Three Year Olds

With their new found sense of independence, three year olds are gaining a new awareness of their place in the world and their ability to affect things in it.  There are many physical, language and cognitive skills occurring during the three year old year, and our objectives are reflective of the skills three year olds are discovering they have in themselves.

Curriculum Objectives

  1. Sense of Self
    • Demonstrates ability to adjust to new situations and follow routines
    • Shows trust in adults; listens to parents and teachers and trusts them to keep child safe
    • Recognizes and labels own feelings
    • Continue learning skills to manage own feelings
    • Asks for help if cannot handle own feelings
  2. Gross Motor
    • Demonstrates basic locomotor skills (running, jumping, hopping, galloping)
    • Climbs up and down comfortably
    • Begins to develop balancing skills
    • Throws ball
    • Runs with ease
  3. Cognitive Skills
    • Observes and examines objects
    • Demonstrates problem solving skills: uses a variety of methods to answer a question, observation, asking someone, research, looks for alternative solutions to a problem
    • Builds persistence and patience in approaching tasks
    • Classifies objects by similar and different properties (color, size, shape)
    • Demonstrates ability to compare and measure (begins to use simple measurement and comparative words)
    • Begins an understanding of order; can identify things in a series, can arrange objects in a continuum
    • Recognizes patterns
    • Makes believe with objects; clearly understands difference between real and pretend
    • Begins representational thinking—can translate representations to a drawing or building
  4. Language Skills
    • Can hear and understand sounds of own language
    • Develops an understanding of rhyming words
    • Can express self using words
    •  Can communicate with full sentences (several words and more then one thought in one sentence)
    • Understands and follows verbal directions
    • Answers questions with a complete thought (more then yes or no)
    • Asks questions with purpose of furthering own understanding
    • Understands rules and structure of conversation, and participates in conversation
    • Develops a joy for reading
    • Demonstrates an understanding of print concepts (recognizes that print carries meaning, that each word can be written down or read)
    • Demonstrates knowledge of the alphabet: recognizes a few letters by name
  5. Fine Motor
    • Demonstrates self help skills such as feeding self, removing socks, shoes, washes hands
    • Manipulates objects with hands with increasing control
    • Performs simple manipulations (holding scissors in one hand, grasping small items, dropping small items into a container)
    • Makes several basic strokes with a pen or marker
    • Begins to make recognizable shapes or pattern
  6. Self Care/Responsibility for Self
    • Chooses and becomes involved in one activity out of several options
    • Keeps track of personal belongings while at school
    • Demonstrates respect and care for classroom and materials
    • Participates in clean up with decreasing amount of guidance
    • Participates in group activities
    • Follows classroom routines without multiple reminder