At Gee Whiz, we are asked all the time, "Does Gee Whiz contain a formal assessment?." The short answer is "no" but the complete answer is "this is intentional." Because Gee Whiz incorporates 10 developmental areas and 40 skills (Learning Indicators), you can use whichever formal child assessment tool would work best for you and your children. Read on to learn more.
Anecdotal Notes and Reflections
Anecdotal notes & reflections are important tools for gathering information about each child. There is an entire section in the Gee Whiz User’s Guide dedicated to this topic. We even include a form called, “Observe and Reflect” that you can print out and use when gathering anecdotal notes and reflections. Click the title above.
10 Developmental Areas
Gee Whiz experiences cover all 10 Developmental Areas in a meaningful, hands-on-way. We also use picture code to help you connect those developmental areas to each activity you do with children. Here are the picture codes and developmental areas:
Learning Indicators - 40 Different Skills
The Gee Whiz curriculum covers 40 different skills within the 10 developmental areas. We call these skills Learning Indicators. We even link these skills to the specific activities within the Teaching Guides with a chart in the back of each guide & our new Connecting the Dots component. To learn more about both of these tools, and to read through the 40 Learning Indicators, please click HERE.
Developmental Checklists
We know that children develop at different rates. To help you keep track of each child’s level of development, you will find helpful developmental checklists on the Gee Whiz website for children birth through 5. These were developed by the CDC and are available in both English and Spanish:
