This is an essay on assessing children's learning through play, Kei Tua o te Pae/Learning Assessment: Early Childhood Examples, Stories of learning and how useful Kei Tua o te Pae and learning stories are intended for early childhood teachers. Kei Tua o te Pae/Assessment of Learning: Early Childhood Examples are extremely useful for any early childhood teacher at any level, from student teacher to early childhood teacher with decades of experience as they are many different examples of evaluation of a child. The Kei Tua o te Pae example booklets are helpful for a teacher to go back and study often so they can reinforce the different types of ways to evaluate a child. Kei Tua o te Pae/Assessment for Learning: Early Childhood Examples takes a sociocultural approach to assessment. The early childhood examples are based on the philosophies of Te Wāriki, New Zealand's bicultural early childhood curriculum. The four principles of Te Whāriki, Empowerment/Whakamana, Holistic Development/Kotahitanga, Family and Community/Whānau tangata and Relationships/Ngā hononga, are the principles for assessment. Woven into the philosophy and four principles are the five strands of Te Whāriki which are: Wellbeing/Mana Atua, Belonging/Mana Whenua, Contribution/Mana Tangata, Communication/Mana Reo and Exploration/Mana Aotūroa (Ministry of Education. (2010 ) ).The Kei Tua o te Pae resources are extremely valuable, they are a series of different books, 20 in total, including different books for different assessments. The titles of the evaluation books included in the series are; Children contribute to their own assessment, assessment and learning: community, assessment and learning...... middle of paper ......learning the story by noticing, recognizing and responding is crucial and it is imperative that teachers take control time to learn how to properly evaluate a child. Works Cited May H, Carr M & Podmore V. (2010: Actionresearch on evaluation in early childhood education: NZCER). 877140-73-2Ministry of Education. (2010). Early Childhood Education ECE Educate. Retrieved from http://www.educate.ece.govt.nzMinistry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki Mātauranga mō ngāMokopuna o AotearoaEarly Childhood Curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand. Podmore, Valerie N. (2006). Observation: origins and approaches to early childhood research and practice. Wellington, New Zealand: NZCER. ISBN 1-877398-15-12. (Chapter 3. Processes: how to observe? Pp. 39-77)