Draw, Talk, Write and Share (DTWS) is a pedagogical approach resulting from research conducted by the author (Mackenzie, 2011, 2014; Mackenzie & Veresov, 2013). In this article however, I describe how DTWS can also be used as a powerful observation process, allowing educators in preschool and early years classrooms to find out what children ‘know and can do’ (Mackenzie, 2011) in terms of drawing, talking and early writing. Used for this purpose, it becomes a systematic, formative assessment task. (author abstract)