding of the importance of play as a foundation for learning across all domain areas. The manual states: “Play also supports literacy and social-emotional development in a variety of ways (Roskos et al., 2010; Lindsey and Colwell, 2013). At the same time, math and literacy instruction increase the quality of young children’s play. One study demonstrates that children in classrooms with a stronger emphasis on literacy or math are more likely to engage in higher quality sociodramatic play (Aydogan et al., 2005), allowing new ideas to energize high level play.”

The materials provide activities for each unit that incorporate purposeful play with multiple opportunities to practice new skills in a variety of ways and different settings. For example, in Unit 1, the curriculum explains how the “Centro de arte” provides a creative outlet for children to explore and discover new ways to express themselves as they explore the materials freely. The “Centro de arte” can also attend directly to the learning objectives of the unit because children can express and support their knowledge through art. Students can create a collage using materials and textures to explore the sense of touch and describe the different textures and how they feel. Students practice vocabulary such as “rough, smooth, bumpy, and ridged.” Practice of social-emotional skills, such as cooperation and collaboration, is integrated throughout all centers. In the construction center, “Zona de construcción,” students can increase their spatial awareness. Here students informally explore physical science concepts by planning and creating buildings and towers. This center also connects math and imagination with science and social studies. It is a place where students can work together to plan, design, and build the world around them. These recommended activities and materials provide flexible paths and opportunities for children to broaden and deepen their knowledge through play. 

The Teacher Manual, “Manual del maestro,” guides the teacher on how to develop centers and incorporates materials that have been used in the previous and current units. The material provides recommended activities for children to broaden and deepen their knowledge through play. Teachers use these activities within each learning center, allowing for exploration and practice of new skills across domains. In Unit 2, Semana 1, Día 1, during a geometry lesson during a “Grupo pequeño-Coincidencia de formas,” the children are engaged in learning to match shapes beyond the usual approach of matching only a single pair of sides by matching entire figures. Doing so involves finding congruent shapes that are the same size and shape. Students can go to the center ”Juegos y rompecabezas” to complete shape matching. The students are also challenged to “spy” the shapes around the classroom and look for objects with the shape of a circle, square, triangle, and rectangle. Students can also use various materials, such as straws used as sides, and discuss the number and lengths of straws they need to make various shapes. At the end of Unit 1, the students have the opportunity to “build” a coral reef as a culminating project using different forms to create a 2D and 3D coral reef. Students have a myriad of opportunities to practice geometric shapes in different settings and with designed activities for playful exploration in a variety of ways.

In the “Centros educativos” section of Unit 5, the center activities are designed around the thematic unit “Cultivando nuestro jardin.” Teachers are provided guidance on how to set up and offer various activities for each learning center. For instance, students can draw their favorite plants in the art center. In the block center, students can create a farm to market using the blocks. The teachers are provided a list of materials for this activity and instructed to have children create roads from the farm to the market using the provided blocks. Once the roads have been built, the students use their figurines and toy trucks to pretend they are taking materials from the farm to the market. Students have the opportunity to move on to another center activity or continue playing until the time is up. There is also a “Nota” section where teachers are given tips to take pictures or save samples of student work for use in the last unit of the curriculum.

Evaluation for 2.4
Materials fit within a developmentally appropriate programmatic structure.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The teacher manual, “Manual del Maestro,” provides research-based guidance on the various aspects of the curriculum, and it is based on effective learning practices; however, there is no specific evidence that the lessons and activities are designed for three-year-old children or four-year-old children. In the Principal’s Manual, it states the curriculum uses learning trajectories to help explain what prekindergarteners know and don’t know and to help them build on their existing strengths. The curriculum is designed to support children’s cognitive development within each major domain and topic, allowing teachers to provide lessons and activities that are developmentally appropriate and effective for early childhood. 

Though the materials do not indicate whether they are intended for three- or four-year-old children, it does include built-in differentiation for certain lessons. For example, in Unit 2, Nuestro Medio Ambiente, during the small group lesson “Búsqueda del tesoro al aire libre,” the teacher splits students up into small groups and gives instructions for their outdoor treasure hunt. The students work together to find items on their list. The teacher is guided to check on students to ensure that they are communicating. If a child is not meeting the expectations, the teacher is prompted to have an individual conference with the student. If the student needs more support, the teacher can provide vocabulary words as they find their treasures. If the student needs to be challenged, the teacher can provide hints for the student to guess the item she/he is referring to. These built-in scaffolds are geared towards providing differentiated instruction based on the students’ developmental level. 

The teacher handbook, Manual para maestros, identifies the materials and lessons that work best with a half-day program or a full-day program. Included are recommendations for a full-day schedule with activities led through direct instruction, child-led choice, and learning centers. This recommendation allots more time for child-led than teacher-led activities. The sample schedules of full-day and half-day instruction show in general terms how the day is organized with time, time of day, and description. In the schedule, there is more student-center time than teacher-center time. For example, the schedule provides free play time in the morning (15 min), learning centers (60 min), outdoor exploration (35 min), lunch, nap and rest, indoor or outdoor time (60 min), and project time (40 min). This schedule provides more or less a 70% time child-led choice and 30% time teacher-led activities.

Evaluation for 2.5
Materials include detailed guidance that supports teacher’s delivery of instruction.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials are an interdisciplinary curriculum in which each domain includes materials with a variety of instructional strategies within the lessons. The “Principal’s Manual” states that the curriculum was “developed with the intent to draw out the rich connections among the four domains (math, science, literacy and social-emotional learning) while addressing the core conceptual, procedural, and foundational structures each one possesses. In this approach, teachers will integrate teaching across two or more domains only when doing so is consistent with the structures particular to each domain—for example, exposing children to math concepts and skills in developmentally and mathematically appropriate sequences.” Throughout the process, the guide provides an explanation of several teaching strategies teachers can use during the units/lessons, such as whole group instruction, small-group instruction, learning centers, project-based learning, and digital support (just to name a few). The teacher’s guide, “Guía del maestro,” also has highly visible tips and instructional strategies with explanations/step-by-step instructions on how to implement the strategies for teaching prekindergarten skills.

The materials include topics and themes within the units that are interesting and engaging for children of the targeted age while still considering the need to develop background knowledge in areas that may be unfamiliar. For example, in Unit 1, Semana 1, Día 2, during “Bienvenida y Lectura en voz alta,” the teacher introduces the book Owl Babies. Before the read-aloud, the teacher explains to students that they are going to listen to a story about three baby owls that could not find their mom when they woke up. During the read-aloud, the teacher is encouraged to read the book with expression and emotion. The teacher asks open-ended questions associated with the owls’ feelings and the student’s feelings when they feel afraid of coming to school. In this lesson, students have the opportunity to use their listening and visual skills. After reading the story, the teacher discusses how students feel when people they love, such as their mom, dad, and siblings, leave, but how they have to be confident they will come back. The teacher provides opportunities for students to recreate the meaning of the vocabulary words silent and dark by asking the students to make the owls’ noises and then stay quiet and then to place their hands over their eyes to represent the meaning of dark (this vocabulary is in English even though this is during Spanish literacy instruction). The script says: “Haga que los niños exploren sus voces imitando el reclamo del búho con una voz aguda y clara: "¡Huuu! ¡Huuu!" Contraste esto con el silencio, pidiendo a los niños que guarden silencio como si fueran los búhos escuchando en espera del regreso de su madre búho. Invite a los niños a percibir la oscuridad pidiéndoles que cubran o cierren sus ojos.” Through this lesson, the teacher helps students understand new concepts and content by connecting it to their experiences, building vocabulary, and activating prior knowledge to develop new understandings.

In unit 4, “Unidad 4, Explorando museos,” during the whole group math read-aloud lesson, materials guide the teacher to use concrete objects and model the skill when engaging in a new concept. These same materials are later used in a small group lesson for children to practice the skill being learned. The materials provide a scripted lesson for the teacher as the students sort along with the instructional text Hannah’s Collections by Marthe Jocelyn. The resource states: “Cuando clasificamos, juntamos las cosas que son parecidas, que tienen una misma característica. ¡Formamos una colección! Explique que las cosas que son diferentes van en grupos distintos.” The teacher then guides students to continue sorting the various object into various groups, “anímelos a clasificar los objetos de muchas maneras diferentes, una tras otra.” The materials prompt the teacher to then place this book in the reading corner, “Coloque el libro en el rincón de lectura para que lo puedan continuar leyendo.”

The materials provide activities and pictures that build on children’s current level of understanding when learning a new concept. For example, in “Unidad 5, Cultivando nuestro jardín, Semana 1,” when observing and investigating objects in nature, such as seeds, the lesson guides the teacher to bring in the actual objects for children to touch, see, and investigate. The resource states: “Planificar con anticipación: Prepare las tarjetas de los paquetes de semillas del Kit de preescolar C4L, un paquete de semillas de frijol, un paquete de semillas de rábano y dos platos o bandejas.” The lesson guides teachers to ask the students thought-provoking questions, such as how do seeds grow, and allow students to make their own predictions based on their prior knowledge. To help students with their predictions, the teacher is encouraged to use the book Our Community Garden by Barbara Pollak to think about the importance of water for growing plants. These activities and book selection allow students to make connections with the new concepts. By activating students’ prior knowledge, the teacher can use it to provide differentiated instruction and meet students at their level. Materials provide teachers with explicit information on how to connect prior knowledge through the use of activities that build on a student's current level of understanding when learning a new concept.

Evaluation for 2.6
Materials are supported by child development research on children’s development within and across all domains.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide a description of how the resource aligns with child development research. Lessons and activities in the materials provide a rationale showcasing the purpose of activities included in the curriculum. In the Principal’s Manual, there is an explanation for how texts for the read-aloud were chosen, indicating how they support young children’s listening comprehension and vocabulary development. To use read-alouds effectively, the materials recommend the following: believe in the books, make adjustments as needed, ask a range of questions, point out print, and make connections. Teachers will be most successful with the curriculum when they read the books provided and look for opportunities to reread the books whenever possible. Adjustments can be made as needed by adapting to the students’ needs, giving children a short break to move around, or discontinuing the read-aloud until another day. The materials provide research-based techniques when stating that reading aloud should be an engaging experience for children, where teachers and students have the opportunity to ask a range of questions, including open-ended, which require children to engage in higher-order thinking skills. The manual also provides research that “suggests that adults should actively work to draw children’s attention to the print, using both verbal and nonverbal strategies (Justice and Ezell, 2002; Justice et al., 2010),” as well as to connect with students' experiences and prior knowledge to make the text more comprehensible. 

The teacher handbook, “Manual del maestro,” states that the materials are based on effective learning practices for instruction in the areas of math, science, reading, writing, and socio-emotional learning and have been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and by the Institute of Educational Studies (IES). The curriculum addresses a range of literacy and language skills in developmentally appropriate ways. The material refers to best practices in early childhood that guide educators to provide many opportunities for children to be successful in academic skills through play and exploration. The resource states: “C4L adopta al juego como un elemento en el aprendizaje demasiado a menudo, las currículas de preescolar caen en la falsa dicotomía de juego-versus-academia. En C4L, el juego de alta calidad y la instrucción de alta calidad no compiten por el tiempo de clase—se complementan y enriquecen mutuamente.” “Por supuesto que los niños deben jugar—pero esto no significa que no deban también aprender y jugar con los mundos de la ciencia, la matemática, y la lectura y escritura (Clements y Sarama, 2014).” 

The materials provide research-based evidence that is current, academic, relevant to early childhood development, and guides the teacher to understand appropriate skill expectations for children. For example, in the “Manual del maestro,” the material states that C4L is “grounded in research-based learning trajectories and developmental pathways in the core domains.” Research being cited is current and relevant to the field of early childhood and provides a rationale for how the resource was created. The resource provides reasoning as to why the units are based on math and science themes: “El enfoque de C4L toma en cuenta las preocupaciones del educador en cuanto a la falta de tiempo en el programa preescolar para introducir nuevos materiales. Hemos sabido de muchos docentes de educación de la primera infancia (EPF) que tienen poco tiempo para matemática y ciencia debido a otros requisitos, particularmente los relativos a lectura y escritura (Greenfield et al., 2009; Sarama y Clements, 2009b; Clements y Sarama, 2014). He aquí cómo abordamos ese dilema.” “En primer lugar, C4L no comienza con las áreas socio-emocional o de lectura y escritura porque, con demasiada frecuencia, hacerlo deja poco espacio para nada más. De hecho, un estudio informa que, en la práctica, una currícula de día completo basada en lectura y escritura que dice enseñar todas las áreas solo deja 58 segundos para matemática de cada día de seis horas (Farran et al., 2007). En su lugar, C4L comienza con secuencias de temas de ciencia y matemática. Estas secuencias se fundamentan en trayectorias de aprendizaje basadas en la investigación y vías de desarrollo en las áreas fundamentales.” Cited research emphasizes how the resource was developed and builds teachers’ background knowledge around early childhood. 

The materials contain a bibliography that cites research presented throughout the teacher manual, “Manual del maestro,” and located at the end of each chapter.

Evaluation for 3.1
Materials include direct social skill instruction and explicit teaching of skills.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

Throughout, the materials provide guidance on introducing social skills, which are taught following a logical sequence of development. The materials include text and activities that provide concrete experience with the development of different social and emotional competencies. These resources include books, chants, songs, whole group games, dances, scavenger hunts, and graphic organizers. The C4L approach to teaching is based on the research and practice of “The Pyramid Model for Promotion of Social Emotional Competence,” as stated in the “Teacher Handbook.” Teachers are to intentionally teach children problem-solving techniques to help them develop their social skills. Many lessons throughout all units explicitly focus on both social and emotional skills development, as described in subsequent comments. Teachers are prompted to remind children to practice these skills in daily interactions while in learning centers and in free play. Visual posters serve as reminders of pro-social and problem-solving behaviors. Further, embedded prompts to regularly complete Formative Assessments help teachers stay current with each child's social and emotional skill development and individualize learning experiences accordingly. The materials do not include a list of additional books to reinforce or extend learning and do not provide activities that promote respect for cultural diversity. The materials provide consistent guidance for teachers on directly teaching social skills or extending the lesson.

In Unit 1, the materials introduce students to self-concept skills, beginning on the first day of school during a “Circle Time” activity. Teachers introduce classroom behavioral expectations in a whole group lesson; teachers pair expectations with visuals and explain that “to be safe, the children need to sit calmly and know where their body is in space; being respectful means using listening ears and looking eyes on the teacher, and sitting so everyone can see.” In Unit 1, a whole group lesson on self-awareness contains guidance for the teacher. The lesson begins with students singing a fun chant that reinforces awareness of body space and respect for personal boundaries; students use friendly touches such as high-fives, shaking hands, and waves. Also in this unit, the read-aloud book Otto Goes to School allows children to discuss feelings and emotions related to going to school. The materials use this text to support the development of competencies to understand and respond to emotions. For further interaction with the text, students participate in a “thumbs-up or thumbs-down” activity to share their feelings and emotions. Additionally, within Unit 1 activities, all children benefit from peer and teacher modeling, context clues, repetition, and visual supports. Through full lessons, the teacher directly instructs and models Self-Concept Skills, including how children feel about school and discussing personal experiences and opinions; Self-Regulation Skills by learning about being safe and respectful team players; Relationships with Others, including learning how to develop friendships and asking play; and Social Awareness Skills through recognizing emotions and friendly ways to communicate. Teachers are guided to foster relationships with all families, including those from diverse cultures. Specific examples of guidance include making families feel welcome by labeling objects in the classroom in the children’s home languages, having children make posters about their families and communities and displaying these in the classroom, and including books that reflect children’s families and communities.

In Unit 2, a lesson focused on teaching self-concept skills includes problem-solving. The teacher asks students about a previous read-aloud of Goldilocks and The Three Bears and the problems the characters encountered in the story. The materials guide the teacher to encourage students to make connections to the problems in the story and identify how the story can help them think of good solutions for problem-solving in their own classroom. Students engage in a “Think, Pair, Share” activity to provide their own solutions to the problems presented in the book. As an extension, students collaborate to create a graphic organizer with their own examples of solutions. Children then create their own solution book by using examples from the graphic organizer, solution suitcase cards, and their own experiences as they occur throughout the school day. The materials provide the teacher with visual prompts, including a problem-solver poster and solution suitcase cards for teaching how to wait and take turns, ask nicely, and practice problem-solving skills related to these strategies. Unit 2 builds on skills instruction in Unit 1. Full lessons let the teacher directly teach and model Self Concept Skills, Relationships with Others, Social Awareness Skills, and Self-Regulation Skills. In this unit, the teacher introduces the words "problem" and "solution," and the Solution Suitcase then shows the Problem Solver poster and intentionally teaches and models for children the problem-solving steps, thinking through a problem and considering possible solutions, then choosing a solution and trying it. The teacher introduces the Solution Suitcase then explains how to use this problem-solving tool, introducing the first solutions: Ask Nicely and Wait and Take Turns. The children have scaffolded opportunities to practice. Next, the focus is on the solutions titled Ignore, Say, “Please Stop,” and Get a Teacher. The children have scaffolded opportunities to practice using the solutions they have learned so far. Next, the focus is on Trade, Play Together, and Get a Timer. The children now have their own Solutions Suitcases ready for use.

In Unit 3, the teacher reads the book Chocolate-Covered-Cookie Tantrum to discuss feelings and causes of anger and to introduce calming strategies. Children practice identifying feelings in the story and make a list of safe calming strategies to learn how to appropriately respond to emotions to reference as needed. Continuing direct teaching of social skills, Unit 3 builds on friendship skills and problem-solving skills and extends that instruction, practice, and learning to recognizing, identifying, and handling emotions through full lessons on Self Concept Skills and Social Awareness Skills, recognizing and identifying emotions in a book and on the C4L Emotions poster (angry, disappointed, excited, frustrated, happy, lonely, proud, sad, scared, worried). Also, in this unit, the teacher introduces Tucker the Turtle and instructs and models for children Tucker’s way of calming down: Recognize your feelings. Stop. Tuck into your “shell” and breathe. Think of a solution. The children then have opportunities to practice using the steps. 

In Unit 4, the teacher reads Rex Wrecks It and discusses with the children the emotions Rex is feeling and how they would feel if they were Rex. Later, the teacher rereads this story. In the re-reading of the story, children work together to “Think, Pair, and Share” solutions they think can help with Rex. These lessons demonstrate the opportunity to address both self-concepts of emotions as well as emotional and social relationships with others. In another lesson, the teacher models talking about feelings and demonstrates identifying emotions by using an “emotions face page” and poster. The materials guide the teacher to allow students to talk about feelings in response to specific situations and to refer to the “face page” and poster to support their understanding of the emotions. 

In Unit 5, teachers directly teach the meaning of cooperation, empathy, and friendship skills, emphasizing solutions to emotional, social, and contextual problems. For example, in the lesson “Cooperation: Watering the Garden,” students have to work as a team in order to water the garden by passing the bucket to achieve their goal. Another lesson focuses on a variety of emotions and uses the gradual release model. The teacher models a game and chant and then allows the students to participate in the activity. 

Unit 6 provides opportunities for students to learn about appropriate social and emotional skills, like taking turns, sharing, and empathy. They also learn specifically about being proud of their accomplishments and how much they have grown as people throughout the school year. For example, students vote to review their favorite books from the year. They learn about how to give compliments to one another, recognizing each other’s achievements, and they also learn about the meaning of the emotion “proud” and discuss what they're proud of from the year's accomplishments.

Evaluation for 3.2
Materials include repeated opportunities for students to practice social skills throughout the day.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The “Teacher Handbook” describes how the learning centers are directly connected to and driven by the curriculum. Topics, skills, and materials introduced in the whole- and small-group lessons are further developed, practiced, and explored in the centers. Children actively engage with their peers in learning opportunities and share ideas, communicate, collaborate, and problem-solve as they engage in the learning center activities together. Throughout the units, the materials provide some whole group and small group lessons to develop social and emotional skills that are integrated and embedded in other learning domains. The materials include some guidance for the teacher to work on social and emotional skills in small groups by using props such as puppets and visuals. The materials offer some guidance for teachers to encourage positive social and emotional skills throughout the day, such as following routines and using problem-solving skills. 

In Unit 1, the materials provide guidance that supports students’ social awareness skills: Students give a peer some play ideas and follow a peer’s play suggestions. The teacher models and explains to the students that when we give a play idea, we tell someone something fun we could do together, including pretend-playing school. Students use playdough, toys, and other materials to make a zoo or bake cookies in the “Dramatic Play” center. These activities allow repeated opportunities for the students to learn and apply peer play idea skills. The Unit 1 project is creating a classroom community. With intentional instruction and opportunities for repetition and practice in the learning centers, children can develop responsive personal relationships with their teacher and their peers.

In the “Art Center,” as the children explore the materials, teachers can provide ideas for explorations children can do together, which gives children an opportunity to practice important social and emotional skills, such as cooperation and collaboration. In the “Book Nook,” children can explore books in pairs and small groups, as well as independently. Puppets and felt boards offer opportunities for children to work together to retell stories. They can create scavenger hunts for their friends to complete as they search for common items featured in books. In the “Construction Zone,” blocks engage children in collaborative building projects. In Dramatic Play, children take on roles and work together to act out home, school, and favorite stories.

The materials also recommend opportunities to practice social and emotional skills during centers and outdoor play. Teachers use photographs of children who are following expectations so that students have a reminder of the expectations throughout the day. The guidance recommends posting the photos next to the corresponding expectations chart in the classroom or next to centers. For example, teachers can post pictures of children being team players, as they set the table and help each other at snack time, next to the snack table. 

In Unit 2, small and whole-group activities support practicing and reinforcing social and emotional skills in a variety of settings. The teacher and students learn about problems and solutions by creating a problem-solving suitcase. The problem-solving suitcase is available to the students throughout the day; when a problem occurs, students can use the suitcase to find a solution. Materials guide teachers on giving students descriptive feedback when a problem is observed. Additional provided problem-solving strategies include drawing pictures of problems and then having the student select possible solutions. Graphic organizers are available around the classroom for reference throughout the day and at centers. After reading We Are Problem Solvers, students use the “Think, Pair, Share” strategy and sticky-notes to put solutions on chart paper for future reference. 

In Unit 3, the instructional materials provide guidance on how to identify various emotions and solutions and how to effectively handle these emotions. The materials recommend that the book be placed in the “Library” center so that students can revisit the story during independent reading time and refer to the emotions poster. During small group time, students identify what makes them angry and cover ways to calm down (e.g., getting a hug). Students sing a song to the tune of “I’m a Little Teapot” to understand what being angry feels like. The project for Unit 3 is creating a set of toys for themselves and for another group of children. The children have ample opportunities to work together on this project, which is introduced in group activities but is developed and completed in the learning centers.

In Unit 4, in lessons utilizing mirrors, emotions cards, literature, role-playing, and modeling, students learn to identify emotions in themselves and others. Students have opportunities to review emotions from a previous collage activity; the materials recommend that students add additional experiences and emotions to the collage. Students are encouraged to work on the collage throughout the day and when emotions arise. The materials introduce students to the game of charades: Children pull an emotion from a bag and act it out. The materials recommend that children retell their stories and have another child record it. Children who are having difficulty acting out their emotions can verbally express their emotions, supported by teacher prompts. In addition, the materials recommend that children who have difficulty identifying their emotions revisit the emotion faces to help write and act out their stories. The materials recommend that teachers suggest a peer help the child who is still struggling. For example, the teacher reads the book Rex Wrecks It!, which helps students identify various emotions such as being scared, frustrated, worried, and proud. Rex Wrecks It! contains pictures of faces with different types of emotions, so students have a visual to help them identify the emotion.

In Unit 5, the materials provide a lesson on self-regulation skills: Students take on classroom responsibilities and discuss how to take care of their classroom worms. Students have the opportunity to observe the worms with a magnifying glass during center time and to care for them throughout the day. As in other units, Unit 5 includes many daily opportunities for children to practice responsive interpersonal relationships, especially in “Learning Center” activities which include “Working Together and Plant Collage Paths to Farm and Market,” “Block Maze,” “Farmers' Market,” and “Farmers' Market and Flower Stall,” “I Know What You're Thinking,” and “Growing a Garden Game.” In addition, there are embedded teacher prompts at the end of lessons to encourage children to use the social and emotional skills they learn.

In Unit 6, students have opportunities to apply the concept of understanding different perspectives: They use graphs and voting to record favorite books chosen by peers. The class discusses differing perspectives as they explore the data. Additionally, learning centers in Unit 6 offer opportunities for responsive interpersonal interactions through activities such as “Favorite Book Partner Read,” “Shortest Path to Kindergarten,” and “Book Recordings.” There is a teacher prompt to remind children to use their new social skills throughout the day.

Evaluation for 3.3
Materials include ideal classroom arrangements that support positive social interactions.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The materials provide some guidance for classroom arrangements that support daily opportunities for students to practice social skills. The “Curriculum Fidelity Checklist,” found on the online portal, provides examples and explanations of effective classroom arrangements. Administrators can use the checklist as a reference when in the teacher’s classroom; however, the materials do not provide specific guidance for teachers. This tool is available to teachers, as well as supervisors and coaches, to ensure transparency of expectation in guiding teachers to implement the curriculum with fidelity. Within the checklist link, there is a quick observation checklist that describes elements in the classroom environment, including expectations for the learning centers, visuals to be implemented in the classroom to support learning and promote engagement, and small group and whole group instruction. These materials offer some guidance on classroom arrangements to support opportunities to practice social skills. In Unit 1, the description of each center provides some guidance on how the teacher should set up the “Book Nook”: with comfortable and inviting seating among the book displays and space for children to read individually, in groups, or in pairs. There is some evidence that the materials provide specific and consistent teacher guidance on social skills practice in learning centers, on classroom arrangements to reinforce the practice of social skills, or on identifying specific areas of the room for the practice of social skills. The “Teacher's Handbook” gives teachers specific guidance on setting expectations and offering directions to children to teach behaviors and interactional skills. It also explains how social and emotional development is addressed throughout the day using problem-solving strategies, such as the “Solution Suitcase.” Additionally, the Teacher’s Handbook offers detailed guidance and tips for setting up learning centers in a manner that helps children interact effectively with others and providing explicit teaching and modeling of learning center behavioral expectations and social opportunities. Within lessons, teachers are guided to have children use the Solution Suitcase strategy for their own classroom interactions with peers. The materials provide teachers some guidance on social skills practice in learning centers. The Unit 1 manual explicitly reminds teachers that “children benefit from opportunities to interact on their own and with peers in self-guided play and from chances to interact with adults who scaffold learning experiences during play in learning centers.” Within the instructions for setting up the “Make a Self-Portrait” activity in the “Art Center,” teachers are specifically guided to “Use this opportunity to promote interactions and cooperation and to talk about friendships.” And the instructions for the “Toy Store” learning activity in the “Dramatic Play Center” guide teachers to make the initial focus for the center on the social interactions instead of the toys.

The materials do not provide guidance for the teacher on classroom arrangements to support teacher-student and student-student interactions. The materials do not provide resources such as websites or books that guide teachers on how to create a classroom that optimizes the space for centers, on table arrangements, or on whole and small group arrangements. The materials do not include options to support a variety of classroom designs, sizes, setting up centers, creating a center system, and the research and rationale to support these decisions.

Throughout the materials, some guidance is provided for the teacher on how to use the physical space to promote self-regulation and problem solving; materials also provide some guidance on aspects of the physical space and their impact on social development. The materials reference a “movement” area; if the teacher has one, materials suggest the teacher tape it off and communicate to students that they must stay inside it. The materials do not provide guidance for other factors in the physical space; they do not provide specific guidance for the teacher to understand how the physical arrangement can support social development on a consistent basis. 

Throughout the materials, some guidance is offered on how to implement materials easily and effectively within a classroom arrangement that supports students’ positive social interactions. The materials give some guidance to teachers on how to support social interactions during whole group instruction. 

The materials give teachers guidance on how to provide opportunities for children to have positive interactions with their peers within the lessons and activities.

Welcome and Read-Aloud lessons suggest activities that continue the learning by providing opportunities that support positive interactions or that model asking children to play when they are interacting with them during playtime. Within Small Group lessons, teachers are guided to encourage children to initiate interactions with peers. The “Compliment Cards” lesson and “Our Class Compliment Chain” give children an opportunity to have positive interactions with their peers and to interact while writing. 

A “Welcome and Read Aloud” recommends the teacher start the school day using welcoming songs. The materials do not provide guidance on how to implement the songs within a classroom arrangement to allow increased student interaction. In Unit 1, students sing to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” to support transitions. The materials do not include resources that teachers can use to set up effective organization and management to support positive social interactions. The materials provide nine custom-made classroom posters designed to be visual cues to reinforce learning and management and support positive social interactions; for example, “Classroom Expectations,” “How Are You Feeling,” “Friendship Skills,” and “Problem-Solving Skills.” The materials do not provide classroom arrangement resources and guidance for the teacher to use these strategies.

There is no identified evidence of suggestions on balancing classroom set up before students arrive at the beginning of the year and what is done with the students throughout the school year. Throughout the materials, there is no evidence supporting opportunities to engage and include the students in the classroom arrangement in order to promote student ownership of the space.

Evaluation for 3.4
Materials include activities to develop physical skill and refine motor development through movement.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

Throughout, the materials provide some activities and teacher guidance for gross motor skill development. The materials provide two “Fast Focus” lessons daily, often featuring math and phonological awareness or alphabet knowledge that integrate gross-motor activities and provide children opportunities to practice gross motor skills across multiple units. This includes “Moves to Count,” which is played in Units 1–4, which starts with easy movements involving the head, such as nodding if children have difficulty with the movements. Other examples are the Fast Focus lesson titled “Shape-Mat Hop,” which is played in Units 4 and 5, and the Fast Focus lessons titled “Simon Says” and “Simon Shows.” The materials do not include a resource kit for gross motor skills or a teacher guide that focuses on gross motor skill development. The materials do not include resources for children to use to practice gross motor skills across multiple units. The materials do provide lessons integrated with other content materials that help develop fine motor skills, preparing students’ hands for writing. 

In Unit 1, the materials provide lessons integrated with other content material that help develop gross-motor skills, including the Fast Focus lessons titled “Moves to Count,” and the Fast Focus lessons titled “The Parts of Me,” and the “Connect” lessons titled “Two Arms Wave.” In this lesson, students practice gross motor skills in a “wiggly” game: Students move in different ways to represent numbers and practice spatial terms by waving two arms in the air. The materials include daily suggestions for the development of fine motor skills. In the “Exploration” center, materials provide various suggestions to develop students’ fine motor skills using materials such as beads, pompoms, ink pads, scissors, craft sticks, hole punchers, eye droppers, and tongs. The materials also recommend putting chalk, water painting, and finger painting activities in the “Art” center to reinforce the development of fine motor skills.

In Unit 2, the materials provide lessons integrated with other content material that help develop gross-motor skills. In the lesson Simon Shows, the students jump a given number of times based on a number presented. In Unit 2, students review turn-taking during a small group “Hot Potato” activity: Students grab an object and pass it back and forth, reinforcing gross motor skills through movement. Then in Unit 2, the materials provide center activities and lessons integrated with other content material that help develop fine motor skills. For example, the small group lesson titled "Introduction to the Solution Suitcase: 'Wait and Take Turns' and 'Ask Nicely,'" guides teachers to "Demonstrate how to use the scissors, and let the children cut out the individual solution cards from the tear-off sheets and glue them on….”

In Unit 3, the teacher reads a book about animals. After reading, the teacher asks students to demonstrate a coordinated sequence of movements based on descriptions of the animals. In a small group lesson, students use chopsticks, beads, and pom-poms to make predictions; students predict which object would be easier to move using chopsticks. After the experiment, the materials are moved to the “Exploration” center for students to use during center time, where the chopstick challenge is extended: Children pick up and move sand, rice grains, balls, and other objects. In another small group lesson, students conduct an experiment by stringing beads in two different ways, which highlights the pinching motion using the index finger and thumb. 

In Unit 4, students engage in gross motor development through dances, games, chants, and movements integrated into the lessons. A math lesson on counting to 10 has students use big body movements to practice counting up and down from 10. The teacher invites students to move in various ways based on the number shown on a number card. Students also engage in a “Shape Walk” game: They hop across mats with various shapes and identify the shapes as they land on them. The materials recommend putting the game in the “Puzzles and Games” center to provide the students with repeated practice with a peer.

In Unit 5, the materials provide center activities and lessons integrated with other content material that help develop fine motor skills. For example, in the lesson, “Flour Power,” the children dump, thump, dust, knead, squash, and stretch the dough. Opportunities for tracing are also suggested for children who need more support making shapes.

In Unit 6, the materials provide blocks, construction paper, and scissors for children to practice fine motor skills in the “Construction Zone,” supporting the use of small-muscle control and developing fine motor skills. In Unit 6, the materials provide lessons integrated with other content material that help develop gross motor skills. In the Fast Focus lesson, “Pattern Dance,” the students move while following a pattern of movements such as clap, stomp, clap, stomp. In the Fast Focus lesson titled “Shape-Counting Jump,” the students jump for the number of sides on a presented shape. 

Evaluation for 3.5
Materials include activities that develop safe and healthy habits in students.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

Throughout, the materials provide some guidance on teaching safe and healthy habits and the connection between physical and mental health and safety; there are also some communication materials for parents. The materials provide unit letters that teachers can send home to communicate with parents. For example, in the Unit 1 letter, parents receive ideas on discussing ways of being safe, being kind, and being a team player with their child. The teacher uses a chant from a “Friendship Wiggle” game and the term “friendly touches” to model how to treat others gently. The teacher then uses visuals to teach friendship skills. The included books and songs are child-friendly and playful. The materials contain some guidance for teacher modeling of the activities. In every unit throughout the materials, songs and chants involve playful movements that encourage students to be actively engaged; students sing and move as they work on different content. The activities reinforce that movement is good for the body and that singing can be used to calm down when sad or frustrated. With “One, Two Buckle My Shoe,” students focus on rhyming and counting while also incorporating purposeful body movements. The materials provide lessons integrated with other content material that helps students develop safe and healthy habits, for example, a small group lesson titled “Don't Waste That Water” incorporates teaching the steps for brushing teeth. In another example, in the small group lesson titled “Flour Power,” teachers talk with children about the importance of washing hands before handling food, and all children have a chance to practice washing their hands at the beginning of the activity. The materials recommend students practice healthy habits by brushing their teeth. The teacher instructs students to brush their teeth twice to encourage and reflect on healthy habits. The materials do not give teacher guidance on how to model teeth-brushing. 

In a Unit 3 lesson, students create a healthy snack with the teacher while learning sequencing. The teacher introduces the role of recipes and how all people need food to be healthy. The teacher models how to make the snack “Ants on a Log,” and then lets students make it themselves. As an extension, students create their own how-to book or recipe for another snack in a learning center. This lesson also gives students the opportunity to wash their hands. The materials do not provide teacher guidance on modeling hand-washing as a healthy habit for students to see; the teacher is instructed to reference hand-washing and how eating vegetables and fruit can help you stay healthy. The materials provide some opportunities for students to practice and reflect on safe and healthy habits and positive mental health in appropriate ways. The teacher reviews the “Tucker the Turtle” puppet while music plays in an activity about calming and self-regulation; students learn about the importance of taking care of mental health and that music can help calm us down. The materials guide the teacher to place Tucker the Turtle in a special “calm-down place” in the classroom, where students can use it, the strategies learned, and books to calm down when needed. The materials do not provide support for teachers to learn about the importance of planning and encouraging physical activity. The materials do not provide recommendations for teachers on how to address unsafe or unhealthy habits in a positive and supportive way. 

In Unit 5, the theme is healthy foods, such as vegetables and fruits, and how eating them can help us stay healthy. To support healthy food choices, the teacher reads aloud Growing Vegetable Soup. The materials recommend setting up a “farmer’s market” in the “Dramatic Play” center; students can learn to identify various types of fruits and vegetables. To promote healthy food choices, the teacher can also help students create a chart of plant-based foods they like to eat. The teacher uses an alphabet information book to teach the class about types of fruits and vegetables; in an extension, students can then make their own alphabet book in the writing center, including fruits and vegetables that begin with either the letters of their name or a letter of the alphabet. The teacher talks about the importance of washing hands before handling food. The materials do not provide teacher guidance for modeling healthy habits for students.

Evaluation for 4.1
Materials provide guidance on developing students’ listening skills.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide teachers guidance on modeling active listening for understanding. In Unit 1 in particular, teachers are guided to model active listening, to remind children to listen for understanding, and to comment positively when children demonstrate active listening. For example, the lesson guides the teacher “...Les podría explicar que,...para ser respetuosos, deben escuchar con sus oídos atentos y observar lo que usted enseña…” and prompts teachers to show the classroom expectations poster to visually support active listening. The teacher is directed to, “Ayude a los niños a entender que ser respetuoso significa tener el oído atento, no perder de vista nada...Durante la lección, comente positivamente cuando los niños cumplan sus expectativas.” Another example in Unit 1 is, “Explique a los niños que pueden estar seguros si mantienen su cuerpo tranquilo y que pueden ser respetuosos si escuchan y siguen las instrucciones.” The Think-Pair-Share strategy outlined in the Teacher Handbook, is introduced in Unit 1 and then used throughout the units. The teacher explicitly describes and models active listening as part of the sharing ideas activity, while showing children each step on the accompanying visual chart. 

The materials provide opportunities for the teacher to model conversations in a variety of classroom settings. Unit 1 provides teacher guidance on how to model conversations connected to play behaviors with a variety of theme-based learning centers organized to practice language. In the construction center “Zona de construcción,” students have the opportunity to construct roads, buildings, towers, etc. The teacher models conversation by saying, “Voy a construir una carretera con bloques desde la pared hasta el estante. ¿Podrán ayudarme a terminarla para que mi auto pueda regresar a la pared?” This activity allows students to interact with one another and listen actively to share ideas and problem-solve through conversations. Materials provide opportunities for students to hear conversations that follow conversation norms. In Unit 2, an activity provides children with an opportunity to think, pair, share about potential solutions, and teachers are guided to, “Observe que niños pueden entablar conversaciones de forma adecuada.” As children participate in the activity, teachers are prompted to observe and take note on the formative assessment: “Todos los niños aportan a la conversación grupal? Si no es así, hable con los niños de forma individual sobre lo que observan para asegurarse de que pueden describir sus observaciones oralmente.” In addition, the curriculum explicitly teaches multiple friendship skills, part of which involves modeling and teaching sentences children can use in various social situations. The Think-Pair-Share strategy introduced in Unit 1 and used frequently throughout all 6 units, explicitly teaches and provides ample practice opportunities for children to develop conversation skills. The first Thinking Process included in the curriculum, Communicating and Representing, also emphasizes learning to communicate verbally with others. 

As evidenced in Unit 1, materials support and scaffold daily opportunities for students to listen for understanding. In this lesson, teachers are guided to “Pídales a los niños que escuchen lo que Otto está aprendiendo en la escuela,” and to ask children to vote using a thumbs-up/thumbs-down gesture, which allows a comprehension check (“Tome nota de quiénes entendieron el procedimiento de votar con el pulgar y quiénes podrían necesitar ayuda adicional.”). Also in Unit 1, there is a checkpoint for understanding of geometric shape vocabulary. A similar checkpoint occurs again in Unit 2. Unit 2 “Read the Text” guides teachers to “Deténgase a comprobar que entiendan el vocabulario difícil y explíquelo si es necesario.” Another read-aloud activity in Unit 2 prompts teachers, “Pídales que escuchen con atención para identificar las maneras en que las ardillas interactúan con su entorno. Anímalos a que levanten el pulgar cuando escuchen que se menciona una forma.” In Unit 2, the teacher provides students pictures of recyclable materials (glass, metal, paper) and asks them to look in books about recycling to find similar materials. The teacher engages students in conversations to determine if materials can be recycled or not and provides scaffolding support by saying, “Si un niño tiene dificultades para encontrar materiales reciclables en un libro, exploren el libro juntos y señale los materiales en las fotografías. Conversen sobre si estos materiales se pueden reciclar o no.” The students continue to listen to the questions and respond to the teacher accordingly. The materials also provide opportunities for students to hear sounds, appropriate sentence structure, and grammar. In Unit 2, the book Is Your Mama a Llama by Deborah Guarino incorporates repeated text structures to help students hear patterns in the texts. In this book, the children can repeat the question “Is your mama a llama?” every time a new animal is shown. Later in Unit 3, students are given repeated opportunities to hear language in a relevant context through a whole group lesson about triangles and their characteristics. Students listen carefully as the teacher describes the shape using the vocabulary “vertíce y esquinas.” The teacher says, “Digan el nombre de esta forma. ¿Es esto un triángulo? ¿Y cómo lo saben?” This gives the students an opportunity to hear appropriate sentence structure and grammar.

In Unit 5, “Cultivando nuestro jardín,” the materials provide the teacher with recommendations for using visual support to promote active listening and develop critical thinking skills. In the activity “Resolver el problema de la pizza,” students listen actively to the read-aloud of The Little Red Hen in English; however, the students interact with the teacher in Spanish. After reading, the teacher challenges the students by letting them know he/she has a problem and he/she needs their help to make the pizza. The teacher models how to have conversations, and students cooperate and find solutions to create the pizza together.

Materials provide teachers opportunities to model, and children have opportunities to hear sounds, appropriate sentence structure, and grammar in various contexts. For example, when each alphabet letter is introduced in a “Fast Focus” lesson, much emphasis is placed on teaching the letter sound, along with the letter name. Every Welcome and Read-Aloud lesson provides multiple opportunities for children to hear varied sentence structures and the use of many grammar features of language. Unit 2 directs the teacher, “Demuestre cómo hacer una pregunta y buscar información” and Unit 4 guides the teacher, “Demuestre esto dando su opinión sobre el libro y proporcionando ejemplos con oraciones más largas y complejas que combinen más de una idea.” Prompts in read-aloud activities throughout the units encourage the teacher to initiate conversations with children on book content and monitor each child’s growing comprehension and expression skills.

Evaluation for 4.2
Materials provide guidance on developing students’ speaking skills.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide opportunities for students to practice sentence structure and grammar across a variety of contexts through four types of daily lessons: “Bienvenida y lectura en voz alta,” “Conexión,” “Grupo pequeño,” and “Repaso rápido.” The materials include these lessons in all six thematic units, providing equitable opportunities for children to develop speaking skills in both whole group and small group. The read-alouds incorporate questioning and provide students the opportunity to practice critical thinking and expressive language. 

Materials provide teacher guidance on corrective feedback of students’ speech production, sentence structure, and grammar. For example, teachers are frequently reminded to observe children’s speech and language usage and to provide individual support when needed. For example, a read-aloud lesson guides the teacher to “Observe si los niños usan correctamente frases de cuatro o más palabras. Use sus observaciones mientras continúa el proceso de aprendizaje a lo largo del día y de la semana” (Unit 1, p. 138, paragraph 2). Also in Unit 1, teachers are guided to observe, model, support, and help children apply new language skills throughout the day. Similar explicit instructions on giving corrective feedback and support are provided. Additional examples of prompting teachers to observe, correct, and support children’s developing language abilities are seen in Unit 2, Unit 4, and Unit 5. Children also have opportunities to record themselves retelling stories, which they place in the Listening Center for peers to enjoy. These recordings offer the opportunity for self-correction, along with peer and teacher feedback. The materials do acknowledge that some students will have different verbal abilities. The small group lessons include differentiated instruction for struggling students in the “Más apoyo” section. Unit 2 mentions: “Algunos niños tendrán más facilidad para describir sus observaciones de manera verbal, mientras que otros mostrarán lo que saben por medio de dibujos más que de palabras.” It acknowledges that some students will be more comfortable describing their observations verbally and others through pictures. The materials provide this type of “teacher tip” throughout all units. Though the materials provide teachers with ideas on how to scaffold for struggling learners, they do not give explicit verbal feedback the teacher can provide to adjust and address student errors to support developing speaking skills. 

In Unit 4, the teacher reads the book Prehistoric Actual Size in English (while student interactions are in Spanish) and invites students to draw the real size of the objects during their time in the art center. After students draw, the teacher encourages students to have conversations to compare the size of the current living creatures versus the ones in the past. Materials suggest the teacher ask “¿cuántos ciempiés de la actualidad caben dentro de los prehistóricos?” The questions give students an opportunity to practice sentence structure and grammar in their conversations. 

The materials provide support and guidance for students to work collaboratively, engaging in discussions using conversation norms. In Unit 5, during the whole group lesson, students act out two different roles: “el actor que está triste, dolido o enojado” and the person who “intenta ayudarlo a que se sienta mejor.” Students are to pick scenes from the read-aloud book Friends by Mies van Hout (while student interactions are in Spanish) and help one another feel better the same way the characters in the book did. Students reenact the story and have authentic conversations around how to help their friends. The teacher can then observe if students use their voice to express their feelings and emotions accurately. Later in the unit, during a small group science lesson about the life cycle of a radish, students draw and write observations in their science journals about radish seeds. The materials guide the teacher to engage students in conversation using past tense verbs about what they may observe, such as “Tal vez vean que las semillas sacaron raíces o que crecieron.” After the students finish drawing their observations, the materials have the teacher model conversational norms by listening to the students while they are sharing their observations they wrote in their science journals. The materials provide opportunities like this throughout all six units and provide teachers guidance for developing students’ speaking skills.

Evaluation for 4.3
Materials support expanding student vocabulary.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

In Unit 3, the materials include examples for defining new words during a read-aloud of Albert's Alphabet by Leslie Tryon (the book is read in English while student interactions are in Spanish). The teacher is guided to use both new geometric and ordinal vocabulary words such as a straight line, curve, vertical, horizontal, slanted, first, second, third, and fourth throughout the read-aloud to explain their definitions. The materials state: “Por ejemplo, para hacer la primera letra, la ‘A’ de Albert, Albert necesita en primer lugar hacer dos líneas rectas del mismo largo. Saca de la caja dos piezas largas y rectas de madera.” The materials introduce new vocabulary words with visual supports during read-alouds and incorporate the use of real objects as students build their own letters. 

In Unit 4, in the read-aloud of My Friend is Sad by Mo Willems (the book is read in English while student interactions are in Spanish), the lesson provides the teacher meaningful ways for children to interact with and use new vocabulary words, such as happy, sad, lonely, and angry, in context and thematic relevance. The materials provide students an opportunity to learn through experiences by instructing the teacher to ask questions such as “Pregunte a los niños si alguna vez se sintieron tristes. ¿Alguien los animó? ¿Cómo?” Throughout all six units, there is continued evidence of how the materials support expanding student vocabulary by following a progression of vocabulary development that is age and sequentially appropriate.

Through the use of thematic units, the materials provide strategic support for vocabulary development that is integrated and authentically embedded into the content-based learning. In Unit 2, the theme is “Nuestro entorno,” and vocabulary is connected to the theme through a project where students create a coral reef throughout the unit. The strategies are varied across activities for the whole group, small group, and in centers by providing repeated opportunities for students to hear and practice language within a relevant context. For example, students listen to a bilingual book, Let’s Visit a Coral Reef Interior, to hear and listen to vocabulary words, such as “environment-ambiente, clownfish-pez payaso, large-largo, patterns-patrones, etc.” Students have the opportunity to interact with new vocabulary as they create invitations in small groups and centers for their families to come visit the coral reef habitat they created in the classroom.

There was some evidence found in the materials of guidance for the teacher to access one language to build vocabulary in the other language. The materials provide some guidance on the use of cognates or translanguaging found in the Teacher’s Manual but not during the lessons. For example, the Teacher's Manual p. 46, states, “Los docentes de ELD utilizan la lengua nativa en gran parte de la instrucción y la conversación. Separan intencionalmente los idiomas para la instrucción, pero son flexibles para alentar a los niños a hablar usando todos sus recursos lingüísticos, como el translenguaje (Garcia, 2017). En el translenguaje, los ELD utilizan su repertorio lingüístico unificado para crear significado y comunicarse. Los ELD también pueden usar la conmutación de códigos, en la que los niños cambian de un idioma a otro. Estos intrincado sistemas brindan a los niños la oportunidad de utilizar un enfoque multimodal de la comunicación, algo de gran importancia en un entorno lingüístico rico en la primera infancia.” As stated above, the materials do provide support for expanding student’s vocabulary in both English and Spanish, but they do not use cross-linguistic strategies to achieve that goal. Instead, students hear the vocabulary words in English alongside Spanish without any mention of cognates, language transfer, or cross-linguistic connections.

Evaluation for 4.4
Materials include appropriate strategies for supporting students’ biliteracy development.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

In Unit 1, the materials provide limited strategies to support proficiency in Spanish and English, such as repetition. For example, during “Repaso rápido,” “Cinco pequeños sentidos” activity, the teacher reads the poem “Cinco pequeños sentidos” in both English and Spanish to teach students about the five senses. The teacher reads the poem once, then invites the children to repeat it in Spanish; then, the lesson includes an English extension by having the poem available in English to read at a later time. The materials include a callout “ESL” box that suggests using Total Physical Response (TPR), a language acquisition strategy, as children use their fingers to point to their eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and hand and connect each body part to a sense. The repetitive phrases in the poem support listening, speaking, and learning new words in both languages. 

In Unit 3, there is some evidence that the materials provide opportunities for students to make cross-linguistic connections in a whole group math lesson about two-dimensional shapes. For example, the teacher introduces suffixes to help students define the word triangle in Spanish. The resource states “...diga a los niños, ‘El tri de triángulo significa ‘tres’ (como en triciclo, trillizos y trípode), y hay tres ángulos.’ Los ángulos son dos lados que se unen en un punto: el vértice.” In English, the students are taught a poem to help them acquire the word triangle. Later in small groups, students walk around the room, and when the teacher calls out “triangle,” they find a triangle and stand by it. The teacher checks for understanding by asking, “¿Cómo saben que se están parando sobre la forma correcta?” and encourages students by saying, “Muy bien: los triángulos tienen tres lados rectos y tres ángulos.” Although the materials do not provide explicit instruction or make connections to cognates, students are given opportunities to make cross-linguistic connections across whole group lessons, small group lessons, and center activities.

The materials use English text during Spanish instruction. Students engage in discussions about the vocabulary and use them in conversations with the teacher and peers. In Unit 4, after read-aloud “Bienvenida y lectura en voz alta,” the teacher focuses on the vocabulary words collect, collection, collector, and museum from the book Hannah’s Collections. The teacher uses the English vocabulary and then uses the Spanish vocabulary to talk about things she/he collects. Then the teacher asks students questions about their collections: “¿Qué tipo de objetos colecciona? ¿Qué características comparten los objetos? ¿Cuándo comenzó su colección? ¿Por qué colecciona ese tipo de cosas en particular? ¿Qué la hace feliz al respecto?” However, the materials do not bring to attention that the vocabulary words are cognates. The materials include lessons like the example above throughout all units and lessons to support students in developing their English and Spanish language proficiency.

Evaluation for 5.1
Materials provide opportunities for students to develop oral language skills, including through authentic text conversations.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include opportunities for children to listen actively to a variety of texts. Students are engaged in daily conversations through the read-alouds. Teachers provide a myriad of opportunities to increase their listening and speaking skills during discussions, and students are challenged to use their higher-order thinking skills through provocative open-ended questions before, during, and after the read-aloud. The materials contain lessons that provide regular and varied opportunities for children to build oral language through authentic discussions related to texts read aloud. The materials contain lessons that include opportunities for children to share information and ideas about texts. The lessons include think-alouds that support the teacher in encouraging children to engage in open-ended discussions related to information in texts.

In Unit 1, teachers are guided to encourage children to respond, ask questions, and make connections during the read-aloud. For example, guidance for teachers states: “¿Qué colores y formas ven hoy en la sala de clases?” “Hagamos música. ¿Podemos cantar y tamborilear con las manos en forma tranquila?” “¿Qué alimentos les gusta oler?” “El libro dice que la arena es áspera. ¿Qué otra cosa que tocan es áspera?” “¿A qué saben las paletas heladas?” The materials also encourage teachers to ask open-ended questions to help students actively participate during read-alouds and facilitate authentic conversations. Questions such as “El libro dice que la arena es áspera. ¿Qué otra cosa que tocan es áspera?” allow students to make connections to new vocabulary words. Questions are also connected to science, as the teacher encourages students to think about how they use their senses during the read-aloud, “¿Qué sentido usaron para escuchar las palabras que yo decía?” “¿Qué parte de su cuerpo usaron para ver las fotografías del libro?” Guidance continues as students are asked to think about their senses and make connections to different classroom objects. Through open-ended questions and connections to their environment, students are able to engage in conversation and discussion around the topic of study. 

The materials provide lesson tips for the teacher to expand upon children’s conversations related to texts. For example, each lesson provides a box called “Notas,” which includes tips, definitions, or explanations that will help teachers implement the lesson and expand on the themes or topics of interest. For example, in Unit 4, Semana 2, Day 3, during the read-aloud Rex Wrecks It! by Ben Clanton, the teacher provides opportunities for students to have conversations by expressing how Rex was feeling and why he was experiencing these feelings. The guidance provides information about feelings and provides a sentence stem to engage students in conversation: “Esta lección se centra en las emociones. Aunque puede hacer que los niños narren una trama, también puede rotular las ilustraciones de manera más simple basándose en las emociones: “Parece estar... porque….” Students discuss if the story is fiction or nonfiction (real o imaginario) and give examples from the story of why they think it is real or imaginary. Students engage in conversations and practice their vocabulary as they express their opinions. These suggestions allow students to use oral skills and express their feelings in complete sentences through the sentence stems provided. 

The materials include opportunities to demonstrate appropriate reading behaviors, including listening and engaging in discussions related to texts read aloud. They also include book introductions and questions for during and after the reading that help the readers connect with the main topics of the story. For example, in Unit 5, week 1, “Cultivando nuestro jardín,” the teacher shows the front cover and introduces the book that they will read. The materials guide the teacher to review concepts of print and engage students in discussion: “Pregunte si alguien sabe lo que significa la palabra comunidad. Explique que, en el libro, una comunidad es como un vecindario.” After the read-aloud the teacher discusses planting as the central concept of the book: “Hable con los niños sobre cómo se siembran las semillas y hágales ver que Zinnia lo hace con cuidado y delicadeza. Haga preguntas como la siguiente: ‘¿Por qué creen que tiene tanto cuidado cuando siembra semillas en su huerta?’ Pregúnteles por qué Zinnia arranca las malas hierbas de su huerta. ¿Qué diferencia existe entre las malas hierbas y las plantas de Zinnia?” 

In Unit 6, week 1, day 5, during the read-aloud of the fiction book Kindergarten Rocks!, the materials provide opportunities for engaging students with questions that activate their prior knowledge. The resource states: “Pida a los niños que reflexionen sobre lo que saben del jardín de niños. Por ejemplo, ¿qué es el jardín de niños? ¿A qué se parece? Dígales lo que es el jardín de niños si no lo tienen claro. Explique que este libro es sobre Dexter y su perro, Rufus, que van al jardín de niños. La hermana de Dexter, Jessie, trata de enseñarle cómo será el jardín de niños. Explique que los niños irán identificando las emociones que Dexter y Rufus sienten en torno al jardín de niños y luego hablarán sobre algunas de las emociones que ellos podrían sentir por ir al jardín de niños.” During the read-aloud, students listen actively and respond to the text as they make the connection with the character and the situation. After the story, the teacher challenges students to think about their feelings about going to kindergarten and what they need to do to deal with their emotions. The book invites students to listen actively and challenges them to engage in a discussion that is related to them and how they feel as they are about to move to kindergarten.

Evaluation for 5.2
Materials provide direct (explicit) instruction and opportunities for student practice in phonological awareness skills.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials take into consideration the specific characteristics of Spanish phonics (syllabication) and their implications when teaching phonological awareness. In Unit 2, “Repaso rápido, Pulsos silabicos Week 4, Day 1,” students have the opportunity to play a game by breaking the words into syllables while they clap. Later in Unit 2, Week 4, Day 1, “Repaso rápido, Marcar el compás de los nombres ¡Acción!,” the teacher reminds students how words are composed of syllables. The teacher and students interact in a movement-based game in which the teacher takes a student's name out of a bag, reads the name, and breaks it into syllables while the students clap. The teacher says, “Elija una tarjeta con un nombre y repítalo lentamente: Mi-guel. Mi-guel. En grupo, aplaudan para marcar las sílabas de la palabra: Mi-guel. Mi-guel.” These lessons provide examples of how students play games, which integrates movement to assist the students with phonological awareness skills. 

The materials include a variety of types of activities that engage students in identifying, synthesizing, and analyzing sounds/syllables. In Unit 3, Week 2, Day 1, during “Repaso rápido, Desarmando palabras ¡Acción!,” the teacher reminds students about a game they played with words the week before. The teacher begins by saying a large word (two syllables) that is made up of smaller parts, and then removes a part (syllable) from the word. Students listen and say what small part is left. The teacher uses the same technique with three-syllable words and takes the first and last syllables from the word to make sure students understand words are large units of sound composed of smaller units. The script says, “Mi palabra grande es árbol. Digan árbol. Ahora, si le quito el ár a árbol, ¿qué parte más pequeña queda? -bol.” Students have the opportunity to practice syllable deletion with familiar words. 

In Unit 5, the “Repaso rápido, Únelos ¡Acción!” lesson, the teacher explains to students that they will be blending sounds to create words. The teacher prompts students to listen and pay close attention to the sounds. The teacher models, “Enséñeles el proceso haciendo los sonidos /s/ e /i/. Pronuncie los dos sonidos una vez más y explícales que, al combinarlos, se forma la palabra sí.” The materials include suggestions on what sounds to use and how working with these sounds will support students: “Notas: Tal vez les resulte más fácil a los niños empezar con sonidos que se puedan alargar, como la /m/ en me y la /s/ en sí. Cuando use sonidos que no se puedan alargar, como /p/, trate de hacer ‘uh’ lo menos posible al final del sonido. Esto hará que les resulte más fácil combinar los sonidos. Prepare objetos o fotos de algunas de las palabras de las listas para ayudar a los niños a identificar la palabra que está diciendo.” 

The lessons in the material do not distinguish between onset and rhyme and syllabication. They include a lesson that blends both concepts, mirroring them to make them equivalent, when in reality they are not; this makes it confusing for students in their future grade levels. 

Research-based guidance on how the developmental continuum was created is not available. Resource does not state research about Spanish phonics or phonological awareness development.

Evaluation for 5.3
Materials provide direct (explicit) instruction and opportunities for student practice in alphabetic knowledge skills.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The materials state that all alphabet letters are taught; however, it is not expected that students learn them all. The materials reference research and state that: “One study suggests that the optimal goal is eighteen letter names uppercase and fifteen lowercase letters by the end of preschool (Piasta, Petscher, and Justice, 2012). The specific letter names each child learns will vary, depending on the child's name and other factors.”

The materials include a list of the order in which letter names / letter sounds are introduced for the English language in the Formative Assessment resource. The materials do not embed or include a separate list addressing Spanish alphabetic knowledge such as ch, rr, or ñ, although ñ is taught in Unit 3. Within the materials, each letter is formally introduced in a “Fast Focus” lesson to provide children an opportunity to learn its name, the sound it makes, how to write it, and to identify words that start with that letter. The “Manual del maestro” specifies that each letter of the alphabet is introduced throughout the six units but does not provide any specific sequence on when to introduce each letter of the alphabet. The manual specifically indicates avoiding letter-of-the-week thinking. All lessons that introduce alphabet letters include both upper- and lower-case letters and have children practice reading and writing both forms. The materials encourage teachers to introduce the Spanish alphabetic knowledge through the “Repaso rápido” and take advantage of every single teachable moment to introduce the sounds and letters of the alphabet through the science, literacy, math, and social-emotional lessons. Letters previously introduced spiral throughout the units, providing more opportunities for students to learn the name and sound. Spiraling increases prior knowledge, boosts retention, and is effective with all learners. It spreads learning out over time, which leads to long-term mastery of skills and concepts. 

In Unit 1, Week 1, Day 1, in the “Repaso Rapido, Mirando Letras ¡Acción!” lesson, the teacher introduces the alphabet to students. The teacher shows the students the letters “A y B” and tells them that they are the first letters of the alphabet. The teacher asks students to name which other letters they know. Then the teacher asks students about other letters: “¿Reconoces esta letra? Esta es la letra Mm. Tiene el sonido /m/.” The teacher guides students in singing the alphabet song while pointing to the letter cards. 

In Unit 2, Week 5, Day 1, in “La letra B ¡Acción!,” the teacher introduces the letter “B” by using the puppet “Lila Letras.” The teacher shows the photos of the initial sound cards with the letter “B.” Then, the teacher models for the students the sound of the letter “B” by saying some words with the beginning sound “B.” The teacher asks if there are any student names that start with the letter sound “B.” The script says: “Esta es la letra B. Hace el sonido que escuchamos al comienzo de la palabra balón: /b/ /b/ balón, y de la palabra bolsa: /b/ /b/ bolsa.” If a student’s name starts with B, the teacher then asks, “¿Conocen el nombre de alguien en esta sala que empiece con B como /b/ /b/ balón y /b/ /b/ bolsa?” The teacher emphasizes the initial sound as the name is repeated: “¡Excelente observación! El nombre de Broderick empieza con la letra B. /b/ –roderick. Broderick.” The teacher then asks students to say other names that start with the /b/ sound. This lesson helps students apply the unknown sound with familiar words and make a connection. 

In Unit 4, week 1, day 4, “Repaso Rapido, Comparar la Ii y la Jj ¡Acción!” has students compare the letters Ii and Jj using the provided sound cards. Before the lesson, the teacher gathers all sound cards that correspond with Ii and Jj. During the lesson, the students sort the cards based on their initial sounds. The lessons prompt teachers to have students observe the visual difference between the letters.

Evaluation for 5.4
Materials provide direct (explicit) instruction in print knowledge and concepts and opportunities for student practice.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

“Guía del maestro” states how the curriculum developed the read-aloud sections, “Bienvenida y lectura en voz alta,” in the daily lessons. During these lessons, the teacher has the opportunity to make connections to the text and review concepts of print before, during, and after the read-aloud. The lesson provides focus areas for each book, which are based on the concepts that will be covered and the day of the week. The materials develop print awareness skills, such as parts of the book, labels, environmental print, print directionality, and reading from top to bottom, to name a few. 

Materials provide opportunities for students to develop an understanding of the everyday functions of print in context to the students’ experience at school. Teachers can show everyday uses of print by setting up a print-rich environment. For example, the “Principal’s Manual, Organizing the C4L Classroom” section provides tips on how to place visuals throughout the classroom and label shelves with images to support students with locating and returning materials. For a print-rich environment, the materials recommend classroom schedules, classroom expectations, and center signs. The materials provide examples, such as children’s photos and names on their cubbies, and explain how teachers gradually need to increase visuals, encouraging the children to make their own signs for the classroom. The materials provide printed visual cards that are part of the Pre-K Kit. The kit contains alphabet letter cards, initial-sound cards, embedded alphabet cards, and alphabet charts. There are center signs, how-to texts, and other materials to encourage children to notice and begin to recognize environmental print and use certain types of text for specific purposes. 

Materials follow a developmentally appropriate continuum for the development of print awareness knowledge. For example, In Unit 1, “Bienvenida y lectura en voz alta,” the teacher introduces the book Goldilocks and the Three Bears and covers some concepts of print before the read-aloud. The teacher points to the front cover and reminds students that the book title is also the name of the book: “El título del libro es Goldilocks and the Three Bears (señale el título).” Then the teacher tells the students that the author is the person that writes the book: “El autor de este libro es Valeri Gorbachev (señale el nombre del autor).” The materials continue this concept of print of book introduction throughout the lessons. 

In Unit 3, “Bienvenida y lectura en voz alta,” the teacher introduces the book My Car and shows the progression of concepts of print. The teacher begins by showing students the book cover and asks students to make connections to cars: “¿Qué saben sobre ellos?” The teacher reads the title and points to the words. The teacher reads the name of the author and asks students to define what an author is. During the read-aloud, the teacher stops on the page with traffic signs and ask students where they have seen them before. The teacher then makes the connection to environmental print as having meaning without being able to read. 

Unit 5, “Bienvenida y lectura en voz alta,” the teacher introduces the book Growing Vegetable Soup and asks the students what they know about Lois Ehlert, the author of the book. Students' responses are based on what they observed on the cover page. The lesson provides explicit directions on how to provide print awareness throughout the lesson by pointing at the labels, “rótulos,” of the tools and explaining their function. The teacher calls attention to different punctuation in a sentence and its functions. The lesson states: “Cree conciencia de la palabra impresa señalando los rótulos de las herramientas del cuento. Explique cual es la función de los rótulos. Muestre un punto al final de una oración. Explique que los puntos nos indican que debemos hacer una pausa o detenernos por un momento.” This lesson is an example of how each unit provides materials with direct instruction in print awareness and connects print awareness to books/texts. Students have a myriad of opportunities to develop their readiness skills.

Evaluation for 5.5
Materials include a variety of text types and genres across contents that are high-quality and at an appropriate level of complexity.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Text selection in the material is at the appropriate level of complexity for students’ developmental level; it includes texts with visual supports, predictable storylines, repetitive text, and some characters that are memorable. For example, the text Our senses, Nuestros sentidos, uses highly predictable visual supports that match the text. For instance, the image on the page is of a girl smelling a pizza, and the text says, “Usamos nuestras narices para oler. Huelo a pizza. Huele a picante.” In “Unidad 2, Nuestro medio ambiente, Semana 2,” “Seguir aprendiendo,” the book Is your Mama a LLama? supports literacy development through the use of text that is interesting to students that includes the use of repetitive text and rhyming skills. The guidance also suggests using this book in centers and having students record a retelling of the story. 

The “Principal’s Handbook” explains the text selection process and which factors were considered, “including the quality of the writing and illustrations, children’s interests, the need to include a range of genres and text features across the set of texts, the content in particular units, and the vocabulary that should be introduced.” Teachers will be most successful with the curriculum when they read the books provided and look for opportunities to reread the books whenever possible through the use of shared, interactive, small group, and independent reading. The Principal’s Handbook emphasizes how texts were carefully selected to promote the development of vocabulary skills in all children and to help narrow vocabulary gaps. 

The materials include a variety of genres with characters that are easy to understand and remember in English but limited availability in Spanish. However, most of the read-aloud books available in the materials are only in English; 20 of the 120 read-alouds are available in Spanish. For example, in Unit 4, during the Spanish read-aloud section, the teacher reads Harold’s Fairy Tale by Crockett Johnson in English (the teacher-student interactions are in Spanish). The main character, “Harold,” is a child that students can connect with as he goes through the story drawing with his crayon. Student engagement with this story will greatly be affected by their English language proficiency skills, with no recommendations on how to differentiate for students who are in the early stages of language acquisition. 

The materials include songs throughout the daily lessons as a class welcome. During the daily welcome lesson, “Bienvenida y lectura en voz alta,” students sing along with the teacher as they welcome each other. During this welcome time, the materials guide the teacher to select one of the songs available in Appendix A: “Dé a todos la bienvenida cantando una de las canciones de bienvenida mencionadas en el apéndice A.” The materials have a limited variety of songs and nursery rhymes in Spanish.

Texts include limited culturally diverse texts, such as Abiyoyo by Pete Seeger, The Tortilla Factory by Gary Paulsen, Dream Something Big: the Story of Watts Towers by Dianna Hutts Aston, or Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Growing in the Bronx by Jonah Winter. All of these texts are in English with no Spanish translations. 

The majority of the texts provided are in English, and the lessons are to be conducted in Spanish with English read-alouds. The texts that are available in Spanish are direct translations that have some errors in them. In the book Somos capaces de resolver problemas, where the English text reads, “Julian is poking Quin and trying to tell a joke,” the Spanish translation says, “Julian está hincando a Quin e tratando de contar un chiste.” The mistakes include using “e” instead of “y” and using the word “hincando” instead of “clavando los dedos” or “picando,” which students understand better because most children associate the word “hincando” with kneeling rather than poking. 

Examples of fiction texts include but are not limited to: 

• Goldilocks and the Three Bears / Ricitos de Oro y los tres osos by Lindsay N. Giroux 
• Tucker the Turtle Takes Time to Tuck and Think / Tucker la tortuga toma un descanso para pensar by Rochelle Lentini
• Changes, Changes by Pat Hutchins
• Dinosaur Countdown by Nicholas Oldland
• Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino
• Otto Goes to School by Todd Parr
• Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh 
• My Friend Is Sad by Mo Willems
• Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin
• Abiyoyo by Pete Seeger
• The Tortilla Factory by Gary Paulsen

Examples of nonfiction texts include but are not limited to: 

• Nature Up Close / La naturaleza de cerca by Kari Cornell
• The Shape of Things by Dayle Ann Dodds
• All About Castles / Todo sobre los castillos by Nell K. Duke
• Classroom Up Close / El aula de cerca by Kari Cornell
• Munching and Crunching the ABCs by Nell K. Duke 
• Our Senses / Nuestros sentidos by Kari Cornell 
• El Abecedario de Animales by Cooper Duke
• Squirrels / Las ardillas by Lynne M. Watanabe
• Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert
• Dream Something Big: the Story of Watts Towers by Dianna Hutts Aston
• Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Growing in the Bronx by Jonah Winter

Examples of variety text types include but are not limited to: 

• “Bienvenidos” (song)
• “The More We Get Together” (song)
• “Happy Faces” (song)

The materials include use of how-to texts and multiple forms of purposeful environmental print throughout the classroom. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: In Unit 1, p. 18, the students help make and decorate center signs. They write the letters for the center name, decorate the letters and sign, take photographs of classmates, and illustrate how many classmates can be in the center at one time. The teachers encourage welcoming families to the classroom by labeling objects and centers in text with the students’ home language. This labeling provides environmental print in the classroom for students to see and interact with. In Unit 3, p. 13, the teacher puts environmental print in the Dramatic Play learning center. In the lesson, Albert’s Alphabet in Unit 3, pp. 28-29, the focus is on building letters using lines and curves with different materials. In Unit 3, p. 11, the teacher puts the materials and letter cards for students to use in the Construction Zone, which allows for purposeful environmental print throughout the classroom. In the Teacher’s Handbook, pp. 38 and 62-69, the material provides support for the teacher on the materials provided for environmental print. The kit contains alphabet letter cards, initial-sound cards, embedded alphabet cards, and alphabet charts. There are center signs, how-to texts, and other materials to encourage the students to notice and begin to recognize environmental print and use certain types of text for specific purposes.

Evaluation for 5.6
Materials use a variety of approaches to develop students’ comprehension of text read aloud.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide guidance to support teachers’ understanding of the various ways to support comprehension development through making predictions, inferring, asking and answering questions, comparing and contrasting information, and categorizing. Most of the texts used in the materials are in English, and the teacher interacts with students in Spanish after the English read-alouds, which can hinder student understanding. The materials provide teachers with guidance on connecting students’ home and school experiences through texts. In the Unit 1 read-aloud, “Bienvenida y lectura en voz alta,” of the book Otto goes to school, the teacher reads the book in English, and the students answer questions in Spanish about how they felt coming to school for the first time. The students make connections and compare their experience about coming to school for the first time with Otto’s (the dog) experiences. Throughout the read-alouds, students predict and infer about situations in the stories as they compare many situations with their real-life experiences. Later in the same unit, the teachers read the story Owl Babies; the teacher reads the book in English and then asks students in Spanish to compare the similarities and differences between the role of the baby owls and the role of their families. Teachers say, “Comente las semejanzas y diferencias entre la familia de los búhos y las familias de los niños.” 

In Unit 2, “Nuestro medio ambiente,” the materials provide examples of asking questions to support student comprehension development and help move from simple to more complex questions. During the read-aloud, “Bienvenida y lectura en voz alta,” of the book People and the Environment, the teacher reads the book in English, and then in Spanish, the teacher pauses and directs students to look at the illustrations to help answer simple questions. The materials guide teachers to stop and ask questions: “deténgase en la página 9 y pregúnteles a los niños qué alimentos están obteniendo de los animales las personas de la foto.” Students have the opportunity to observe the pictures and process the questions by using the illustrations in the story as a support for comprehension before they answer the questions. In another example, the teacher models for the students by saying, “Por ejemplo, vuelva a la página 4 y pregunte: “¿Qué sucede aquí? Veo plantas, una persona y la tierra. ¿Cómo se relacionan las plantas y el suelo?” Later in the unit, the questions become more complex as the students become more familiar with the plants, animals, and elements of the Earth. 

The materials provide few examples of support for the teacher in scaffolding the lessons for students at a variety of language proficiency levels. In the Unit 3 read-aloud, “Bienvenida y lectura en voz alta,” of Albert’s Alphabet, the teacher reads the book in English and then has students retell the story in Spanish. The materials guide the teacher to pay close attention to student responses: “Esté atenta a si los niños pueden volver a contar lo que está sucediendo a partir de las imágenes.” If students cannot retell the story, the teacher is to scaffold the activity by prompting and using sentence stems: “En el caso de que los niños necesiten más apoyo, use palabras secuenciales como pistas para volver a contar el cuento. Señale explícitamente el orden numérico de cada uno de los cuatro pasos, y use números si fuera necesario.” If the students need additional support, they are to repeat after the teacher: “También puede decir un paso y hacer que los niños repitan el paso después de usted para ayudarlos en el aprendizaje del vocabulario de volver a contar historias.” The materials also guide teachers to challenge students that can retell the story to think of another way they would build a letter: “A los niños que puedan volver a contar el cuento a partir de las imágenes, desafíelos a pensar en otras formas de hacer la misma letra. ¿Cómo la harían y qué usarían?”

In Unit 5, materials include recommendations for quality questions that will encourage children to make connections to the text. During a read-aloud of Zinnia’s Flower Garden, the teacher reads the book in English, and then the children learn about planting and gardening in Spanish. During the lesson, the teacher asks open-ended questions to elaborate on the theme and guides students to make connections with events in their own life. Questions include “¿Alguna vez vieron una huerta? ¿Qué cosas pueden encontrar en una huerta? ¿Crecerían zapatos en una huerta? ¿Por qué sí o por qué no? ¿Pueden crecer verduras en una huerta? ¿Por qué sí o por qué no?” The questions provide opportunities for students to relate their own experiences with the story as they expand their knowledge about planting and caring for a garden. Later In Unit 5, students learn about plants and the needs of plants by reading English books such as Bean’s Life Cycle, Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? and Plants We Eat and How They Grow. The materials include suggestions for classroom experiences that will help children make connections to planting seeds and seeing them grow in the classroom. In this Unit, during the read-aloud of the book Our Community Garden, the teacher reads the book in English and then explains that they are going to create a project at the end of the unit in Spanish. Students have the opportunity to invite their parents to come and see their garden. Students plant seeds and have the opportunity to record their observations in their science journals while the seeds grow. Lessons provide suggestions for experiences that help children connect to specific aspects of a story plot or information, such as planting seeds after reading a book about how plants grow.

Evaluation for 5.7
Materials include appropriate strategies for supporting English Learners (ELs) in their development of emergent reading skills.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials include few opportunities for supporting English Learners (ELs) in their development of emergent reading skills. In Unit 1, the students talk and sing “La canción del abecedario” as students use classmates’ names as examples for the beginning sounds. For example, when the teacher introduces the letter “D” in Spanish and English, the teacher provides the same examples (since “D” produces the same sound in both languages). Students have the opportunity to make cross-linguistic connections by listening to the sound of the letter “D” in names, such as “Dean, Dora y Demetri comienzan con ese sonido /d/.” Students practice the sounds with the rest of the names that are listed on a poster in the classroom. Later in the unit, students sing another song using the “Nuestro afiche de los nombres” during a rapid response, “Repaso rápido,” lesson to identify the beginning sound and the letter of the alphabet. These fun activities challenge children to be very attentive to capture the initial sounds of their names and start to associate those sounds with appropriate letters. In the same unit, the teacher introduces two science vocabulary words, “predict and observe,” which are cognates, and tells the students how these have the same meaning and sound similar in each language. The script says, “Refuerce el vocabulario de ciencia usando los términos predict y observe: "Vamos a predecir qué animal es éste. ¿Qué observan en la página?" Students use their linguistic background (in Spanish) to make the cross-linguistic connections when these two new words are introduced in the read-aloud. 

Materials provide some information directed at teachers to build knowledge of the characteristics of Spanish and English to support leveraging student’s linguistic knowledge in one language to the other; however, this is only found in the “Teacher’s Handbook” and not within the lessons. The materials guide the teacher to leverage the student’s knowledge of literacy in each language as an asset. In the Teacher’s Handbook, p. 46, see the following text: “DLL teachers use the home language for substantial amounts of instruction and conversation. They intentionally separate the languages for instruction but are flexible in encouraging children to speak by using all of their linguistic assets, such as translanguaging (García, 2017)...DLLs may also use code switching...These intricate systems provide children opportunities to use a multimodal approach to communication, something of great importance in a rich language environment in early childhood.” The materials lack references to items such as cognates, authentic cultural texts, rhymes, or any supplemental resources such as bilingual dictionaries to support children in their primary language. 

Evaluation for 6.1
Materials include a variety of experiences through which students can engage with writing.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

Throughout the units, the materials provide direct writing instruction in different forms throughout the school day. The teacher models and engages in writing with the students during whole and small group instruction. During learning center time, the students engage in writing opportunities to imitate adult writing and generate their own independent writing.

In Unit 1, the “Our Senses Poster” activity provides students with opportunities to engage in an imitation of adult writing, shared group writing, independent writing, and print with teacher support. The teacher models creating the poster by writing the words “Our Senses: Taste and Smell” on top of the poster board. As the teacher is writing and reading the title, the students repeat and read the title out loud, allowing for the connection of reading and writing. Then, in small groups, the students and teacher collaborate and create a shared “Our Senses Poster”; they draw and write their observations, allowing for the transfer to writing. Next, students take turns writing, drawing, and gluing different things they smell and taste; the teacher encourages the use of descriptive words such as sweet, sour, and salty. In the “Writing” center, the lesson is extended when students create their own posters showcasing the senses of taste and smell. The students use materials to label their own objects, which allows students to convey a message and make connections between reading and writing. In the lesson for Otto Goes to School, the teacher and students create a list of things that Otto learns at school. Students share their responses as the teacher scribes and models writing a list, allowing for a connection between reading and writing and connecting this to the things they do at school. 

In Unit 3, the small group lesson “Afraid Flap Pages” provides students with a variety of experiences to engage in writing. The teacher models how to write, using the sentence stem “When I am afraid, I can...” at the top of the page and working down to the bottom. The teacher draws a picture of a possible solution and then models writing the caption, allowing for direct instruction. The students create their own independent writing by completing the sentence stem with teacher assistance. The students create their pages using a non-breakable mirror and examples from the book; students thus have the opportunity to illustrate and draw with detail. The teacher encourages the students to write a caption for their drawing and then read their flap pages, which promotes the connection between reading and writing. 

In Unit 5, the “Garden Party” activity provides guidance that encourages a variety of experiences through writing. The students create a page for a garden party invitation. The teacher shows the students a program and explains that it provides guests with information about the event. The students create the program together, allowing for a shared group writing experience. The teacher helps the students come up with the text for the program by modeling: “Visit the Stone Soup Area.” The teacher encourages the students to think and draw pictures with details for their part of the program, allowing for the independent part of the writing. After drawing, the teacher encourages students to think about and take turns writing the letters in the words while others write the letters in the air, reinforcing the connection between reading and writing.

Evaluation for 6.2
Materials instruct students along the developmental stages of writing.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The material follows the developmental writing continuum by starting the school year with modeling and gradually incorporating more writing as the year progresses. The lessons guide the teacher to observe and assess the students for their own individual writing level. The checkpoint section of the lessons provides guidance to use assessments and observations as a reference for the different writing levels of students. The material then provides support for students that need it. The “Teacher’s Handbook” includes the “Scaffolded Writing Technique” chart to support differentiating writing, which supports the development of writing on the continuum. The handbook provides guidance to teachers in understanding the writing process. The material provides the teacher with scaffolding strategies used throughout the school year during small groups and referenced throughout the year in different lessons. Materials include guidance for teachers on how to include appropriate student contributions to writing and the writing process, as specified by the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. The materials include a “Writing” center, which is maintained over time with varied materials and tools, as described in the Teacher’s Handbook. This center is used through all lessons and provides a space to learn about, try out, and communicate through writing, drawing, and writing-related activities. Further in the handbook, the materials provide a chart and the Scaffolded Writing Technique, which supports the differentiation of skills in writing. 

In Unit 1, the writing activity follows along the developmental stages of writing. The students create “compliment chains,” with nudging and guidance from the teacher to help move the students in the stages of writing development. Students draw the name of a classmate out of a pile and write that classmate a compliment. In the blank provided, the student writes the name that they drew independently or by copying the student’s name if needed. The teacher asks the student to verbally say the next part of the compliment, such as, “I feel happy when Leila shares the blocks.” The teacher says the sentence or phrase that the student wants to say and has the student repeat it. The teacher breaks the phrase into individual words, matches the letters the student writes to their abilities, and incorporates the scaffolded writing technique; this allows the teacher to nudge the students along in their writing. The other students are encouraged to write letters with their fingers in the sand or in the air and draw their own faces on the back of the compliment chain. This activity follows along the developmental continuum on how students learn to write. 

In Unit 3, “Show What You Know,” follows the developmental continuum for writing; students write autobiographies on their own during center time. The teacher provides examples of students’ biographies for students to use as references. The students share important, interesting, and memorable parts of their lives. Students also share family activities or responsibilities. Materials follow the developmental continuum of how students learn writing by allowing them to create their own writing. In the small group lesson “Making a Ball and Scoop,” the students create a “How To” text. The teacher says a word, and the students write the first letter of the word that they hear. For students struggling, the teacher uses words that they know and alphabet cards to nudge them along the continuum for writing development.

In Unit 6, the “Class Video Yearbook” activity allows students to show how their writing skills have developed over the year. Students take pictures and write their names for the yearbook and then compare their names with those written at the beginning of the year. The teacher encourages writing for students at various levels of development by allowing them a chance to try it on their own or using a name card to help those that need it; this reinforces how students learn to write. The materials in the Teacher’s Handbook provide guidance to teachers in understanding the writing process. For example, the guidance defines writing as “communicating through print.” They further state: “Children generally progress from first ‘writing’ by drawing, then by scribbling that looks increasingly writing-like, then by making letter-like forms and random letter strings, then by invented or estimated spelling (for example, spelling bottle as BL and empty as MT) that increasingly approximates conventional spelling.”

Evaluation for 6.3
Materials support fine motor development alongside and through writing.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

In Unit 2, the “Solution Suitcase” activity provides opportunities for students to develop their fine motor skills; students create their own “solution suitcase” cards that provide strategies (solutions) for addressing conflicts in the classroom. Students cut out the cards, write their names on the cards, and then decorate them using scissors.

Different learning center activities provide differentiation for the development of fine motor skills. In the “Art” center, the “Environment Rubbings” activity encourages students to collect objects from their environments, such as leaves and bark. They press a sheet of paper against the object and rub the side of a crayon back and forth against it. In the “Construction” zone, students sort blocks based on different attributes, which strengthens their fine motor skills toward writing. In the “Writing in the Sand” activity, students write in the sand with their fingers or craft sticks. Another activity in the “Writing” center encourages students to use a pencil and paper to write invitations. These activities provide a variety of tools and surfaces for student writing experiences. 

In Unit 3, the students try the “Chopstick Challenge,” which helps develop and strengthen their fine motor skills toward writing. The students use a pair of wooden chopsticks to attempt to move different items from a bowl into an empty bowl. The teacher sets a timer for three minutes to challenge students to move beads quickly. The teacher then asks the students to count the beads and repeats the process with pom poms. The Art center includes the “Chalk and Water” painting activity; it recommends a variety of tools and surfaces for writing. Students receive chalk dipped in water and brushes and then write on the sidewalk pavement or on large construction paper, which helps to develop their fine motor skills. In the Construction center, students use coffee stirrers, playdough, and blocks to create letters. These activities support fine motor skill development alongside and through writing. 

In Unit 5, the activity Chopstick Challenge is extended to include the use of different materials for students to practice fine motor skills. The students explore the ways in which form and function interact to make the challenge easier or harder, using spoons, forks, and chopsticks. The students use these tools to freely explore picking up and moving sand, rice grains, clay balls, small beads, or other small objects. In the “Exploration Station” activity, students dissect bean pods and use tools to find seeds. In a Writing center activity, students create invitations to the class garden party using pencils, crayons, and markers. These activities support fine motor skill development alongside and through writing. 

Evaluation for 7.1
Materials follow a logical mathematical continuum of concrete, pictorial, then abstract representations.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

In Unit 1, the lesson uses concrete manipulatives to introduce students to rote counting and subitizing. During the “Connecting Time,” the students do a variation on counting how many students are present by counting feet instead of heads. The students face each other in a circle, with their feet pointing toward the middle, and the teacher says, “Today we are going to find out how many feet we have in this classroom!” The teacher guides the students to count the feet one by one. The students use a variety of manipulatives, such as counting bears, cubes, and blocks. The teacher passes out manipulatives, and the students engage in free exploration. The teacher engages the students and asks questions such as “How many cubes did you use to build your tower?” or “How many bears do you have in that little group? How do you know?” The teacher encourages the students to sort the manipulatives in various ways, such as by color and size. Students learn a game they will use throughout the year called “Moves to Count” that builds on conceptual understanding in counting. The students learn to count higher and higher numbers.

In Unit 2, materials include activities that establish a foundational understanding of math concepts. For example, the “Shape Match” game gives an opportunity for students to begin recognizing shapes by matching. The teacher shows the face (2D shape) of one block to the students, and they identify items in the classroom that are the same shape. Matching shapes and objects by some attributes is the foundational skill that leads to the development of the age-appropriate skill of naming common shapes. The students identify shapes using various items in the environment, including concrete representations. The teacher brings a variety of shapes of blocks from the “Construction” zone. The teacher encourages the students to describe, name, and discuss attributes of shapes and to match shapes, which facilitates learning geometry and spatial sense skills. 

In Unit 4, the materials include activities that demonstrate a progression to more advanced math skills. The teacher introduces rhombuses and trapezoids. Students name items in the room that look like rectangles, circles, squares, and triangles; the teacher then introduces the rhombuses and trapezoids. The teacher shows students the rhombus and tells them what it is called, explaining that it is similar to the square but includes angles that are not right angles. The teacher then introduces the trapezoid. This lesson includes math concepts that incorporate more abstract and formal math concepts. The materials provide a concrete shape collection representation that reinforces learning of geometry and spatial sense skills by students identifying the common shapes.

In Unit 6, the “Subitize” lesson facilitates learning by integrating concrete representations of math concepts. The game uses cubes; students must quickly recognize and name the sum of two small groups (conceptual subitizing). The teacher shows cubes in one hand and cubes in the other hand, but only for two seconds. The students try to identify how many cubes there are in all. The students “Think, Pair, Share” about the number of cubes and how they know the total. They use their fingers to identify the amounts. The teacher continues the lesson by counting and verifying amounts. The materials include one-inch colored cubes to build a conceptual understanding of basic counting readiness and counting using nonverbal and verbal means. This lesson teaches the skill of verbally identifying the number of objects without counting. During small groups, students play the “High Low Card” game with a partner. The teacher explains the game, saying, “We will be playing the high low card game using dot cards. We have played this game before, but this time we are adding the cards together.” The teacher explains that each player has two piles of cards. The teacher models how to play. Each student receives a set of dot cards, mixes the cards, and puts them into two piles in front of themselves. The teacher explains, “You will each flip over two cards at the same time. Look at your card and add the number of dots. Then compare your total to your partner’s total. If your number is higher, say, ‘I have the higher total’ and take your partner’s cards. If you each have the same total, turn over two more cards and compare totals to break the tie.” These activities build conceptual understanding in counting to support students.

Evaluation for 7.2
Materials promote instruction that builds on students’ informal knowledge about mathematics.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The material provides an assessment tool separated by content area. The math assessment tool covers all the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines for the “Math” domain, including shapes, counting, one-to-one correspondence, and sorting. The tool also references the lesson used to make the observation and assessment. The “Teacher’s Handbook” supports teachers with an understanding of the developmental sequence of skills in math, which is also aligned with guidance on the assessment of individual progress in all lessons across the curriculum. For example, “Math Trajectories” includes a chart with three columns: “Formative Assessment,” “Learning Trajectory Component,” and “What You Can Do.” It includes a section on how to use these. These assessment tools allow the teacher to gather and build on students’ informal knowledge about math and learn about their developmental status and mathematical knowledge.

In Unit 2, the teacher reads The Shape of Things. During the read-aloud, students look at the picture of the shape and then look to see if they can see the shape named in the text. On the pages about a square, the teacher models, “Right! We see a big yellow square that makes a nice house. Can you spot more squares in the picture?” The teacher describes a square, telling students that all sides of a square are the same length and that all four corners are right angles. After reading the book, the teacher asks students to think and identify other things made from the shapes and to draw the shapes in the air. The students find different shapes in the classroom, which supports the use of the classroom environment and materials as vehicles to explore math skills and concepts. In the small group lesson “Shape Match,” the teacher assesses the students’ mathematical knowledge by observing and taking notes on the formative assessment. The teacher documents and answers the following questions: “Are students able to name shapes?” “Able to match the same shapes?” “Able to connect shapes to the objects they know?” The teacher integrates the shape activity into centers, placing a limited number of matching shapes in the “Games and Puzzles” center for students to play Shape Match. The teacher uses the classroom environment during transitions, asking the students to play the “shape clean-up” game and look for specific shapes to put away; students then look for other shapes until all shapes are put away.

In Unit 4, the students play a construction activity game called “How High?” The teacher passes out one block to each student. The teacher places the first block and counts, “One.” Students come up one by one and add a block to the tower. Students count the blocks as each new block is added. After all the blocks are used, the teacher states the final number, for example, “We made a tower eighteen blocks high!” The teacher asks the students to move back and then knocks over the tower. Then, the students and teacher take a block from the fallen tower. The students create a circle with the blocks and count them, holding them up as they say the number. The teacher confirms that the same number of blocks was used to build the tower and the circle, even though the two forms are built differently. The teacher assesses the students’ counting skills by having them build different types of structures in the “Construction” zone. The “Dramatic Play” center is set up as the museum gift shop. The teacher puts a toy cash register and money in the center, which exposes students to mathematical artifacts. The students practice counting, adding, and one-to-one correspondence while playing in the center. This activity supports the use of the classroom environment, cross-curricular opportunities to authentically engage with math, and materials as vehicles to explore math concepts and skills.

In Unit 5, during the small group, the teacher shows the students a honeycomb photo and talks about the shapes bees use to create it. The teacher then shows the students the floor tiles and talks about the shapes used to create the pattern, demonstrating how to slide the tiles into place and showing that the shapes remain the same. The teacher invites the students to make a tiling with the squares lined up in rows and columns, similar to the floor tile. The teacher demonstrates that the shapes need to be close to each other with no spaces in between. The teacher shows the students the photos of the tilings again, and they copy them, using the pattern blocks to make their own tilings as big as they can. The teacher encourages the students to talk about their tilings to explain how they fit them together and whether they notice the shapes stay the same even when they slide them together. The teacher can use this activity to assess the students’ understanding of shape matching. Students engage in their classroom environment using the floor tiles. The use of shapes and pattern blocks extends to the Construction center, into which the teacher places the activity “Pattern-Block Picture Puzzle.” The students use pattern-block picture puzzles to make pictures with different shapes. The activity is extended: Students make their own garden picture puzzle by tracing it onto a picture. This extension supports cross-curricular opportunities to integrate mathematics throughout the day authentically. 

Evaluation for 7.3
Materials intentionally develop young children’s ability to problem solve.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

In Unit 2, the small group activity includes questioning to support the exploration of math concepts and direct exploration of students’ environment. During the “Outdoor Scavenger Hunt,” students look outside for items identified on a list; students actively observe the environment while comparing and classifying objects. The teacher asks, “Do you observe a squirrel?” or “Do you see a group of three rocks?” This activity allows the students to actively engage in the environment. 

In Unit 4, the materials include activities that encourage feedback and questioning. In the lesson “Conrad the Confused Chameleon Counts,” students engage in an activity that helps them explore mathematical concepts by counting. The teacher shows the numeral 12 card to Conrad and the students. The teacher asks, “What number is this? That’s right! This is the number twelve.” Conrad the Confused Chameleon counts out twelve cubes and begins counting out cubes but counts past twelve. The students look at the number card, and the teacher asks, “Do you think Conrad the Confused Chameleon is counting too far?” When the students recognize his confusion, they explain why it is wrong and kindly help him count out the cubes correctly. The teacher continues the process of showing a number card and having Conrad count out an incorrect number of cubes, making goof-ups in the following ways: skipping over cubes as he counts, counting the same cube more than once, or counting but repeatedly skipping the same number. The materials use cubes placed in the classroom to solve the problem and answer the questions. 

In Unit 5, the materials challenge children to use mathematical reasoning and problem solve in their environment to answer “How many more?” In the small group math lesson “Fruit for a Party: Fix the Number,” the students put the right number of pieces of fruit in the basket. The teacher says, “Originally, four people were coming to the party, so I needed four pieces of fruit. I have four pieces of fruit in the basket. But now, there are seven people coming, and I need seven pieces of fruit. What should we do to make sure there are seven pieces of fruit in the basket?” The teacher writes the numeral 7 on the chart paper. The students “Think, Pair, Share” their ideas; students share their thoughts, developing their capacity to ask thoughtful questions. The teacher creates a T-chart with the number 4 on the top of the chart. The teacher explains to the students that they are going to think of ways to create four. The teacher shows the students four objects and explains that there are going to be two groups. The teacher asks, “How many pieces of fruit do we have in all?” The students Think, Pair, Share to figure out the number of fruits. The teacher counts the number of fruits and explains, “We started with four and made two groups of two. Two pieces of fruit and two pieces of fruit make four pieces of fruit. We have four pieces of fruit again!” The teacher puts the number 2 on each side of the vertical line. The teacher then asks the students, “What other combinations of numbers could we add together to get four in all?” The students use the fruit to demonstrate their thinking; materials thus encourage problem-solving and develop mathematical reasoning using familiar objects.

Evaluation for 7.4
Materials build students’ number sense.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The “Teacher’s Handbook” provides guidance that describes the developmental progression of math skills. For example, Appendix B includes the “Math Trajectories” chart, which shows the progression of concepts, structures, and skill development in math learning. Each skill category and level corresponds to a specific small group lesson. This chart supports teachers in developing students’ conceptual understanding of math. The chart also outlines multiple small group lessons for the entire year that support the development of number sense.

In Unit 1, the materials provide opportunities to develop math skills throughout the day. Following the read-aloud Otto Goes to School, the teacher encourages the students to share about themselves; students vote with thumbs-up or thumbs-down. The teacher writes the data on a chart and counts the items. During “Circle Time” later in the day, the teacher invites students to participate in a counting activity, “How Many Are Here Today?” Students count as they pass the ball to each other; this can be used daily to take attendance. The materials provide multiple opportunities to practice number sense and one-to-one correspondence through variations of this game. For example, a variation of the game later in the unit considers two pieces of information or specific attributes. Instead of counting each other, the students count the number of children who show a specific attribute, such as wearing a particular color that day. 

In Unit 4, the materials incorporate math activities in daily routines; teachers count while transitioning to various areas throughout the day. For example, when the students leave the room for an activity, they count the steps to the door. Even if the students cannot count past ten, it is still fun for them to play along. In the learning center and small group activity “Math Magic,” students count by ones to ten then back from ten. Students work together to put the number cards in order from one to ten. After the cards are in order, the students count the cards to ensure they are in the correct order. Then, they count the cards backward from ten to one. The students play a card game called “Disappearing Numbers.” The teacher spreads the cards face up where the students can see them. The students work together to put the cards in the correct order. Then, students pair off to play a guessing game. One pair of partners goes first to demonstrate. One student covers his/her eyes; the other student removes one card from the number line, leaving a space where the card had been. When the student uncovers his/her eyes, the student studies the number line to name the number that has disappeared. The teacher then asks the group to give a thumbs-up if they agree with the answer or a thumbs-down if they disagree; students name the missing number; the teacher asks them how they knew. These activities help students develop number sense.

In Unit 6, materials support learning math throughout the day while incorporating a developmental progression of math skills. For example, in the “Exploration Station” center, in the activity “How We’ve Grown,” the students measure how tall they have grown since the first day of the year. Using the measurements taken at the beginning of the year, the students compare heights, measuring each student again and marking the height on the butcher paper next to the older measurement. Using rulers, the students measure how much each child has grown. The teacher measures the length between the first measurement and the newest one by placing the zero of the ruler at the first mark and measuring to the most recent mark. This lesson progresses from counting skills at the beginning of the year to comparing numbers and applying them to measurements at the end of the year. The game “Number Fingers” supports students’ understanding of various ways to compose numbers. The teacher encourages students to represent numbers and quantities in various ways by using their hands and describing how they created the total number. The teacher asks the students to show a total of five fingers. After the students hold up their fingers, the teacher discusses the various ways students decide how to show five fingers. The teacher asks, “Did anyone hold up one hand?” and “Did anyone hold up three fingers on one hand and two on the other?” The teacher asks the students to show five fingers again but in a different way than they did the first time. The teacher repeats the process up to ten. These activities build on students’ number sense by having students count and compare numbers.

Evaluation for 7.5
Materials develop students’ academic math vocabulary.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The “Teacher’s Handbook” supports teachers in understanding the different math developmental levels. Appendix B includes “Math Trajectories,” a chart that lists the math learning trajectories and aligns to the math lessons. These levels show the progression of concepts, structures, and skill development in math learning. The materials guide teachers in understanding how to adjust activities based on the students’ skill level; they include guidance for teachers on how to scaffold and support students’ development and use of academic math vocabulary throughout all units.

In Unit 1, the teacher introduces the center time activity, “How Many Are Here Today?” The activity is about numbers and how we use numbers every day to tell us how many of something we have. The students count to find out how many students are in the class that day. Each student stands up and is counted as students slowly pass the ball. The students echo count and repeat the number word. The last number word is repeated as the last child is counted, allowing students to hear repeated math vocabulary. During small group guided mathematics instruction, the teacher introduces the activity “Counting Time” and provides a variety of manipulatives, including cubes, blocks, and shapes. The teacher engages in conversations with the students about the materials by asking, “What are your three wheels doing? How many cubes did you use to build your tower? How many shapes do you have in that little group? How do you know?” The students answer the questions, allowing them to practice using math vocabulary; the teacher scaffolds the learning when necessary.

In Unit 3, the lesson “Make a Triangle” integrates a chant with the new math vocabulary (triangles, sides, angles, and corners). The students sing the chant and focus on the number of corners, angles, and sides that the triangle has. The teacher emphasizes that a triangle’s sides and angles can be different sizes, but what is most important is that its three sides are straight and connected to make a closed shape. The teacher asks the students to use their fingers to form triangles. The chant is an extension of the whole group lessons on triangles previously taught in the unit. The chant is used more than once in the unit for students to practice and internalize the meaning of the word triangles; students thus practice using math vocabulary. The students are reminded of a book they have read, Shape of Things, and that the book shows examples of how shapes are used to create things. The teacher invites students to look for shapes in the book, especially the rhombus. The teacher goes to the beginning page and asks students, “What shape do you see on this page?” If students have difficulty responding, the teacher scaffolds to try to elicit an answer. The teacher goes to the selected pages to review the shapes and asks questions such as “Why is that shape a good choice in that picture?” After reading the book, the teacher asks if they know another name for a rhombus (diamond). These lessons include opportunities to develop students’ academic math vocabulary by providing repeated opportunities to hear math vocabulary and use math vocabulary. There is scaffolding guidance for the teacher.

In Unit 6, the teacher introduces the “Pattern Dance.” The students practice math vocabulary words such as patterns, AB, ABB, ABC, and unit patterns. The teacher creates a movement pattern and demonstrates it to students. Then, music is played, and students replicate it while identifying the pattern, allowing for repeated opportunities to hear math vocabulary. The students play the Pattern Dance numerous times using different types of pattern combinations; this provides them with practice using math vocabulary. The students create their own patterns and have their classmates replicate and guess the pattern. During small group time, the students play a game involving measurement called “Paths to Kindergarten.” The teacher shows the students a toy character and a game board. The teacher asks, “How can we figure out which path is shorter using these tools?” The students are paired together and measure the shortest path to kindergarten using cubes and coffee stirrers in any way they can. During the game, the teacher asks prompting questions, such as “How many of these cubes are needed to measure this route?” or “How many coffee stirrers did you use to measure this route?” The teacher models mathematics vocabulary terms such as long, short, equal, same, and different; questions support student use of these new terms.

Evaluation for 8.1
Materials build science knowledge through inquiry-based instruction and exploration of the natural world.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

In Unit 1, in the small group activity “Smell and Tell,” the students use their sense of smell to identify the items contained in small canisters. Pictures of the items are provided as visual cues, including toothpaste, coffee, soap, and other items. This activity facilitates observation skills and inquiry using the sense of smell; students identify, think, and communicate their findings using scientific vocabulary such as observe, predict, and record. The teacher records their findings on a chart paper, which develops students’ ability to communicate ideas through hands-on experiences. Students explore different objects using magnifying glasses when the teacher reads the book Nature Up Close. The teacher asks students what a magnifying glass is and what it does. The teacher has several items for students to examine, such as shells and rocks, and describes one of the items using descriptive words to help students guess the item, such as “Does the shell look bumpy or smooth?” The teacher reminds students that a magnifying glass is like a mirror so that tiny things can be seen. Students draw the object seen with and without the magnifying glass, which allows them to explore using scientific tools.

In Unit 3, during small groups, students make predictions and investigate movement during the “Block and Roll” experiment, in which they explore ramps and stairs. The students participate in a discussion about all the ways that ramps make traveling up and down easier. The students also communicate their ideas by answering the following questions: “How do cars move up and down from a low place to a higher place? Can they move up and down stairs? How do ramps help people?” The teacher shows the students items that will or will not roll. Then, students work in partners with a set of items, a pencil, and a recording sheet. As students test each item, they put a checkmark in the appropriate box depending on whether the item rolls. Students take turns sliding the item down a ramp, and the teacher talks about the way different phenomena occur, such as how rectangular prisms slide rather than roll. After students have finished testing, the teacher leads groups to compare their results and predictions. This activity allows students to observe, make predictions, communicate ideas, use scientific tools, and explore the sciences through hands-on experiences. 

In Unit 5, the teacher reads aloud the book Plants We Eat and How They Grow. The teacher tells students that we eat certain parts of plants and the fruit of the tomato plant. The teacher describes how tomatoes grow and what they need to be healthy. The students communicate their ideas by answering the following questions: “What is planted in the soil to start a tomato plant? What would happen if there was not enough water for the tomato plants?” The students communicate their ideas by adding drawings of the stages of growing tomatoes in their science journals. During the small group activity “Seed-Sprouting and Planting Experiment,” students create bags of both dry and moist seeds to compare and make predictions about the growth of dry and moist seeds. Teachers ask, “What makes you think that the seeds will or will not sprout?” The teacher records the students’ predictions about sprouting on chart paper. Students observe, make growth comparisons, and record this in their journals. Materials include exploration with age-appropriate scientific tools and hands-on experiences. The students check on their plant experiments and make predictions about what they think they will observe when they look at the plants that are being grown in the dark and the plants that are being grown in the light. The students compare the plants grown in the dark and the plants grown in the light. The teacher asks the following questions: “Do radish seedlings need light to grow and be healthy? How do you know?” “What do you observe? Do the plants grown in the dark look the same as those grown in the light? Do bean seedlings need light to grow and be healthy? How do you know?” The students record their observations in their journals. These experiments allow students to build science knowledge through inquiry-based instruction and questioning of their environment. 

Evaluation for 8.2
Materials build social studies knowledge through study of culture and community.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The “Teacher’s Handbook” provides the teacher with general guidance on how to engage diverse families. For example, the guidance provides different approaches for building relationships and making connections with the home. For example, materials encourage students to make posters about their families to hang in the classroom; and encourage teachers to include books in the “Book Nook” that reflect students’ families and invite families to share with the class, which promotes community and culture. The handbook emphasizes the importance of reviewing and creating schedules. The teacher creates and hangs cards for each part of the day and puts the schedule at eye level in a place to which the students have easy access, so they can change it. The teachers review the schedule daily at “Welcome and Read Alouds.” They show the students how to read the schedule and refer back to it frequently, which allows students to learn about routines, events, and predictability. 

In Unit 1, in the small group lesson “Meet Our Class Book,” students develop a sense of self by creating their own individual page. The teacher creates pages for the students to fill in: “... is... years old. She/he likes to…. Her/his favorite thing to do at school is….” Students also create their self-portraits by looking at themselves in the mirror. The whole group lesson Owl Babies provides students the opportunity to observe and discuss similarities between the owl babies’ family and their own. The teacher talks with the students about the roles and responsibilities of family and emphasizes that families take care of each other. The teacher asks the students how their family members take care of each other, leads a discussion, and shares the similarities that they observe, which allows students to explore commonalities and differences in individuals. 

In the lesson “How Many Are Here Today?” the teacher makes a daily activity of counting how many students are present every morning and how many students were present yesterday. The students count how many students are present today and how many students were present yesterday. This activity provides opportunities for students to learn about routines and events, both past, present, and future. Students continue to learn about family customs and traditions in the “Dramatic Play” center. The teacher includes items that reflect the children’s home environments, such as recipes, newspapers, books, empty boxes of food—with original labels reflective of children’s home languages—and artwork. The teacher adds photos of the students’ families and discusses how their families are alike and different, including the following questions: “Who does the cooking? Who washes the laundry? What other jobs do their family members do? What jobs do the children do?” These activities allow students to actively engage and build social studies knowledge through community and culture. The materials do not fully develop full lessons on self and family throughout all units. 

In the Unit 3 project, students make two sets of toys (one for their classroom and one to give to another class or a center for homeless families or the like), and the Dramatic Play center becomes a toy store, exposing students to the different roles of consumers in their community and providing students an opportunity to use play money, create a toy catalog, and explore roles, including store manager, cashier, and customer.

In Unit 4, the students learn about different jobs and the work people do in constructing a building. In the “Meet the Experts—Construction Site” lesson, the teacher reviews information about constructing a castle and asks questions about the process: “What is needed to have water… to power the lights, etc.” The teacher asks students if they remember what kinds of things happen before someone starts to build a building. The teacher talks about a sequence of events required to build a building and about the different jobs, such as carpenters, plumbers, and electricians, that are needed to construct the building. The teacher introduces the idea of what a consumer is in the unit about museums. The Dramatic Play center is set up as a “Museum Gift Shop,” and the teacher models what the consumer does and what the shopkeeper does. The teacher reminds the students of the rules, saying, “When you are the shopper, you let the worker know how many cubes, dinosaurs, or other items you would like to purchase.” The students buy up to 15 items (or more if their counting ability is higher). The teacher then tells the shopkeeper that he or she will count out the number of items and put the items into the box. Each item costs one dollar. The teacher provides play money. Then, the students explore the roles; one student pretends to be the museum worker and the other the consumer. The students pretend to make a purchase, then reverse roles and repeat the activity. These lessons expose students to the different roles of consumers in their community. The materials do not focus on social studies knowledge of family and only reference some of the community workers. The materials provide opportunities for children to begin to understand important symbols and customs that represent American beliefs and principles and contribute to our national identity. The daily routine outlined in the materials provides students with a daily opportunity to observe and discuss the flag of the United States of America and the state flag, as well as the opportunity to observe a moment of silence and hear or say the Pledge of Allegiance. Throughout all units, students are asked to vote on different occasions to help lay a foundation for children's development of self within the community at large.

In Unit 5, the students learn about other cultures from around the world through bread. As the students make bread, they compare the similarities and differences of bread around the world and discuss and describe the bread they eat with their families.

In Unit 6, students connect with an activity they did in Unit 1, the “Meet Our Class Book.” The teacher asks students if they remember creating the book at the beginning of the year and what the book is about. The teacher asks the students to identify what they wrote in the book at the beginning of the year and compare it to what the class is like now (emphasizing the change over time). The students compare a name-writing sample from the beginning of the year to one from the end of the year. After reading the book, the teacher asks questions such as “Do you think more things are different or more things are the same from the beginning of the year? Why or why not?” In the “Writing” center, students create and write autobiographies. The teacher encourages and guides the students to identify similarities and differences between their families and their classmates’ families. Students share their responsibilities, their role, and experiences with their families, which provides opportunities for students to explore commonalities and differences in individuals.

Evaluation for 8.3
Materials expose children to fine arts through exploration.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The material provides many daily opportunities for students to engage in different mediums, such as music, drawing, movements, and engaging in the “Dramatic Play” center. Every morning, the teacher welcomes and starts the day with a song, dance, or fingerplay to engage students in whole group activities that encourage movement. The “Art” center has many activities that allow students to engage in the process of creating their own artwork rather than the product being created.

In Unit 1, every day, the teacher welcomes the students with a song; this is also true of the other units. The teacher and students sing “The Parts of Me” song to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” to support learning number words and body parts. The teacher and students sing, “I have one head (and they move head side to side),” and continue with one nose (point to nose). The students make hearing and touch posters for their senses. The teacher provides objects for students to explore, such as sandpaper and velvet, on paper plates. The students draw and glue words and pictures from magazines and newspapers of things they observe while hearing and touching. The teacher adds red, blue, and yellow paint to the Art Center. The students explore how to make different colors by mixing the primary colors and creating their own artwork. These activities allow students to actively engage in the fine arts throughout different daily experiences, through music and creating their own artwork. 

In Unit 3, the students create fingerpaint tracks in the Art center. The teacher places small cars with wheels, bowls of fingerpaint, and butcher paper in the Art center. The students create their own artwork by rolling the cars in the paint and then rolling the cars across the paper. The teacher reads aloud the book Dream Something Big. With a partner, the students share a time when they transformed some old material into something special. A few students share with the group how they felt when they created it and relate their feelings to how Uncle Sam might have felt. The teacher places an assortment of objects in the Art center for students to use to glue and create their own masterpieces; the teacher writes down the children’s descriptions of what they constructed. The teacher sets up the Dramatic Play center as a toy store. The students play and act out having a job, including how to order, sell, and stock the shelves. These activities provide a variety of daily experiences through a variety of mediums and allow students to engage in the process of creating their own artwork.

In Unit 6, in the Art center activity “Excited for Kindergarten,” the students paint a picture about the things they are excited about in kindergarten and the things they like about prekindergarten; this allows students to create an open-ended drawing or painting based on their interest. In the “Favorite Art Materials” activity, the teacher creates a list of students’ favorite art materials and lessons from past units. The teacher features the art materials chosen by the group, and students create their own artwork using their favorite art materials. In the “Self-Portrait Activity,” the teacher provides a variety of materials, and students create their self-portraits. Students compare how much they have changed from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. The teacher displays their artwork and captions in the classroom for families and friends to enjoy. During a math lesson, the teacher demonstrates an AABB pattern unit by stomping two times and then clapping two times. The teacher plays music, and the students join in on the pattern dance, saying the pattern out loud. Once the dance is complete, the students describe the unit of the pattern (stomp, stomp, clap, clap) and then use letters to describe the units of the pattern (AABB). Then, the students use music to show a new pattern for the group to repeat. The activities in this unit allow for students to engage in the fine arts through multiple mediums, including music, dance, other movements, and creating drawings and artwork. 

Evaluation for 8.4
Materials include technology applications.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

In the “Teacher’s Handbook,” under the “Computer Center” section, materials provide guidance on best practices, give evidence to support the appropriate use of computers and devices in the classroom, and explain how computers are beneficial to learning. The materials provide strategies for extensions, including whole group discussions after computer sessions to give the students opportunities to talk about how they use the computers, ask questions, and discuss any problems they’re having in the center. 

In Unit 1, the teacher introduces the “Computer” center, how to log in, and expectations. The students begin to play learning games and practice typing their names. In the small group activity “Expectations Scavenger Hunt,” the students use a camera to take photos of other students engaging in appropriate behaviors and check them off a list; this allows them to explore and use various digital tools. The students create fingerprints on index cards and are instructed on how to use the internet to access information about fingerprint types; the teacher discusses safety when using technology, with additional reminders about the rules. Throughout the units, the “Listening” center provides students a way to engage with technology in a meaningful way. Students hear recordings of books that they have read with the teacher and choose the books that they want to listen to. The material provides a digital resource called “Games,” which has weekly games that students play when they visit the Computer center. The digital resource is set up so that every student has his/her own account and password. Passwords are made up of three picture icons that are easy for students to remember. The games are easy, have lively visuals, and have instructions that are easy to understand. The students are guided by recorded instructions and can pause and return at a later time as needed. These activities provide students with opportunities to experience technology in the classroom and explore and use digital tools. They provide learning that is appropriate and is not distracting.

In Unit 4, the small group activity “Emotions Story Writing” provides appropriate technology use and various digital tools. The teacher asks the students what digital tools they could use to record their emotion stories. The teacher demonstrates how to use the listening device and invites one student to tell their story while another child records it. The students take turns telling their parts of the story and operating the device. A computer device is used to “read” the stories, which allows the students to listen to them. The students can later access and listen to all the recorded stories. In the activity “Who’s the Expert,” students explore the jobs of different experts such as archaeologists or paleontologists. In the Computer center, students use technology to email an expert who gives them information about dinosaurs. The teacher reminds students to practice safe behaviors online and observes them to ensure safety. These activities enhance students’ opportunities to engage in a variety of appropriate technology applications by using a variety of digital tools in the classroom with teacher guidance.

In Unit 6, the students think of what they are proud of and use it for the class video yearbook. The teacher asks the students what digital tools can be used to record the video. The students do a “Think, Pair, Share” about what they are proud of or what they have learned during the school year. If students name a skill that can be recorded or videotaped, the teacher records the student doing that skill. The video segments are recorded for the yearbook. The students continue using an audio recorder to record themselves retelling stories. The students later access and listen to the recorded stories. In the Listening center, the teacher puts recorded children’s books so that students can listen as they read along with the story. These activities include a variety of technology applications, incorporate a variety of digital tools in the classroom, and provide appropriate learning opportunities.

Evaluation for 9.1
Materials include developmentally-appropriate diagnostic tools (e.g. formative and summative progress monitoring) and guidance for teachers, students, and administrators to monitor progress.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include assessment tools as a rubric established in the “Formative Assessment” book designed to be ongoing, strategic, and purposeful. Across all domains, the rubric assessments guide the teacher in the “Checkpoint” section. For example, a Math assessment evaluates the student’s ability to “quickly recognize the number of objects in small groups (perceptual subitizing).” The Checkpoint says “Does the child talk about how many, which is bigger, who has more, shapes, patterns, and how materials change? For example, does he say, ‘Two triangles make a square’?” The teacher distinguishes if the student is able to complete the task by recording the student’s developmental level as “independent, with help, or with much help” on the assessment sheet.

The materials provide guidance to ensure consistent and accurate administration of diagnostic tools in each lesson during “Grupo pequeños—Verificación.” The guidance appears as embedded reminders and tips that support the teacher in collecting observational or anecdotal notes across all domains while working with students in small groups. For example, in Unit 2, the teacher is reminded to collect data for the formative assessment. The materials state: “Observe y tome nota en la evaluación formativa de lectura y escritura: ¿Los niños formulan preguntas y usan las palabras interrogativas como corresponde?” In the teacher manual, there is guidance for administering an alphabet test where the teacher administers the test class-wide and rates the children based on the letters they are learning. The “Formative Assessment” book provides teachers with a checklist that assesses letter names and sounds. The checklist provides spaces to mark when a child can produce upper and lowercase letter names and letter sounds. However, the frequency with which to assess students in this area has little guidance as the materials state: “Con el tiempo, volverá a esto cuando compruebe que los niños han aprendido nombres y/o sonidos de otras letras y para identificar a los niños que se beneficiarían de una instrucción adicional sobre determinadas letras y sonidos.”

There was no evidence found for the students to track their own growth and progress throughout all of the units. 

Evaluation for 9.2
Materials include guidance for teachers and administrators to analyze and respond to data from diagnostic tools.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include a “Formative Assessment” book with recommendations to support teachers in adjusting instruction to meet students’ needs based on data collected from developmentally appropriate assessments in each domain in the curriculum. For example, if anecdotal notes indicate a student is not demonstrating progress in letter-sound recognition, the materials state “Some children may struggle isolating the /g/ in grapes or the /f/ in flower for those alphabet cards. If needed, feel free to switch to easier words that are familiar to children, perhaps goat for g and fox for f.” Downward and upward scaffolds appear in lessons created for small groups in clearly labeled sections: “Verificación,” “Más apoyo,” and “Mayor desafío,” which are in each unit throughout all the materials. 

The “Principal’s Handbook” states that the Formative Assessment book is a tool that helps teachers “determine what to do next to help a child move along his or her learning trajectory” based on recommendations that support adjusting instruction to meet students’ needs. The handbook provides principals with an understanding of how the materials embed opportunities for progress monitoring throughout the units. The formative assessment for each lesson includes a checklist for teachers to indicate if the child is capable of performing the task “independently,” “with some help,” or “with much help.” Based on that data, teachers can modify their instruction. The formative assessments yield information for teachers when planning instruction and differentiation. 

The materials provide teacher guidance on a variety of activities in response to student data. The Principal’s Handbook indicates “daily lesson plans include suggestions, questions, and tips that teachers can use to help them identify how the children think.” Teachers are encouraged to use anecdotal records, samples of student’s work, interviews (planned or spontaneous), rating scales, photographs, audio recordings, video, time sampling, etc. to help themselves better understand what students do and don’t know to support purposeful planning of the prekindergarten experience. For example, in Unit 6, the students learn about the meaning of the word “proud.” During the lesson, the teacher asks the students to fill out the sentence stem “Estoy orgulloso de poder….” The teacher observes and records the abilities of the students. Then, the teacher changes the strategy for struggling students by providing a visual and more examples, encouraging students to go to the writing center and draw or write in their class book, “Lo que hemos aprendido,” about what they have learned.

Evaluation for 9.3
Materials include frequent, embedded opportunities for monitoring progress.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The “Formative Assessment” book includes routine and systematic progress monitoring opportunities in Science, Literacy, Math, and Social and Emotional Development domains. The materials contain an assessment guide with embedded progress monitoring opportunities for students based on the units of study. The guide includes connections with the skills taught in the materials. “The book is organized in chronological order by unit, week, and day. Complete each day’s formative assessment page(s) as you move through the curriculum.” The assessment collection sheets include the student objective and trajectory level with descriptors for each level, which guide and support the teacher in accurately scoring student performance. 

Assessment data is recorded on the checklist sheets provided in the Formative Assessment book and transferred online. Student progress can be entered in the online teacher portal in conjunction with the printed Formative Assessment book. Once the data is input in the teacher portal, it is unclear exactly how the data collected from the assessments is organized to show progress and how it can be monitored throughout the year. Guidance from the materials for assessing literacy states “Once you have taught lessons supporting a goal, you can begin assessing each child’s ability. Complete the checklists based on your observations for any literacy objectives that you observe.” 

The literacy section of the formative assessment has specific literacy components, which are concepts of print, genre, phonological awareness, reading comprehension, writing and writing development, alphabet knowledge, and vocabulary. Each component has a checklist for various learning objectives; they are either grouped with a specific unit or have no designation and are to be used continuously, like the letter name/letter sound checklist.

For math, science, and social-emotional small-group lessons, the assessments are organized by objective in the order that the lessons and their objectives appear in the units. As teachers complete each small-group lesson with the children, they mark each child’s ability regarding the core objectives addressed in that lesson. For example, Unit 1, week 6, day 4 assesses the student’s ability to use science vocabulary terms expressively. The teacher is prompted to score: “Children will use a variety of words to describe and label people, places, things, and actions.” Teachers determine if the student can show understanding “independently, with help, or with more help.” Then the teacher is to monitor and adjust instruction based on student outcomes.

Evaluation for 10.1
Materials include guidance, scaffolds, supports, and extensions that maximize student learning potential.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide built-in support for struggling students during some lessons in the “Más apoyo” section. This section provides differentiation for teachers to use during whole group and small group instruction. In Unit 6, the “Más apoyo” section provides a strategy to address the needs of the students struggling to understand addition. The materials state: “Forme pareja con un niño y hable a lo largo de cada paso del proceso. Cuente una historia y señale a cada grupo de figuras de fieltro a medida que las nombra.” The teacher pairs with the students and walks through the process of addition by telling a story and pointing to manipulatives. Differentiation is found in all the small group lessons throughout all units of the materials..

The materials provide built-in support to challenge students that have reached mastery level in the “Mayor desafío” section of the lessons. In Unit 3, students learn about two-dimensional shapes. During the small group lesson, teachers can reference the “Mayor desafío” section that includes recommendations for differentiation to challenge students. For instance, in this lesson, the materials guide the teacher to encourage children to describe exactly why a rectangle is a rectangle by naming all the characteristics. The teacher shows pictures of shapes similar to rectangles and asks students to explain what is different about them and how they could change them into rectangles. Additionally, the teacher asks the students to draw their own typical and atypical rectangles in order to trick others with their drawings. The “Mayor desafío” section is found across all units of the materials.

The materials contain lessons with additional enrichment activities for all levels of learners through project-based learning. All six units include a theme-based project to guide students toward a big goal. In Unit 2, the project is creating a coral-reef environment in the classroom. Students learn about the reef coral and collaboratively work on creating a mural or another type of coral reef exhibit for the class. The projects give students of all levels an opportunity to spend sustained time exploring a concept in whole group, small group, and centers. 

Evaluation for 10.2
Materials provide a variety of instructional methods that appeal to a variety of learning interests and needs.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials use a variety of instructional approaches by incorporating hands-on, concrete practice with manipulatives, visual aids, and scaffolding to engage the students in mastery of the content. In Unit 3, during the small group lesson “Desde aquí hasta allí: Construcción de puentes,” the teacher tells students they will build bridges, and they will select the material that would work best to build the bridge. Pictures of bridges serve as inspiration for how to build a bridge. The lesson incorporates hands-on, concrete practice with manipulatives like boxes as they build their bridges. The teacher supports children in extending their capabilities by providing specific directions to meet children’s different learning needs. The scaffolding suggested for students who need extra help includes more time, trying the activity later in the week, or trying again in centers. There are lessons across all units that demonstrate these direct and indirect instructional practices to support content mastery.

In Unit 4, “Explorando museos,” the materials include recommendations for a center to promote child-led play-based learning and independent exploration as “arqueólogos y paleontólogos.” The teacher explains that an archaeologist is a person who studies the remains of human lives from the past, and a paleontologist studies fossils of animals and plants that lived long ago. When students are in this center, they pretend to be archaeologists and paleontologists and explore by digging through sand to uncover shells, rocks, and plastic dinosaurs. This activity provides students with tactile and visual supports during their play. Then students write down what they discovered, and the teacher documents student work. 

The materials demonstrate the use of developmentally appropriate instructional practices through visuals, teacher modeling, and kinesthetic movement. In Unit 5, during the “Repaso rápido” phonological awareness lesson, the teacher models how to combine phonemes to create one-syllable food words “té, uva, pan.” The materials state: “Para mostrarles el proceso, elija una tarjeta, pronuncie los fonemas y combínelos para formar la palabra: /p/ /a/ /n/ pan.” The students get to see the teacher pull food picture cards from a bag, hear the word, and repeat it. Later in the week, during “Repaso rápido,” the teacher uses kinesthetic movement to support student development of rote counting and vocabulary development. The teacher counts backward from 10 as the students pretend they are growing plants. When the teacher teaches zero, the students jump as they shout “¡Crece, crece, crece!” to symbolize their growth as a plant.

Evaluation for 10.3
Materials include supports for English Learners (ELs) to meet grade-level learning expectations.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

In Unit 1, during “Repaso rápido,” the lesson focuses on “Separación de palabras compuestas.” The materials provide some scaffolding for English language proficiency in the callout box, “Planificar con antelación,” in a lesson on compound words. The materials provide guidance for teachers to use visuals as a language development strategy to demonstrate how to create compound words. The teacher has the option to continue the same lesson in English, as it is located immediately after the Spanish lesson. The box for “ESL,” used during the English lesson, tells teachers to use the puzzle picture cards. The teacher tells students that first, they will say a big word that is made up of two smaller words. The teacher models compound words using a puzzle picture card (fish/bowl) and then takes the picture card apart to show how it is made up of two parts. Then they will take away part of the big word and say the smaller word that is left. Students are given more picture card puzzles to create their own compound words.

Later in Unit 1, during “Repaso rápido” in the lesson "Las partes de mi cuerpo," the materials provide teachers with some support in using the student’s first language as the target language of instruction prior to using the second language. The teacher says, “hay una canción que dice todo acerca de ustedes! Escuchen primero y luego la cantaremos juntos." The students use Total Physical Response (TPR) while singing a song about body parts set to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” The students repeat after the teacher, singing the song in both Spanish and English. 

In Unit 3, during “Repaso rápido” in the lesson “¡Movimientos para Contar!,” the materials use visual cards and movement as strategies to support children in a visual, playful, and interactive way. During the Spanish lesson, the teacher counts down from ten to zero using clapping and visual cards. The teacher has the option to continue the same lesson in English, as it is located immediately after the Spanish lesson. The materials include the “Seguir aprendiendo en ingles” section that has the same Spanish lesson in English. There is also a callout box, “ESL Strategies,” that provides teacher tips, such as “Use this lesson as an ESL strategy, as the children engage in total physical response in the activity.” During the lesson, the teacher holds up a number card of choice and invites students to move in various ways based on the number card. Students say the number and count as they move. The teacher suggests simple movements like patting heads or clapping hands. Total Physical Response is used as an ESL strategy in some of the lessons throughout the materials. 

The materials did not make explicit strategic connections or accommodations to develop the use of cognates or cross-linguistic connections for either the teacher or the students as they use their first language to access the target language. The materials do not have a distinct English language development time but rather incorporate the “Seguir aprendiendo en inglés” section following some of the Spanish lessons.

Evaluation for 11.1
Materials include year-long plans with practice and review opportunities that support instruction.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

Each thematic unit covers the domains in the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines, which include “Literacy,” “Math,” “Science,” “Social Studies,” and “Social and Emotional Development.” The themes of the units are “Connecting with School and Friends,” “Our Environment,” “How Structures Are Built,” “Exploring Museums,” “Growing Our Garden,” and “How We’ve Grown.” These units provide a plan that is designed to build upon children’s current understanding, with connections between units. For example, letter knowledge is built throughout the units and the school year. Practice for this skill is embedded in lessons and learning centers. In Unit 2, in the “Fast Focus” activity “The Letter T,” the teacher plays a game: The teacher uses the puppet Lila Letter to look for the letter Tt in students’ names and count how many they find. In Unit 4, the material provides an activity in the “Show What You Know” center called “Beginning Letter Sort.” The teacher places down alphabet cards that students have reviewed; students sort and write words that begin with the letter on the card. Students draw or go on scavenger hunts to find more words that begin with a certain letter. In another example, focused on the review and practice of knowledge and skills in the Science domain, in Unit 2, students observe the characteristics of organisms during an outdoor scavenger hunt. After the activity, the teacher places photographs of the things the students saw on the scavenger hunt in a learning center for the students to sort. Students then describe how various animals move during the read-aloud activity for Do Goldfish Fly? Throughout the day, during transitions, the teacher encourages the students to move like animals in the story. Then, in the Unit 5 small group activity “Taking Care of Living Things,” the students discuss what living things need to survive and thrive. After the activity, the students continue to observe, describe, and discuss the radish seeds and the bean plants that they are growing. Materials provide multiple opportunities to build on the students’ knowledge of the characteristics of living things, which align with kindergarten skills.

Throughout the units and school year, the materials provide integrated lessons and activities that focus on the math skill of counting. Practice for this skill is embedded in lessons and learning centers. For example, in Unit 1, the Show What You Know center includes an activity called “Every Buddy Counts.” The teacher shows students how to use a camera to take pictures. The teacher helps students move around the room and take pictures of classmates working and counting. One photo has one student, the next has two, and so forth until 10. These pictures are then put on the bulletin board, and students can count the photos. In Unit 5, in the Fast Focus activity “Plant and Grow,” students play a game where they pretend to be seeds and grow by counting to 10. The material also guides the teacher to have students count back from 10 to zero by slowly lowering to a crouching position. 

The materials provide students with math sorting activities across all units. In Unit 2, the students begin sorting surf shop items (by size, shape, color) in the small group activity “Coral Reef Surf Shop.” The materials then progress: In the Unit 4 learning center “Hannah’s Collections,” students make up and describe sorting rules with various objects. In the Unit 5 “Connect” activity, “Living and Nonliving: Worms,” students describe the similarities and differences between real worms and toy worms. The materials provide multiple opportunities for students to build on sorting skills, which align with kindergarten skills. 

The materials provide lessons and activities that focus on “Emergent Literacy: Writing” throughout the school year. In Unit 1, in the “Compliment Card” small group activity, the students first begin with verbally sharing ideas for compliment cards with their peers. The materials then progress to students intentionally using marks, letters, or symbols to write compliment cards for peers in the Unit 1 small group activity “Our Class Compliment Chain.” In the Unit 5 small group activity “Helping Story Boards,” the students independently write about a problem and a solution. Throughout the curriculum, the materials provide multiple opportunities for students to build on writing skills in all domains that align with kindergarten skills.

The materials provide lessons and activities integrated throughout the units and school year that focus on social and emotional skills. For example, in Unit 2, the “Welcome and Read Aloud” lesson “Goldilocks and the Three Bears: A Problem-Solving Story” focuses on problem-solving skills; students “Think, Pair, Share” different ideas for taking turns. In Unit 4, the small group lesson “Emotions Collage” focuses on identifying emotions. The teacher provides magazines, newspapers, and pictures; students look for a certain emotion and cut it out. Students create a collage; they identify an emotion, name it, cut it out, and paste it. The materials provide review and practice of knowledge and skills in all domains throughout the curriculum; these align with kindergarten skills.

Evaluation for 11.2
Materials include implementation support for teachers and administrators.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The materials are aligned to the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. The online portal includes the “Correlations” tab, which links a list of the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines and corresponding units and activities that address them. The materials provide correlations to the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines.

The “Teacher’s Handbook” supports the teacher in understanding the curriculum and how to use the materials. The materials provide the teacher with a rationale for each section of the school day; each unit has a handbook. The unit guides first show an overview of the unit with the main themes, unit projects, and vocabulary that will be covered. There is then a detailed overview of the learning centers and materials needed for each activity. Following this, there is an overview of each week and a summary of each day and lesson. The lessons are given in the order in which they will be taught, by day of the week. Each lesson has sections called “At a Glance,” “Ahead of Time,” and “C4L Processes.” The materials provide the teacher with detailed instructional strategies and steps for the easy implementation of the lessons. The materials include supports to help teachers implement the materials as intended. 

An online portal provides the teacher with additional support in the implementation of the lessons. It includes a Correlations section, which outlines the sequence of instruction, and an “Assessments” section, which provides the lessons that include assessments and observations. The incorporation of both the online portal and a traditional “hard copy” format of all resources, including supplemental materials and resources, provides for ease and flexibility of use. The materials include visuals to support implementation, including environmental print cards and posters for lessons and learning centers, puppets and lists of materials for lessons, and book sets for the entire school year. 

The materials provide administrators with the “Principal’s Handbook,” which includes information on supporting teachers and families, an overview of the program, the conceptual framework of the program, an overview of what a typical day looks like, the four domains of C4L, references, and an appendix. The Principal’s Handbook includes guidance on how to support teachers with the curriculum, guidance on understanding content knowledge, and a fidelity checklist on instructional practices. The section “Using the Schedule with Children” describes expectations for using the visual schedule and how it promotes learning through predictability and structure. Another section gives an overview of the formative assessment and how to collect data to monitor progress throughout the curriculum. The materials include resources and guidance to help administrators support teachers in implementing the materials as intended.

Evaluation for 11.3
Materials provide implementation guidance to meet variability in programmatic design and scheduling considerations.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The “Teacher Handbook” and “Unit Guides” support the teacher in the implementation of the content. The handbook includes rationales for the domains taught and the importance of integrating play throughout the lessons and learning centers. The material does not provide the teacher with learning continuums or a scope and sequence for the domains (e.g., “Math,” “Literacy,” “Science,” or “Social and Emotional Development”). The material guides the teacher in using the “Writing Scaffolded Technique” during writing lessons and small groups to support students based on their current writing skill level. 

The materials provide guidance for strategic implementation without disrupting the sequence of content that must be taught in a specific order following a developmental progression. The materials include two separate daily schedules that support full-day and half-day programs. The half-day program does not include lunch, rest time, a small group, and select centers and free choice centers. Times in the half-day program are also shorter: for learning centers by 15 minutes; for outdoor exploration by five minutes; and for “Fast Focus” by 10 minutes. The materials provide the entire curriculum in Spanish to support a bilingual or Spanish program. The Teacher Handbook, the Unit Guides, the online portal, and all the resources, including the family letters, are translated into Spanish. The Spanish curriculum does not offer any extra support than is already provided in the English Unit Guides for English Learners. The materials are designed in a way that allows LEAs the ability to incorporate the curriculum into district, campus, and teacher programmatic design and scheduling considerations.

Unit Guides go into detail regarding the purpose of the unit, unit project, and vocabulary taught; they also list the learning centers and lessons that will be implemented during that unit. The guides give the teacher a choice of suggested activities for science, literacy, and math. The teacher has the flexibility to choose certain lessons and small groups that will support the students based on their current skill level, determined using the assessments given that week. The teacher also has the flexibility to choose the Fast Focus and small group activities on Fridays, dependent on student outcomes from the assessments given that week. The materials provide guidance for strategic implementation without disrupting the scope and sequence of content that must be taught in a developmental order following a developmental progression. 

Evaluation for 11.4
Materials provide guidance on fostering connections between home and school.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

In the online portal, under the “Resources” tab, the materials provide unit letters that support teachers in providing information to families regarding learning in the classroom. These letters encourage a line of communication from teachers to parents that keeps the families involved in their student’s learning and supports the development of strong relationships between teachers and families. The letters include an explanation of the learning going on in each domain; they also provide a section called “What Can You Do,” which includes activities that parents can do to support learning at home. These letters are available in English and in Spanish. The materials specify activities for use at home to support students’ learning and development.

In Unit 2, the small group lesson “Welcome to the Coral Reef Signs” provides the students with an opportunity to create signs for their coral reef project. In this project, visitors are invited to come and participate in a scavenger hunt created by the students. The signs welcome their guests—parents, family members, or another class. A family engagement note asks families to donate empty food cans as part of the exploration of cylinders for this week. The family engagement letter asks parents to go online to help their students play math games and make notes about their student’s learning. The parent is asked to find 2D and 3D shapes in the community and engage in talking about their features with their child (e.g., rectangles have four sides, four angles, and four vertices (the points on the corners) and the opposite side are the same lengths). The materials support the development of strong relationships between teachers and families.

In Unit 3, one of the activities sent home is “Help your child recognize quantities in small sets of objects without having to count them.” The materials specify activities for use at home to support students’ learning and development. 

In Unit 5, the unit project focuses on learning, growing, and taking care of a garden. The unit project culminates with a garden party, where visitors are invited to come and see the work that the students have done in their garden and in the classroom. Family members, friends, and other important people join the students in their learning. The visitors have the opportunity to listen to the class book, read students’ science journals, and visit the earthworms. The materials support development of strong relationships between teachers and families.

Evaluation for 11.5
The visual design of student and teacher materials (whether in print or digital) is neither distracting nor chaotic.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The “Teacher’s Guides” are designed with clear, designated places for important information that is clearly stated and easily identified on the pages. Included in each unit is an overview of the learning and unit project. The teacher can easily identify specific information needed for the lesson; it is presented in a clearly laid out format. For example, vocabulary words for the unit and week are displayed in a word cloud. Materials are provided in a bulleted list. This list of materials includes graphic organizers to use in the learning centers and guidance to place certain posters and graphic organizers in various places within the learning centers so students can use them as references. The learning centers for the unit are organized into sections with bulleted lists. Color and font size separate the sections to provide more visual clarity and ease of use. Learning objectives, listed for each day, are organized into daily sections and are separated by a different color and font size. 

Each lesson has a bolded large heading at the top, which indicates whether the activity is a “Welcome & Read Aloud,” “Connect,” “Small Group,” or “Fast Focus.” Under the heading, there is a bolded lesson title. The actual lesson is divided into sections such as “Teach,” “What To Do,” “Introduce Text,” “Read the Text,” “After Reading,” “Continue the Learning,” “Checkpoint,” “More Support,” and “More Challenge.” Additionally, the lessons are supported by the sections “At a Glance” and “Ahead of Time”; some lessons have boxes for “C4L Processes,” “Notes,” “ESL Support,” and “ESL Strategy.” The teacher’s guide primarily uses four colors throughout the units, which serve to organize the different sections. 

The online portal provides a digital version of materials; these are well organized and easily accessible. For example, at the top of the main page, links provide relevant resources formatted in a way that is easy to understand and highly visible. This navigation supports teachers with instructional planning and implementation and facilitates the efficient navigation of materials and resources. The top of the main page of the online portal includes the links “Lessons, Games, Resources, Knowledge Base, Correlations.” In the Games section, for example, students practice math skills they are learning in the units. The graphics used on the online portal are simple drawings and clipart that the student can use to maneuver from game to game easily. The instructions are easy and age-appropriate. The pictures and graphics are supportive of student learning and engagement without being visually distracting.