For children to reach their full potential during their early years, adults around them must provide environments and experiences that promote growth and learning. Foundations: Early Learning Standards for North Carolina Preschoolers and Strategies for Guiding Their Success (referred to in this document as Foundations) was developed to identify a core set of expectations for children ages 3, 4, and Pre-Kindergarten 5. Rather than defining how programs should operate, Foundations outlines what we should see children beginning to do in five interrelated domains, defining areas that should be the focus of daily activities. This document is not a curriculum for preschool programs, but instead provides a lens for looking at curricula and daily activities to see if they address important areas of child development. The expectations define what children should have opportunities to learn and suggest what early educators and families can do to support those opportunities.