Curriculum Goals for 3 Year Old Classes

At SPS, our 3s classes spend every day learning through play! With specials like music, Spanish, P.E., and Library throughout the week plus a full half hour of recess every day, all of our children get a wonderfully full day of learning and moving. The 3s classes join our Pre-K classes for chapel on the first Tuesday of every month.

Cognitive Growth

• Provide learning activities in language arts.   

  • receptive language

  • expressive language and increasing vocabulary

  • pre-writing activities using crayons, pencils, pens, markers, and fingerpaints, water paints with small brushes   

  • visual discrimination through matching, finding hidden objects, sequencing activities, color naming

  • introductory activities for letter recognition

• Provide concrete activities in pre-math and logical thinking skills.

  • sorting, classifying, matching, patterns

  • sequencing and recalling sequence of events

  • counting

  • one-to-one correspondence

  • beginning number recognition

  • memory skills

• Provide learning experiences in science.

  • growing and the care of living things

  • cooking activities

  • gathering and collecting things from nature

  • simple experiments

  • activities to enhance observation skills and develop concepts such as same and different

• Provide a wide range of art and music activities.

• Facilitate creative and make-believe play

  • with objects

  • about situations

  • assuming pretend roles

  • interacting with other children

• Provide opportunities to express self through music, art, and movement.

• Provide opportunities to begin learning Spanish.

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Physical Growth

• Provide opportunities for large muscle development, muscle and limb control.

• Provide opportunities for small muscle development.

• Provide opportunities to develop spatial skills, hand-eye coordination, balance and coordination.

• Encourage good habits of health and safety.

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Emotional Growth

• Provide a safe, healthy and secure environment away from home.

• Provide a welcoming atmosphere of joy and warmth for the child.

• Provide a nurturing atmosphere and become a significant, consistent adult in the child’s life.

• Create an environment that encourages curiosity, discovery and exploration.

• Provide experiences that will increase child’s positive self-image, sense of competence and pride in accomplishments.

• Provide experiences to develop qualities of responsibility, initiative, and independence.

• Provide opportunities to expand attention span, including practice working independently, sitting still, concentrating, following directions, and persevering until a task is finished.

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Social Growth

• Encourage building friendships among all class members.

• Encourage sharing and taking turns.

• Encourage and model understanding and respecting differences.

• Encourage child to accept responsibility for maintaining classroom environment.

• Encourage child to work cooperatively with others.

• Encourage child to resolve conflicts constructively.

• Encourage child to share adults with other children.

• Encourage child to attempt to conform to rules and follow directions.

• Provide child opportunities to practice thoughtfulness and giving.

• Encourage respect for authority, property, and the rights of others.

Spiritual Growth

• Encourage and model showing love for each other.

• Demonstrate and encourage consciousness of God.

• Guide in development of ecological values and concern for God’s world.

• Help children recognize differences and likenesses in people and to show acceptance.

• Provide learning experiences about Christmas and Easter.

• Introduce rituals of thankfulness and concern.