Wisconsin Preschool Credential

Capstone Checklist Self Evaluation Student Name _____________________________________________

The NAEYC criteria for National Accreditation is the basis of the Capstone Checklist criteria to demonstrate alignment with the Standards and to familiarize the
student with this national accreditation process.

Complete the self-evaluation, including descriptions of behaviors and/or situations that illustrate how you meet the criteria. Give examples of
situations that illustrate you are applying each criterion, giving a thorough description of the situation and how your response meets the criterion. The
spaces will expand as you type in them. Attach documents as needed.

COMPETENCY 1. Implement strategies that support diversity and anti-bias perspectives when working with children, families and
community.
Strategies to counter bias in child attitudes and behavior
1. Give examples of situations that show you treat all children with equal respect and consideration.

2. Give examples of situations where you offer activities and talk to children to build positive self-identity and valuing of differences in children.

3. Give examples of situations where you are aware of and avoid using stereotypes in language references firefighter instead of fireman,
etc.

4. Give an example of a situation where you did or would intervene when children might tease or reject others.
Strategies to counter bias in materials and adult attitudes and behavior
5. Describe the materials you have provided in your environment to address a range of diversity (dolls, play props, books, pictures, posters,
play food, clothing items, etc.)

Explain how the materials reflect the lives of the children and families in your program as well as the diversity found in society, including
gender, age, language, and abilities no stereotypical representations (images of members of ethnic groups in only traditional garb or only
females in nurturing roles, only males as construction workers or doctors, etc.), reflect range of diversity, especially children and families in
the program.

6. Give some examples of what you would consider to be stereotypical language or bias toward or against a child or group, and how you might
respond if you saw or heard these from adults or children in your classroom.

COMPETENCY 2. Follow governmental regulations and professional standards as they apply to health, safety, and nutrition.
1. Describe how you supervise children adequately by positioning self to see as many children as possible, how you are aware of
childrens location at all times, how you monitor by sound when children may be out of visual range (as when using the toilet, etc.).

Describe the child tracking procedures you use when moving from one location to another (as in when going from classroom to outdoor play
area).

2. Describe your use of proper hand-washing procedures list the times when you wash your own hands and when you assist children in
washing their hands.

3. Describe your schedule for cleaning and sanitizing furnishings and equipment.

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4. Describe what it means to use standard precautions - including cleaning and sanitizing of surfaces, use of gloves and barriers to minimize
contact with body fluids, cleaning spills as they occur, cleaning and sanitizing toys that have been mouthed or exposed to body fluids.

5. Describe your process for being aware of childrens special health care needs, nutrition needs or allergies, etc. Do you conduct daily
health checks as children arrive?

6. Describe your process for administering medication or applying sunscreen or other products. What do you do to follow licensing
requirements for administering and logging?

7. Give some examples of how you use care routines such as toileting, meal and nap routines as opportunities to build relationships,
language, concepts (food classification, nutrition, healthy living, manners, etc.) and to build childs self-awareness, social interaction
and self-help skills.

8. Describe what you do during meal/snack times. Do you sit with children and promote childrens feeding skills and social interactions?

9. Describe what you do to handle and serve food using proper safety precautions and sanitary techniques.

10. Describe your clean up routine how do you encourage children to participate in daily clean up and maintenance of the classroom?

11. Describe your toileting routine how do you help children use the toilet following good health and hygiene practices?

12. Describe your nap time routine what do you do to follow licensing regulations and meet childrens need for rest? What do you do if a child

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 does not sleep at nap time?

COMPETENCY 3. Analyze social, cultural and economic influences on child development.

Strategies to understand and honor family culture
1. Describe your process for gathering information from families (during intake and ongoing) to become acquainted with and learn from
families about their family structure, preferred child-rearing practices; and information families wish to share about their socioeconomic,
linguistic, racial, religious, and cultural backgrounds.
What tools (such as enrollment forms, intake interviews, emails, phone calls, daily conversations, etc.) have you used?

2. Describe your process for sharing information with families about teacher/program philosophy, curriculum, goals, and practices.
What tools and strategies (such as intake interviews, emails, phone calls, daily conversations, newsletters, bulletin boards, etc.) have you
us
ed?

3. Describe your process for establishing regular, effective two-way communication between families and teacher about childs needs,
adjustment, activities and progress.
What tools and strategies (such as informal conversations during arrival and departure, emails, phone calls, texts, newsletters,
conferences, etc.) have you used?

4. Describe the family involvement opportunities you provide in your classroom and/or the program. How do you make sure the
opportunities respect family needs and perspectives? How do the opportunities consider each familys interests and skills and the needs of
the program staff?

5. Give some examples of how your daily interactions demonstrate knowledge of the children, childrens families, and the social, linguistic,
and cultural context in which the children live.

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6. Give some examples of how you plan activities that incorporate the social, linguistic, and cultural context in which the children live.

COMPETENCY 4. Analyze the development of children age three through age five.
Strategies to observe, analyze and adapt to childrens development
1. Describe the assessment tools you use. How do you obtain information on all areas of childrens development and learning in each
domain? How do you use developmental checklists, screening tools, observations, child portfolios that are aligned with WMELS to analyze
and identify childs current level of development across domains?

2. Describe how you use what you know about childrens social relationships, interests, ideas, and skills to tailor learning opportunities for
groups and individuals. How do you analyze observations to guide you in planning for curriculum activities?

3. Give examples of how you use your knowledge of individual children to modify strategies and materials to enhance childrens learning.
Describe a situation when you adapted an activity for different children based on their interests or reactions.

4. Describe what you do to assess the developmental progress of each child across all domains and share information with childs family.
What do you do to track childs progress at regular intervals? How often do you have conferences with families to discuss their childs
development?

COMPETENCY 5. Establish a developmentally appropriate environment.

Materials and equipment
1. Give examples of how your environment provides for childrens safety while being appropriately challenging in good repair, age
appropriate, addresses the range of abilities of children in room, no safety hazards, etc.

2. Give examples of how your environment is rich in variety to encourage exploration, experimentation, and discovery mix of open-ended
and self-correcting, cause & effect, sensory appeal, construction, dramatic play, etc.

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3. Give examples of how your environment promotes sensory exploration, creative expression, and fine motor learning varying textures
and materials (not all plastic), sand, water, art materials, writing implements, and opportunities to practice a range of manipulative skills.

4. Give examples of how your environment promotes gross motor skill practice space and equipment to stimulate a variety of skills,
enhance sensory-motor integration, and develop controlled movement (balance, strength, coordination).

5. Give examples of how your environment promotes pretend play and interaction between children - promotes communication (toy phone)
and cooperation to operate (see-saw), and a variety of pretend play props, etc.

6. Give examples of how your environment is organized with appropriate materials to support range of curriculum areas literacy,
science/discovery, construction, art, etc.

7. Give examples of how your environment is arranged to support independent use low, open shelves, bins or baskets, etc. Do you have
picture/word labels so children know where to find and put away materals?

8. Give examples of how you rotate materials to reflect changing curriculum and to accommodate new interests and skill levels. Do you have
storage space in the center with materials to rotate into and out of room?

9. Give examples of how you have or might add or adapt materials to accommodate a childs special needs.

10. Give examples of how your environment has sufficient soft elements to provide comfort and responsiveness pillows, mats, couch, etc.

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11. Give examples of some play/learning materials that you created made from variety of found natural, or real materials, or created to
support curriculum topics.

12. Give examples of how the materials are in sufficient quantities to occupy every child in activities that meet his or her needs.

Indoor space
13. Give examples of how your environment has protected places for children to play individually- defensible spaces to be alone.

14. Give examples of how your environment has places for children to play with peers spaces divided by low shelves for partner play, etc.

15. Give examples of how your environment has places for children to be all together large open rug area, tables and chairs to sit together
for meals, etc.

16. Give examples of how your environment has equipment such as tables and chairs that are sized to the children using them childrens
feet touch floor and table top is about mid chest height, climbers not too big or too small for children.

17. Give examples of how your environment has space that is divided into areas that are supplied with materials organized to support play
and learning.

18. Give examples of how your environment has areas with pathways for children to move between areas without disturbing other children.

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19. Give examples of how your environment has ways to moderate or minimize visual and auditory stimulation- window shades, curtains,
dimmers, sound absorbing materials, etc.

20. Give examples of how your environment has places for displaying childrens work artwork on walls or shelves, photos of activities, work
samples, etc.

21. Give examples of how your environment has defined spaces for families to sign in and out, gather information about childs day parent
info board with schedule posted, curriculum activities, parent pockets or bins for notes, daily care sheets, clipboards, child notebooks, place
to sit and write or for child to dress/undress, etc.

22. Give examples of how your environment has individual space for each childs belongings - individual hooks for each childs
coat/backpack, a separate area to store extra clothing, children's things are individually stored to support organized access and
independence.

23. Does your room have comfortable adult sized places to sit while interacting with children during play, routines and teacher guided
activities? Describe them.

24. Are you able to see children in all areas of room? Describe how.

Outdoor space
25. Give examples of how your outdoor play space has equipment that is designed for age and abilities of children using it.

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26. Give examples of situations that show you are attentive to children during outdoor and indoor time and promote their exploration and
discovery.

COMPETENCY 6. Develop activity plans that promote child development and learning.
Daily Schedule- predictable, yet flexible
1. Where is your schedule posted in the room?

2. Describe how your schedule provides time and support for transitions.

3. Does your schedule have indoor and outdoor experiences planned and provided daily as weather permits how often do you take the
children outside? What conditions prevent you from getting the children outside?

4. Describe how your schedule incorporates time for play, creative expression, large group, small group, and child-initiated activities.

Health and Physical Development

5. Give examples of how you provide varied opportunities and materials that support fine-motor development. List examples of the materials
you have available in the room.

6. Give examples of how you provide varied opportunities and materials that support large-motor experiences that stimulate a variety of
skills, that range from familiar to new and challenging, enhance sensory-motor integration, and development of controlled movement
(balance, strength, coordination) and enable children with varying abilities to have large motor experiences similar to those of their peers (if
present in room). How do you meet YoungStar criteria for a minimum of 60 minutes of physical activity daily?

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7. Give examples of how you lead varied opportunities to help children learn physical games with rules and structure, stimulate a variety of
skills, enhance sensory-motor integration and development of controlled movement (balance, strength, coordination. How do you meet
YoungStar criteria for 15 minutes of teacher-led activities?

Social and Emotional Development (See Competency 9 for related criteria)

8. Give examples of how you plan varied opportunities for children to recognize and name their own and others feelings.

9. Give examples of how you plan varied opportunities for children to practice regulation of their emotions, behavior and attention.

Language Development and Communication

10. Give examples of how you plan varied opportunities for children to develop communication and vocabulary by responding to questions,
communicating needs, thoughts, and experiences, describing things and events, conversations, and experiences such as field trips.

11. Give examples of how you support the development and maintenance of the childs home language whenever possible. Do
you try to learn familiar words, terms or phrases in childs language? Do you have opportunities for children to see
language in print?

12. Give examples of how you provide opportunities for children to become familiar with print by making print accessible throughout the
classroom. Are items belonging to a child are labeled with his or her name? Are materials labeled? Do you have print posters to describe
some rules and routines?

13. Give examples of how you help children recognize print and connect it to spoken words.

14. How often and when do you read books children? Give examples of how you engage in conversations that help children understand the
content of the book.

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15. Give examples of how you allow children to explore books on their own and provide places that are conducive to the quiet enjoyment of
books. Describe how children have access to various types of books, including storybooks, factual books, books with rhymes, alphabet
books, and wordless books.

16. Give examples of how you provide children with multiple and varied opportunities to write. Are writing materials and activities readily
available in art, dramatic play, and other learning centers?

Give examples of situations when you supported children in writing on their own.

Do children have access to the alphabet (e.g., displayed at eye level or on laminated cards) and to printed words about topics of current
interest?

17. Give examples of how you model functional use of writing and help children to discuss the many ways writing is used in daily life. Do
you give children daily opportunities to write or dictate their ideas? Do you give children assistance in writing the words and messages
they are trying to communicate? Do you support various types of writing, including scribbling, letter-like marks, and developmental
spelling?

18. Describe when and how you use rhymes, poems, songs and finger plays. Give examples of how you provide children with multiple and
varied opportunities to develop phonological awareness. Describe situations when you provided encouragement to play with the sounds
of language, including syllables, word families, and phonemes, helping to identify letters and the sounds they represent, to recognize and
produce words that have the same beginning or ending sounds, and supporting childrens self-initiated efforts to write letters that represent
the sounds of words.

Approaches to Learning
19. Give examples of how you plan varied opportunities for children to develop a sense of competence and positive attitudes toward learning,
such as persistence, engagement, curiosity, and mastery.

20. Give examples of how you provide children with varied opportunities to gain an appreciation of, and to learn new concepts and vocabulary,
and express themselves creatively in ways that reflect diversity through art, music, drama and dance activities.

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21. Do you provide a variety of art tools that are accessible to children? List the tools that are available in the classroom.

Cognition and General Knowledge

22. Give examples of how you provide children with varied opportunities and materials to explore math concepts such as size, shape, color,
patterns, quantity, measurement, number awareness, counting, and time. List some of the materials as well as activities you provide.

23. Give examples of how you provide children with varied opportunities and materials to explore science principles and concepts such as
observation and investigation of the natural world, living and non-living things, weather, seasons, the five senses, properties of matter and
materials (sink/float, liquids/solids/gasses, etc.), light and shadows, geologic features, etc. Describe how you encourage children to think,
question, and reason about observed phenomena, collect data and represent and document findings.

24. Describe how you use technology in the classroom with media such as television, film, videotapes, and audiotapes. (Limited/no use of TV,
video, etc. and developmentally appropriate access to computers.)

COMPETENCY 7. Document childrens behavior.

1. Describe how you document childrens behavior. Do you conduct regular observations of each child? Do they include written observations,
notes and analysis?

Describe a situation when you talked and listened to children as well as observed them to assess their strengths and needs to guide you in
planning activities and individualizing for the child.

2. Describe the process you use to gather information from families on their observations of their childs behavior at home. Do you use
their input to contribute to the assessment process?

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3. Give an example of a time when you noticed patterns in a childs challenging behaviors to help you develop effective, consistent, and
individualized responses.

COMPETENCY 8. Analyze factors that affect the behavior of children.

1. Give an example of a time when you were dealing with a childs challenging behavior. What need or desired result was the child expressing
through the behavior? Did you use observation and analysis to identify the function of the childs behavior?

2. Give an example of a situation when you were dealing with a childs challenging behavior in the classroom and you gathered input from
the childs family on the childs behavior at home and their goals for the child.

3. Give an example of a childs challenging behavior and how you considered the childs temperament, abilities, home life and progress to
help you develop effective strategies to guide the child.

4. Give an example of a specific situation when you had a child with a challenging behavior, and you recognized how the room
environment and childs level of social skills contributed to the behavior. Describe how you focused on teaching the child social,
communication, and emotional regulation skills and used environmental modifications, activity modifications, adult or peer support, and
other teaching strategies to support the childs appropriate behavior.

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COMPETENCY 9. Practice positive guidance strategies.
1. Give examples of how you express warmth through behaviors such as physical affection, eye contact, tone of voice, and smiles and create
a positive emotional climate as reflected in behaviors such as frequent social conversations, joint laughter, and affection.

2. Give examples of how you function as a secure base for children, responding promptly in developmentally appropriate ways to childrens
positive initiations, negative emotions, and feelings of hurt and fear by providing comfort, supports and assistance.

3. Describe how you establish and convey to children clear and consistent classroom rules and expectations.

4. Give examples of how you promote pro-social behavior by interacting in a respectful manner with all staff and children.

5. Give examples of how you promote pro-social behavior by modeling turn taking and sharing as well as caring behaviors, and helping
children negotiate their interactions with one another and with shared materials.

6. Give examples of how you promote pro-social behavior by helping children use language to communicate their needs and encouraging
children to listen to one another, and encouraging and helping children to provide comfort when others are sad or distressed.

7. Give an example of a situation when you assisted children in resolving conflicts by helping them identify feelings, describe problems,
and try alternative solutions.

8. Give an example of a situation when you helped children manage their behavior by guiding and supporting children to persist when
frustrated, gain control of physical impulses, express negative emotions in ways that do not harm others or themselves, and play
cooperatively with other children.

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9. Describe how you use positive guidance strategies. Describe what you consider to be inappropriate physical punishment.

10. Describe what you would consider to be inappropriate use of threats or derogatory remarks, or withholding or threatening to withhold food
as a form of discipline.

COMPETENCY 10. Examine the critical role of play.

1. Describe how your curriculum plans reflect an emphasis on play-based learning.

2. Describe how you provide ample time for child-directed play and child choice of play materials.

3. Give examples of how you join children in learning centers during play/work time to extend and deepen childrens learning and model play
and prosocial skills.

4. Give examples of situations when you supported childrens social play skills by helping them enter into, sustain and enhance play with
peers.

COMPETENCY 11. Demonstrate responsible and ethical behavior as an early childhood education professional.
Professional behavior
1. Give examples of how you follow state licensing regulations.

2. Describe the responsibilities that you have as outlined in the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct. Give an example of a situation where you
behaved ethically in following the principles and ideals listed in the Code.

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 Describe how you advocate for best practices in your program.

3. Describe how you communicate and cooperate respectfully with co-workers and function smoothly as a team to meet child and family
needs. Describe how you share planning or decision making in classroom activities and/or program practices. (FCC providers balance
needs of program with needs of own family.)

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