Standards
NYS module line
- HDR 1. Human Growth and Development Across the Lifespan b)Identify the relationships among and characteristics of the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual aspects of human growth and development
- HDR 1. Human Growth and Development Across the Lifespan c)Demonstrate understanding of procedures required for the care of an infant or young child
CTE theme line
- CTE HSW 3. Personal Safety c)Summarize common causes of intentional and unintentional injury and describe associated prevention strategies
NYS FACS learning standard
- NYS FACS Learning Standard 2 (Intermediate)Key Idea: Students will know the basic principles of home and community safety. They can demonstrate the skills necessary to maintain their homes and workplaces in a safe and comfortable condition. They can provide a safe and nurturing environment for themselves and others.
Performance Indicator: Students demonstrate the principles of safe and healthy childcare.
CDOS
- CDOS Standard 3aManaging Information
National FCS 3.0
- National FCS 3.0 12.1.2Examine how the physical, emotional, social, moral, and cognitive sides of development affect one another.
- National FCS 3.0 15.2.1Examine the nurturing habits that support a child's growth and development.
(The task asked for an HSW 3. line on safety of others or supervision. No HSW 3. line names supervision; 3. c) on causes of injury and prevention is the closest verbatim line and is what the safety by stage table teaches. 12.1.1 is also served by the milestones chart but is already cited in Lesson 3.1; 12.1.2 is cited here because the lesson shows the aspects working together. 15.2.1 is confirmed in the 3.0 text and covers "what a caregiver gives.")
Enduring understanding and essential question
Big idea: A young child's body, brain, feelings, and friendships grow in a mostly predictable order, and each new skill brings a new danger. A good caregiver knows the stage, gives what the stage needs, and sees the hazard before the child reaches it.
Essential question: When a baby cries because a parent left the room, is something wrong, or is something right?
Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
- (Low) Given the Ages and Stages chart, identify the typical age range for six milestones from birth to age 5 (rolling over, sitting, walking, first words, two-word sentences, pretend play) and define object permanence.
- (Mid) After the egg demo, explain why a baby under about 8 months does not look for a hidden object and why separation anxiety shows the brain is working the way it should.
- (High) For a child at each of three ages (6 months, 2 years, 4 years), design one caregiver action that meets a need and one safety step that matches the child's new skill, and justify each in one sentence.
Vocabulary
Tier 2 (general academic): typical, milestone, predict, caregiver
Tier 3 (FACS): object permanence, separation anxiety, fine motor, gross motor, pretend play, sensorimotor stage (named only). See the unit vocabulary list (Vocabulary 03.md) for Turkish, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Materials and setup
Handout 03.02 - Ages and Stages Chart and Demo Sheet.md, one per student- For the demo: one hard boiled egg (or a plastic egg), one cloth napkin, one small tray, a table at the front. A plastic egg means no allergy or breakage question at all.
- Slides:
Slides 03.02 - Ages and Stages of Young Children(slide 2 is the silhouette hook; slide 10 is the safety by stage table) - Sticky notes, three per student, for the "why should you care" wall
- Timer visible to the class
- Setup notes: boil the egg the night before or use a plastic one. Test the silhouette slide on the projector; it should be a dark outline of a well known object (a bicycle, a slice of pizza, a cat) that students recognize from the shape alone. No real child is observed, photographed, or brought in for this lesson; every child in it is described in words.
Pre-assessment
Yesterday's exit cards. The "needs more" pile on the stage order decides whether the lesson opens with the board timeline for two minutes. The do now asks for a guess at the age a baby walks; the spread of guesses (9 months to 2 years) is the pre-assessment for the chart.
Do now and hook (Time: 4 min)
On the board: "Guess: at what age does a baby usually (a) sit up without help, (b) walk, (c) say a first real word? Three guesses, in months."
Debrief: collect the range for each on the board. Then the hook, slide 2: show the silhouette. "Who is that?" Everyone knows. "You knew from a shadow. Your brain filled in the rest, because you know it exists even when you cannot fully see it. A 6-month-old baby cannot do that yet. I will prove it with an egg."
Procedure
| Step | Teacher will | Students will | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Demo: the egg under the napkin | Hold up the egg. "Does this egg exist?" Cover it with the napkin. "Does it exist now?" Ask students to write the answer on the demo sheet and what a 6-month-old would do (stare, lose interest, not reach) versus a 12-month-old (pull the napkin). Lift the napkin. "It was there the whole time. Knowing that is called object permanence." Give the definition on slide 4: the understanding that objects and people keep existing even when you cannot see, hear, or touch them. | Predict on the demo sheet, watch, write the definition in their own words. | 6 min |
| 2. Direct instruction: before and after 8 months, and the timeline | Slides 5 and 6. Before about 8 months: out of sight, out of mind; no searching. After: the baby lifts the blanket, looks behind the couch, and cries when a parent leaves the room, because now the baby knows the parent exists somewhere else. Slide 6 is the four-step timeline (no search, partial search, active search, full understanding by about 2 years). Then "why should you care," slide 7: separation anxiety means the brain is on track; peek-a-boo is a game about object permanence; the reason you can miss someone far away is the same skill, grown up. | Fill the before and after boxes on the demo sheet. Write one "why should you care" line on a sticky note and post it on the wall at the reset cue. | 6 min |
| 3. Learning activity: the Ages and Stages chart | Slide 8. Hand the task: the chart has milestones in four columns (physical, intellectual, emotional, social) and six age rows (birth to 3 months, 3 to 6, 6 to 12, 1 to 2 years, 2 to 3, 3 to 5). Eight cells are blank; the milestone strips at the bottom of the handout fill them. Students cut or copy the strips into the right cells. Circulate. Then reveal the completed chart on slide 9 and compare to the do now guesses. | Place the eight milestone strips (rolling over, sitting without help, walking, first words, two-word sentences, pretend play, stranger wariness, parallel play). Check against slide 9. Circle any do now guess that was more than six months off. | 10 min |
| 4. What a caregiver gives, and safety by stage | Slide 10 and 11. Build the board list of what young children need from a caregiver: food and sleep on a schedule, being held and talked to, safe places to move, words and books, patience, the same answer every time. Then the rule: "Every new skill is a new hazard." Rolling means the changing table; crawling means outlets and stairs; walking means the stove and the street; climbing means windows and cabinets; talking means they will ask for what they cannot have. Assign Part 3: for 6 months, 2 years, and 4 years, one caregiver action and one safety step each. Say that Lesson 3.17 (Babysitting Basics) turns this into a full safety checklist. | Copy the needs list. Complete the three-age table on Part 3 with one need met and one safety step per age, each with a "because" clause. | 9 min |
Questions to ask
Monitor understanding:
- What is object permanence, in your own words?
- A baby stops looking for a toy the second it goes under a blanket. About how old is the baby, at most?
- Which comes first, walking or first words? (They usually arrive close together, around 12 months. The chart says both are a range.)
Deepen learning:
- Why is separation anxiety a sign that things are going right, not wrong?
- A 2-year-old who just learned to climb is the same child who last month could not reach the counter. What in the house changed for the caregiver, even though the house did not change?
- If a baby is late on one milestone, what should a caregiver do first: worry, wait, or ask a doctor? (Ask. Ranges are wide; a pediatrician is the person who decides.)
Check for understanding
Thumbs at the reveal in Step 3: thumbs up if all eight strips landed in the right cell, sideways for six or seven, down for fewer. Then a whiteboard check: "Write the age, in months, when most babies start to search for a hidden toy." A "got it" answer is 8 to 12 months. Fewer than two thirds of boards in range means the timeline slide is reviewed again at the start of Lesson 3.3.
Closure (Time: 5 min)
Exit card on the bottom of the handout: 3 milestones with their age range, 2 things a young child needs from a caregiver, 1 safety step that matches a skill (write the skill and the step). Two students read their "1" aloud. Read three sticky notes from the "why should you care" wall. Sort the exit cards; a "needs more" pile on milestones means the chart is the first review item in Lesson 3.4's game.
Differentiation and supports
- ELL: the demo is physical and needs almost no language; the chart columns have picture cues (an arm, a lightbulb, a heart, two figures); word bank on the handout for baby, child, caregiver, safe, and grow in Turkish, Portuguese, and Spanish; sentence starter for Part 3: "A ___ year old can ___, so the caregiver should ___."
- IEP and 504 (general): the milestone strips can be matched by drawing a line instead of cutting; the demo sheet before and after boxes have a choice of two answers to circle; Part 3 can be two ages instead of three; extended time on Part 3 into the next do now.
- Grade 6 support: the chart has four blank cells instead of eight; Part 3 asks for one age (2 years).
- Grade 8 stretch: add the two-column note on slide 12, "What the brain is doing": connections between brain cells are built fastest in the first three years, the brain keeps the connections that get used and trims the ones that do not, and talking, holding, sleep, and food are what feed that. Write two sentences on what that means for a caregiver of a 1-year-old. (This is the middle school version of the infant brain development material from Sal's FNES 782 work.)
- UDL checkpoint used: multiple means of representation (a live demo, a timeline slide, a chart with picture cues) and multiple means of engagement (the "why should you care" wall lets students connect the idea to their own lives without sharing anything personal).
- No-kitchen or no-machine alternative: not needed; a plastic egg and a napkin work anywhere.
Assessment
| Objective | Standards met | Learning task | Assessment (formative or summative; tool) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Identify six milestone ranges and define object permanence | HDR 1. b); National FCS 12.1.2 | Chart, Step 3; demo sheet, Step 1 | Formative; chart checked at the reveal (thumbs), exit card; summative on the Lifespan Stages Quiz, items 6 to 8 |
| 2. Explain the before and after and why separation anxiety is normal | HDR 1. b); CDOS 3a Managing Information | Demo sheet before and after boxes, Step 2; whiteboard check | Formative; whiteboard answer in the 8 to 12 month range; summative on the quiz, item 8 |
| 3. Design a caregiver action and a safety step for three ages | HDR 1. c); HSW 3. c); Std 2 PI A; National FCS 15.2.1 | Part 3 table, Step 4 | Formative; scored complete, partial, or missing for daily work; the table is the seed for the Lesson 3.17 safety checklist and the Lesson 3.18 Babysitter's Activity Kit |
Homework
None. Optional: ask an adult at home what your first word was and when you walked. Write both down if they remember. You will not be asked to share.
Connections
Inside the building: the health teacher, if the grade 6 health course covers child development, so the milestone ranges match. Community: a local pediatric office or an early childhood center could check the chart's ranges once a year. [Sal: if your school runs a pre-K, its director is the person to ask, and Lesson 3.18 could test the activity kits there, with the school's permission process, never with photos.]
Sources
- NYS Middle Level CTE FACS Content Module 02, Human Development and Relationships (nyctecenter.org, June 2018), lines 1. b) and 1. c). Copy in
02 Standards/NYS Module PDFs/. - NYS Middle Level CTE Theme Module, Health, Safety, and Wellness, line 3. c). Same folder.
- NYS Learning Standards for Health, Physical Education, and Family and Consumer Sciences (1996), Standard 2, Intermediate, FACS strand, first performance indicator. Wording per
02 Standards/STANDARDS SOURCES - web research.md, section 2. - National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education 3.0 (LEAD FCS Education, 2018), competencies 12.1.2 and 15.2.1.
- Sal's own materials:
ObjectPermanence_Presentation.pptx(FNES 782, Google Drive): the silhouette hook, the egg under the napkin demo, the before and after 8 months contrast, the four-step timeline, the myth busting, and the "why should you care" slide are his and are rewritten here. The fictional case in that deck was adapted from a professor's course materials and is not reused; the child in this lesson's slides is new and fictional. His infant brain development concept map (FNES 782, Google Drive) supplies the grade 8 stretch, rewritten at a middle school level. - Milestone ranges follow the CDC "Learn the Signs. Act Early." developmental milestone checklists (cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly), which were revised in 2022 to list the age by which most children (75 percent) reach a milestone. [Sal: confirm the ranges on the chart against the current CDC page before printing.]
Teacher notes
- The egg demo takes 90 seconds and carries the lesson. Do it slowly. Ask "does it exist?" twice, once before and once during the napkin, and wait for the answer both times.
- If the period runs short, cut Step 3 to the four hardest strips and finish the chart as the do now for Lesson 3.3. Never cut Step 4; the safety by stage rule is what Lesson 3.17 builds on.
- Common mistake: students hear "8 months" as a rule and mark a 9-month-old who does not search as "behind." Say the word "about" every time, and say once that a pediatrician, not a babysitter, decides.
- The "why should you care" wall works. Leave it up through Lesson 3.4.
- [Sal: your object permanence deck opened with a "who's that Pokémon" silhouette. Use a character your students actually know, or a plain object; the point is that they recognize it from a shadow.]