CAPS Individual Assessment Checklist - Age 4 to 6

Guiding Growth: A Comprehensive Look at Early Learning Assessment for 4 to 6-Year-Olds

The foundational years of a child's education, particularly between ages four and six (often encompassing Grade R), are pivotal for developing essential skills in language, mathematics, and life skills. To effectively support and track this crucial development, the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) framework provides a comprehensive guide for early childhood educators.

This article refines the core aspects of the CAPS Individual Assessment Checklist for this age group, transforming it into an easy-to-read resource for both teachers and parents. It highlights how these assessment criteria serve as a vital tool to measure and track a child's progress, identify their unique strengths, and address specific areas where developmental support can make the most significant impact.

Tracking Progress: Our Multi-Tiered Assessment Rubrics

Our assessment approach utilizes detailed rubrics that acknowledge the varying stages of development between ages 4-5 and Grade R (5-6). This allows for a nuanced understanding of a child's learning journey, moving beyond a simple pass/fail:

For Ages 4-5:

1. Not Achieved (0-39%): The child demonstrates minimal or no understanding/mastery of the skill.

2. Moderate Achievement (40-59%): The child shows some understanding but requires significant support to perform the skill.

3. Substantial Achievement (60-79%): The child demonstrates a good understanding and can perform the skill with occasional support.

4. Outstanding Achievement (80-100%): The child consistently performs the skill independently and often demonstrates advanced understanding.

For Grade R (Age 5-6):

1. Not Achieved (0-29%): The child has not yet grasped the fundamental concepts of the skill.

2. Elementary Achievement (30-39%): The child is beginning to show awareness, but consistent performance is lacking.

3. Moderate Achievement (40-49%): The child has a basic understanding and can perform the skill with frequent guidance.

4. Adequate Achievement (50-59%): The child demonstrates a fair understanding and can perform the skill with some support.

5. Substantial Achievement (60-69%): The child shows a good level of understanding and can perform the skill reliably.

6. Meritorious Achievement (70-79%): The child performs the skill proficiently and often independently.

7. Outstanding Achievement (80-100%): The child demonstrates excellent mastery, often applying the skill in new and complex situations.

While specific learner details (Name, Date of Birth, Height, Weight, Age) are crucial for individual tracking within an educational setting, the focus of this article is on the developmental criteria itself.

Core Assessment Areas in the CAPS Foundation Phase

1. Language Assessment

Language development is foundational, encompassing a child's ability to listen, speak, read, and write.

1.1 Listening and Speaking:

• Engages with stories, acting them out, listening without interruption, and joining in choruses.
• Can retell and create their own simple stories.
• Responds appropriately to simple questions and instructions.
• Listens to and accurately repeats and copies rhythmic patterns and simple word sequences.
• Identifies and names body parts.
• Participates in singing simple songs and action rhymes.
• Discusses pictures in various visual materials (posters, charts, books).
• Matches and sorts objects based on attributes like shape and color.
• Compares similarities and differences between objects.
• Actively participates in discussions and asks relevant questions.

1.2 Phonics:

• Identifies rhyming words in familiar rhymes and songs.
• Begins to understand that words are composed of individual sounds (e.g., recognizing initial letter sounds in their name).
• Segments oral sentences into individual words.
• Divides multi-syllabic words into their respective syllables.
• Recognizes aurally and visually common initial consonants and vowels.
• Identifies a sound that does not belong in a given sequence.
• Distinguishes whether two given sounds are the same or different.

1.3 Reading & Viewing:

1.3.1 Shared Reading (Class with Teacher):

• "Reads" enlarged texts like poems, big books, and posters.
• Connects stories to their own experiences.
• Describes characters and offers opinions on story elements.
• Uses pictures to predict story events.
• Answers questions based on shared stories.
• Draws pictures to represent the main idea of stories.

1.3.2 Emergent Reading Skills:

• Recognizes and points out common objects in pictures.
• Arranges pictures to form a coherent story sequence.
• Interprets pictures by creating their own narratives and "reading" them.
• Acts out parts of stories, songs, or rhymes.
• Handles books correctly, holding them upright and turning pages appropriately.
• Engages in pretend reading, adopting a "reading voice."
• Recognizes their own name and names of other children.
• Begins to "read" high-frequency words found in the classroom.
• Develops correct eye movements (e.g., tracking a swinging object from left to right).
• Participates in directionality activities, understanding left-to-right and top-to-bottom movement.

1.3.3 Independent Reading:

• Engages with picture books independently.
• Recognizes and points out common objects within pictures.
• Participates in activities that help distinguish objects in the foreground and background.
• Differentiates between the shapes of various letters and words through activities.
• Plays games that encourage visual discrimination (e.g., 'Where is it?').
• Arranges three pictures into a logical story sequence.
• Recalls visually presented information in memory games.
• Completes puzzles and pictures.
• Matches words to corresponding objects (e.g., name cards on items).

1.4 Handwriting:

• Develops small muscle skills through activities like finger play, play dough, and screwing nuts onto bolts.
• Strengthens fingers through fine-motor exercises (e.g., rolling small paper balls).
• Develops fine motor control for using scissors to cut out bold outlined pictures and shapes.
• Improves eye-hand coordination through activities like catching, throwing, drawing, and painting.
• Traces simple outlines of pictures, patterns, and letters in their own name.
• Forms letters using various mediums (finger painting, paint brushes, thick wax crayons).
• Copies patterns, words, and letters.
• Uses a range of writing tools.
• Develops directionality, understanding left/right and up/down body parts.
• Crosses the midline (e.g., touching the left shoulder with the right hand).

1.5 Writing:

• Draws or paints pictures to convey messages.
• Copies known letters in their name to represent writing.
• Understands and practices writing from left to right and top to bottom.
• Contributes ideas for class news books through drawings.
• Attempts to write letters using squiggles and scribbles, engaging in role-play writing.
• "Reads" their own scribbles and squiggles, giving them meaning.
• Creates their own books and contributes to class book collections.
• Develops language to describe concepts (e.g., shape, color, age, time, sequence).
• Identifies and describes similarities and differences.
• Matches and compares objects that belong together or are different.
• Classifies familiar items by attributes (e.g., sorting by color).
• Identifies parts from a whole (e.g., naming and pointing to body parts).
• Asks questions and provides explanations.
• Solves and completes jigsaw puzzles of five or more pieces.
• Picks out selected information from a description.

2. Mathematics Assessment

Mathematical understanding at this stage involves basic number sense, patterns, spatial reasoning, measurement, and data handling.

2.1 Numbers, Operations and Relationships (Whole Numbers):

• Counts at least 10 everyday objects reliably.
• Counts forwards and backwards in 1s from 1 to 10.
• Knows number names and symbols between 0 and 10.
• Compares collections of objects using "more," "less," and "equal."
• Solves verbally-stated addition and subtraction problems with single-digit numbers (answers up to 10).
• Explains their own solutions to problems.
• Solves and explains practical problems involving equal sharing and grouping with whole numbers up to 10, including remainders.

2.2 Patterns, Functions and Algebra:

• Copies and extends simple patterns using physical objects and drawings.
• Creates their own patterns.

2.3 Space and Shape (Geometry):

• Recognizes, identifies, and names 3-D objects in the classroom and pictures (e.g., boxes, balls).
• Describes, sorts, and compares physical 3-D objects by size, and whether they roll or slide.
• Builds 3-D objects using concrete materials (e.g., building blocks).
• Recognizes symmetry in themselves and their environment (focus on front and back).
• Describes one 3-D object's position relative to another (e.g., 'in front of' or 'behind').
• Follows directions to move or place themselves within the classroom (e.g., 'at the front' or 'at the back').

2.4 Measurement:

• Length: Compares and orders objects using vocabulary like "longer," "shorter," "wider," "tall," and "short."
• Mass: Compares and orders objects using "light," "heavy," and "heavier."
• Capacity: Compares and orders objects using "empty," "full," "less than," and "more than."
• Describes the time of day as "day" or "night."
• Orders recurring events in their daily life.
• Sequences events within a single day.

2.5 Data Handling:

• Collects physical objects based on stated features (e.g., 10 dead flowers).
• Sorts physical objects according to one attribute (e.g., red shapes).
• Draws a picture to record collected objects.
• Answers questions (e.g., 'Which has the most?') based on their picture or sorted objects.

3. Life Skills Assessment

Life skills encompass a broad range of knowledge, practical abilities, and creative expression crucial for holistic development.

3.1 Beginning Knowledge:

• Me and My New School: Knows name, surname, age, date of birth, address, parent's contact number, and is aware of daily routines.
• My Body and My Senses: Knows body parts, their functions, quantities, senses, and what each sense can do.
• My Family: Knows names of immediate and extended family members.
• Keeping Clean and Fit: Can brush teeth, comb hair, wash face/hands, dress themselves, and understands disease spreading.
• Healthy Eating: Differentiates between junk and healthy food, and between clean and healthy water.
• Me and My Friends at School: Knows friends' names.
• This Is What I Wear: Knows differences between seasonal clothing and attire for various sports.
• Shapes and Colours: Knows basic shapes (circle, square, diamond, triangle, rectangle, crescent) and primary/secondary colors.
• On the Move: Recognizes various forms of transport (road, rail, water, air, emergency, historical).
• Domestic and Farm Animals: Identifies common animals like dogs, cats, cows, chickens.
• Gardens and Insects: Identifies spiders, ants, butterflies, etc.
• Weather: Understands seasons (summer, winter, autumn, spring) and uses a weather chart.
• Keeping Safe: Understands safety rules in and around the house and school.
• The Sky: Identifies elements like the sun, moon, rain, hail, thunderstorms, planets, and airplanes.
• People Who Help Us: Knows roles of community helpers (doctor, nurse, teacher, plumber, firemen).
• Helping Hands: Understands the concept of helping others.
• A New Life (Spring): Connects with the concept of new beginnings.
• This Is Where People Live: Develops an understanding of different living spaces.
• My Feelings: Recognizes and expresses emotions like happy, sad.
• Our Lovely Country: Knows the South African flag and national emblems.
• Special Days, Health and Environmental Awareness Events: Aware of specific events like Water Week or visits from a dentist.

3.2 Arts and Craft:

• Drawing and Painting: Engages in tracing, coloring, drawing with various mediums (crayons, pencils), and painting with fingers, hands, and feet.
• Crafts: Creates posters, collages, paper mobiles, beadwork, and weaving items.
• Construction and Making Models: Works with clay and play dough, and constructs 3D models using empty boxes and blocks.
• Baking and Cooking: Prepares simple food items.

3.3 Music and Dance:

• Sings action songs and rhymes.
• Engages in body percussion.
• Makes and plays with handmade percussion instruments.
• Plays various instruments (drums, tambourine, sticks, bells).
• Participates in free dancing.
• Performs walking and running movements according to music or a beat.
• Plays musical games.

3.4 Drama:

• Performs action rhymes, songs, and poems.
• Engages in role-playing.

3.5 Physical Education:

• Develops locomotive skills: walking, running, hopping, crawling.
• Participates in climbing activities.
• Improves balancing skills, including carrying and holding light objects while walking.
• Develops throwing and catching skills with apparatus.
• Plays action games and traditional games with equipment.
• Engages in outdoor play on safe apparatus and with equipment.

Reflecting on Learner Growth: Additional Assessment Notes

Beyond the checklist, educators are encouraged to add qualitative observations that provide a holistic view of each child's development. This includes:

• Learner Interests and Strengths: Documenting what genuinely captivates and motivates the child, as well as their natural talents.
• Impact of Activities: Reflecting on how specific playroom activities empowered the learner.
• Adaptation of Teaching Strategies: Describing any modifications made to facilitation techniques or strategies to build upon the child's strengths and address their weaknesses, along with the rationale behind these adjustments.

This comprehensive assessment approach ensures that every child receives tailored support, fostering a strong foundation for future learning and development.