DCF CHILD CARE 40 HOUR FINAL EXAMS
CORRECT QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔Piaget's 4 Stages - ✔✔Sensorimotor (birth to approximately 2 years) - Children learn
through sensory perception and motor activity.
Preoperational (2 years to 7 years) - Children are bound by what they experience
directly and not by what they think. Children begin to use symbols (one thing that
represents another). For example, using sand to make a cake. Children are egocentric;
their thinking centers on themselves. They can't see things from another point of view or
from another perspective. For example, they do not realize that when they stand in front
of the TV, no one else can see it.
Concrete-Operational (7 years to 11 years) - Children become more rational in their
thinking. For example, realizing that Santa Claus probably doesn't exist.
Formal Operations (11 years and beyond) - The final stage of cognitive development, in
which thinking becomes very abstract. Children think beyond the present and think
about ideal situations.
✔✔Vygotsky - ✔✔children create knowledge by interacting with their environment AND
through social interactions, their culture and the use of language.
Two developmental levels of ability:
,The ability to do something with help or assistance
The ability to do something without help or assistance
The distance between these two levels is called the "Zone of Proximal Development."
✔✔Structure of a Neuron - ✔✔Neuron - specialized nerve cells that make up the central
nervous system.
Axon - Each neuron has one axon. An axon is a fiber that sends messages "away" to
other neurons.
Dendrites - Each neuron has many dendrites. Dendrites accept incoming messages
from the axons.
✔✔How many neurons are in a brain at birth? - ✔✔When a child is born, there are
already nearly 100 billion neurons in the child's brain.
✔✔Physical Development - ✔✔Physical development refers to the development of large
and small muscles as they gradually develop. It involves typical growth patterns,
changes in weight and height, and general health and safety.
✔✔Art Progression - ✔✔Children will typically progress from drawing free radicals into
drawing basic shapes, such as circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles, then
eventually drawing representations of people, places and ideas.
By the age of three, children should begin to draw their first representations of the
human form using basic shapes.
✔✔free radical - ✔✔is a jumble of straight or curved lines that is freely floating on the
paper.
✔✔Writing Progression - ✔✔Writing begins to emerge as random scribbling and
progresses to invented spelling in the kindergarten years. With enough opportunities to
practice scribbling and writing, and with enough encouragement and enthusiasm from
caregivers, children learn to write with increasing effectiveness and also understand the
importance of written communication.
✔✔Mildred Parten Four types of play - ✔✔Solitary play - playing alone
Parallel play - playing beside other children, but not interacting with them
Associative play - children play together with materials and some talking (3-5 years old)
Cooperative play - children play together by planning and working toward a common
goal (5 years old through adolescence)
✔✔Stages of Development - ✔✔Stages of development for young children are
commonly clustered into domains related to physical development, language and
,communication, social and emotional, cognitive development and general knowledge,
and approaches to learning.
✔✔Classroom Structure - ✔✔Children are better able to adapt to the demands of formal
schooling when they have been provided opportunities to explore and practice within an
environment that is consistent and predictable, yet flexible and inviting.
✔✔Classroom Structure should include - ✔✔-Furniture for routine care and play should
be child sized.
-open shelves, baskets and cubbies should be placed on the child's level so they can
easily reach them.
-printed words that are meaningful and at a level where children can easily see them.
-Children's art and writing samples should be displayed around the classroom at the
children's eye level.
✔✔Interactive Learning Centers - ✔✔-Dramatic Play/Home Living: kitchen furniture,
mirrors, dress-up clothes, baby dolls, tables/chairs
-Library: books, cozy area/ listening center, rugs, puppets, soft pillows/furniture, natural
lighting
-Discovery/Sensory/Science: items found in nature (pine cones, shells, rocks),
water/sand table, sensory items (shakers, smelling jars)
-Blocks/Construction: wooden/plastic/cardboard blocks, trucks/cars, doll house
-Art/Creative Expression: paper, paints, pencils, markers, pens, collage materials,
brushes, easels
-Music/Movement: records, tapes, CDs, musical instruments
-Manipulatives: pop beads, stack/nesting toys, puzzles
-Wood Working: tools, Styrofoam, glue, toy hammer/nails
-Feeding Area: tables/chairs, utensils, garbage can, sinks
-Sleeping Area: individual cots, blankets, transitional objects, sheets, soothing music,
dim lights
-Writing Center: pencils, crayons, markers, dry-erase board, paper, sticky notes,
erasers, stamps
-Parent Communication Board
✔✔Room Arrangement - ✔✔-Exits clearly marked
-Remove clutter and eliminate blind spots
-clear pathways that allow for smooth traffic flow in and out of each area
-Keep toys and supplies on low, open shelves with picture and word labels that are
appropriate for the children's age and abilities
-Traffic patterns should be set up to avoid large open run-ways, yet should not be so
divided up they are hard to move around in.
Good room arrangements foster positive relationships and interactions by creating a
homelike atmosphere that is inviting and culturally representative.
, ✔✔Room Arrangement Tips - ✔✔Easy movement between centers is encouraged when
like centers are placed near each other. Messy play areas, such as art, sand and water,
should be placed near each other and should be convenient to a water source to
facilitate setup and cleanup. Quiet, clean areas, such as books, manipulatives and
computers, should be physically placed away from the messy areas.
✔✔Recycling and Resources - ✔✔There is a list of resources for you to use when trying
to find free or low-cost items for your classroom. These resources include: carpet
companies that have free carpet square samples; canvas/awning makers, who often
have heavy scrap material; dress shops that have material scraps for making bean
bags; and repair shops for finding realistic home living props, such as toasters, TVs,
and video cameras. Dollar stores can also be a great resource, just be careful about
small parts or objects that might be a potential safety hazard. Appliance stores often
throw away large boxes that can be used for many things, and these are especially
good for creating houses and painting projects. The ideas are endless!
Two great resources for finding inexpensive, creative ideas are Beautiful Junk Creative
Classroom Uses for Recyclable Materials by Karen Brackett and Rosie Manley and
Beautiful Stuff! Learning with Found Materials by Cathy Weisman Topal and Lella
Gandini.
✔✔Daily Schedule - ✔✔-written and posted in class
-structure and sequences
-balanced (loud and quiet, physical and non physical, active and passive)
✔✔Transitions - ✔✔-Transitions take place all day long, whenever one activity stops
and another starts
-Some transitions are more difficult because of the number of steps involved (lunch to
nap)
-It is easier to move from quiet to loud/active than from loud/active to quiet activities
✔✔The following ideas will help you ease chaos during transition times: - ✔✔-
Encourage children to clean up after play so you can supervise rather than clean
-Plan your daily schedule so there are as few transitions as possible
-Have materials ready so one activity can end and another can begin without having the
children wait
-Use methods like music or a movement activity to hold children's attention during the
transition
-Offer choices to the children. For example, "You can sit at the table until we finish or
you can listen to the story."
-Help children become familiar with the routine, so they know what to expect
-Give children a warning just before the transition to help them prepare and get ready
for what is coming next
✔✔Scaffolding - ✔✔assistance a teacher or more skilled peer provides
CORRECT QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔Piaget's 4 Stages - ✔✔Sensorimotor (birth to approximately 2 years) - Children learn
through sensory perception and motor activity.
Preoperational (2 years to 7 years) - Children are bound by what they experience
directly and not by what they think. Children begin to use symbols (one thing that
represents another). For example, using sand to make a cake. Children are egocentric;
their thinking centers on themselves. They can't see things from another point of view or
from another perspective. For example, they do not realize that when they stand in front
of the TV, no one else can see it.
Concrete-Operational (7 years to 11 years) - Children become more rational in their
thinking. For example, realizing that Santa Claus probably doesn't exist.
Formal Operations (11 years and beyond) - The final stage of cognitive development, in
which thinking becomes very abstract. Children think beyond the present and think
about ideal situations.
✔✔Vygotsky - ✔✔children create knowledge by interacting with their environment AND
through social interactions, their culture and the use of language.
Two developmental levels of ability:
,The ability to do something with help or assistance
The ability to do something without help or assistance
The distance between these two levels is called the "Zone of Proximal Development."
✔✔Structure of a Neuron - ✔✔Neuron - specialized nerve cells that make up the central
nervous system.
Axon - Each neuron has one axon. An axon is a fiber that sends messages "away" to
other neurons.
Dendrites - Each neuron has many dendrites. Dendrites accept incoming messages
from the axons.
✔✔How many neurons are in a brain at birth? - ✔✔When a child is born, there are
already nearly 100 billion neurons in the child's brain.
✔✔Physical Development - ✔✔Physical development refers to the development of large
and small muscles as they gradually develop. It involves typical growth patterns,
changes in weight and height, and general health and safety.
✔✔Art Progression - ✔✔Children will typically progress from drawing free radicals into
drawing basic shapes, such as circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles, then
eventually drawing representations of people, places and ideas.
By the age of three, children should begin to draw their first representations of the
human form using basic shapes.
✔✔free radical - ✔✔is a jumble of straight or curved lines that is freely floating on the
paper.
✔✔Writing Progression - ✔✔Writing begins to emerge as random scribbling and
progresses to invented spelling in the kindergarten years. With enough opportunities to
practice scribbling and writing, and with enough encouragement and enthusiasm from
caregivers, children learn to write with increasing effectiveness and also understand the
importance of written communication.
✔✔Mildred Parten Four types of play - ✔✔Solitary play - playing alone
Parallel play - playing beside other children, but not interacting with them
Associative play - children play together with materials and some talking (3-5 years old)
Cooperative play - children play together by planning and working toward a common
goal (5 years old through adolescence)
✔✔Stages of Development - ✔✔Stages of development for young children are
commonly clustered into domains related to physical development, language and
,communication, social and emotional, cognitive development and general knowledge,
and approaches to learning.
✔✔Classroom Structure - ✔✔Children are better able to adapt to the demands of formal
schooling when they have been provided opportunities to explore and practice within an
environment that is consistent and predictable, yet flexible and inviting.
✔✔Classroom Structure should include - ✔✔-Furniture for routine care and play should
be child sized.
-open shelves, baskets and cubbies should be placed on the child's level so they can
easily reach them.
-printed words that are meaningful and at a level where children can easily see them.
-Children's art and writing samples should be displayed around the classroom at the
children's eye level.
✔✔Interactive Learning Centers - ✔✔-Dramatic Play/Home Living: kitchen furniture,
mirrors, dress-up clothes, baby dolls, tables/chairs
-Library: books, cozy area/ listening center, rugs, puppets, soft pillows/furniture, natural
lighting
-Discovery/Sensory/Science: items found in nature (pine cones, shells, rocks),
water/sand table, sensory items (shakers, smelling jars)
-Blocks/Construction: wooden/plastic/cardboard blocks, trucks/cars, doll house
-Art/Creative Expression: paper, paints, pencils, markers, pens, collage materials,
brushes, easels
-Music/Movement: records, tapes, CDs, musical instruments
-Manipulatives: pop beads, stack/nesting toys, puzzles
-Wood Working: tools, Styrofoam, glue, toy hammer/nails
-Feeding Area: tables/chairs, utensils, garbage can, sinks
-Sleeping Area: individual cots, blankets, transitional objects, sheets, soothing music,
dim lights
-Writing Center: pencils, crayons, markers, dry-erase board, paper, sticky notes,
erasers, stamps
-Parent Communication Board
✔✔Room Arrangement - ✔✔-Exits clearly marked
-Remove clutter and eliminate blind spots
-clear pathways that allow for smooth traffic flow in and out of each area
-Keep toys and supplies on low, open shelves with picture and word labels that are
appropriate for the children's age and abilities
-Traffic patterns should be set up to avoid large open run-ways, yet should not be so
divided up they are hard to move around in.
Good room arrangements foster positive relationships and interactions by creating a
homelike atmosphere that is inviting and culturally representative.
, ✔✔Room Arrangement Tips - ✔✔Easy movement between centers is encouraged when
like centers are placed near each other. Messy play areas, such as art, sand and water,
should be placed near each other and should be convenient to a water source to
facilitate setup and cleanup. Quiet, clean areas, such as books, manipulatives and
computers, should be physically placed away from the messy areas.
✔✔Recycling and Resources - ✔✔There is a list of resources for you to use when trying
to find free or low-cost items for your classroom. These resources include: carpet
companies that have free carpet square samples; canvas/awning makers, who often
have heavy scrap material; dress shops that have material scraps for making bean
bags; and repair shops for finding realistic home living props, such as toasters, TVs,
and video cameras. Dollar stores can also be a great resource, just be careful about
small parts or objects that might be a potential safety hazard. Appliance stores often
throw away large boxes that can be used for many things, and these are especially
good for creating houses and painting projects. The ideas are endless!
Two great resources for finding inexpensive, creative ideas are Beautiful Junk Creative
Classroom Uses for Recyclable Materials by Karen Brackett and Rosie Manley and
Beautiful Stuff! Learning with Found Materials by Cathy Weisman Topal and Lella
Gandini.
✔✔Daily Schedule - ✔✔-written and posted in class
-structure and sequences
-balanced (loud and quiet, physical and non physical, active and passive)
✔✔Transitions - ✔✔-Transitions take place all day long, whenever one activity stops
and another starts
-Some transitions are more difficult because of the number of steps involved (lunch to
nap)
-It is easier to move from quiet to loud/active than from loud/active to quiet activities
✔✔The following ideas will help you ease chaos during transition times: - ✔✔-
Encourage children to clean up after play so you can supervise rather than clean
-Plan your daily schedule so there are as few transitions as possible
-Have materials ready so one activity can end and another can begin without having the
children wait
-Use methods like music or a movement activity to hold children's attention during the
transition
-Offer choices to the children. For example, "You can sit at the table until we finish or
you can listen to the story."
-Help children become familiar with the routine, so they know what to expect
-Give children a warning just before the transition to help them prepare and get ready
for what is coming next
✔✔Scaffolding - ✔✔assistance a teacher or more skilled peer provides
