Three Year Olds
During this year, we will focus on building your child’s confidence and self esteem by creating experiences for him/her that require independence such as a job of the week, unpacking his/her things in the morning, cleaning up after himself/herself, etc. Three year olds will also work on resolving conflicts, cooperating with others, problem solving, and expressing their feelings. Your child will learn these social/emotional skills through activities in large and small groups during centers and snack/lunch time with friends and during free play in the room or on the playground. These skills are what will help your child succeed in life.
Threes will enjoy activities such as the following during circle time:
- Discussion of the schedule
- Discussion of assigned jobs
- Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance
- Discussion of the theme & letter of the week
- Movement activities
- Songs/Finger plays
- Books
- Discussion of the weather and graphing the weather
- Calendar activities
- Rhyming activities
- Activities with colors, shapes, and numbers
Three year olds will continue to have a theme of the week but will also add a letter of the week starting with the letter L on September 13th and ending with letter Q on May 23rd. Letters will not be learned in alphabetical order, which will allow your child to focus on a particular letter rather than, for example, thinking that LMNOP is ONE letter. The order of the letters will be introduced according to the developmental order of writing: letters with straight lines first, followed by letters with slanted lines, curved lines, and wavy lines. The threes will focus on introducing and recognizing the uppercase and lowercase letters. They will also work towards finding words that begin with the letter.
Students will also create a brag book that will show their progression with coloring and writing. The three year olds will not use lined paper to write on due to the natural progression with fine motor skills. It’s easy as a parent to want to push your child to the next level; however, we do not want to slow the learning process down by skipping skills. Pages for the brag book will be completed in class and will be laminated and placed in a 3-ring binder. Brag books will be kept in your child’s classroom until the end of May.
Three year olds will continue to work on their gross and fine motor skills through play. With daily calendar activities, children will be exposed to numbers and counting on a daily basis. On a weekly basis, students will have activities that focus on rhyming words, shapes, colors, and numbers. Math skills will be learned through play with graphing, patterning, and counting. Threes will also enjoy activities and art projects dealing with the theme of the week. Show and Share will be scheduled at least once a month.
Centers include the following areas: art, dramatic play, blocks, manipulative/puzzles, music, books, writing, and science with sensory table.
