One of a series of documents produced by a nationwide network of early childhood education specialists, teachers, parents, and Head Start staff, the guide describes developmental characteristics of preschool and elementary school students by grade level. Arranged into five curriculum areas, the first presents physical, motor, social, cognitive, and emotional characteristics for each grade level. The second curriculum area, science, outlines a science skill continuum and presents metric and science information; basic science concepts; and facts about time, matter, space, and energy. Social Studies, the third area, presents an age-appropriate social studies continuum, including basic approaches, classroom activities, background information, and basic social studies concepts. The fourth curriculum area, language arts, focuses on basic reading/language art usage concepts. Math, the fifth area, deals with stages of math concept development and presents basic math facts related to problem solving and metric basics. (LH)