Expectations of Three-Year Olds

EXPECTATIONS OF THREE-YEAR OLDS

The typical three-year old wants to please and is highly susceptible to praise.
Motor behavior is now sure. They enjoy gross motor activities with large objects. Block play usually includes much carrying and lifting, which is as important as the finished product they are building.
Fine motor development has progressed to enable this age child to pick up small objects more easily. In writing with a crayon, the adult grasp is simulated. Movements are still awkward. Sometimes they will pick up the crayon with the non-dominant hand and then transfer it to the dominant hand.
Play now goes on with other children. Whereas at two they were involved in parallel play, they now begin to play cooperatively. Play is often structured by the children's imagination.
Language has expanded and the three-year old now has the ability to have fun with language. They like to make up new words and enjoy silly rhyming. They like guessing games. The concept of space and the understanding of place words have developed so that the three-year old can respond to directions which include prepositions, such as "put the ball under the table."
Three-year olds can be induced to respond by using words such as: help, needs, guess what and how about. They like the idea of a surprise and a secret. Compliance is more assured by giving the three-year old a feeling that they have a choice.
Three and one-half is an age of transition developmentally and visually. Children are more sensitive, non-conforming, and anxious in their behavior. Stuttering, eye blinking, faulty eye coordination, and trembling hands are manifestations of motor difficulties.

EXPECTATIONS OF FOUR-YEAR OLDS

At the age of four, children begin to test and feel their power. They need climbing apparatus’, ladders, boards, and building blocks to release energy as well as learn. They enjoy dramatic play, excursions around the neighborhood, books and stories, and talking.
Four is not an easy age for children. They are considerably more powerful than at the age of three; language is developing very rapidly; time sense is increasing; and they can identify with a larger social group. They are self-sufficient in many of their personal needs. This leads many adults to think they can perform on a high level at all times. When they retreat temporarily to needing help, or when they are suddenly defiant, it may be that they are exhibiting a persistent need to experiment and test others. At four they have not learned all they need to know about the ways of their own world, or about other children or adults. Consequently, they still require acceptance of feelings and help with limits, just as they did at age three, but always with due recognition of their increased growth.
The four to five year old seeks to satisfy curiosity through a discovery process. A school learning environment arranged with centers allows the freedom and materials to provide for individual and group learning. Each child should be provided with opportunities to create, explore, discover, and experiment through their own experiences to enable them to find their own unique place in the world.

EXPECTATIONS OF FIVE-YEAR OLDS

Five-year old children have lost the top-heavy look of infancy and are usually about twice as tall as at two. They are dependable and obedient with a certain capacity for friendship. They are at their best in small group situations where they can deal with something they can see for themselves. They are relatively independent and self-sufficient but still need to be able to count on adults for security in the unfamiliar and unexpected.
Five to six-year old children think in concrete terms, therefore, they need concrete experiences in the learning environment. They have a special need to experiment and discover things that can be related to their own experiences and the world around them. Expression through movement and music is necessary for growth. Dramatic and rhythmic activities are especially appropriate for the 5 to 6 year old.
This age child is interested in creative expression through language by the introduction of sounds, letters and words. They enjoy learning games that give them opportunities to tell stories, read books through memory, and write language experience stories.
The self-assuredness of the five-year old is no longer the characteristic of the five and a half-year old who is said to be restless. During this period the child is in a more-or-less constant state of emotional tension. Many difficulties arise out of an inability to shift and to modulate behavior. Teachers can help guide this behavior by planning a smooth transition time when changing from one activity to another.

PRIORITY ACADEMIC STUDENT SKILLS

*Work and play cooperatively in a variety of settings (large groups, small groups, learning centers, etc.).

Exhibit behavior that demonstrates an understanding of school and classroom guidelines (routines, rules, schedules, procedures, etc.).
Listen to others while in large and small groups.
Stay involved in a self-selected activity for an appropriate length of time.
Follow simple verbal directions.
Work independently and/or cooperately to solve problems.
Select and complete a task while working at a learning center.
Choose a variety of materials and activities from learning centers.
Recognize dangerous situations and take action to protect self (use of telephone, safety rules, etc.).
Attend to personal tasks (clothing, personal hygiene, etc.).

PRIORITY CREATIVE SKILLS

Express thoughts and ideas about work and play.
Develop and verbalize solutions to simple problems.
Think of new uses for familiar materials.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Complete simple rhyming pairs.
Hear and repeat sounds in a sequence (hand rhymes, vocal sounds, numbers in a sequence, etc.).
Hear and repeat a simple eight-to-ten word sentence.
Tell what happens first, middle and last about an event or activity.
Dictate a story about an event or experience.
Answer questions and contribute ideas that are relevant to the conversation or group discussion.
Speak using complete sentences that include a subject, verb, simple phrases and some adjectives.
Tell what is happening in a picture.
Identify and read first and last name in print.
Reproduce a three-object pattern from memory.
Identify and name eight basic colors (black, brown, red, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple).
Match at least half of the upper-case letters with the lower-case letters.
Begin to use initial and ending consonant sounds.
Begin to name the letters of the alphabet.
Begin to recognize, name and match words in context.
Read their own "writing" to the group, teacher and/or parents.
Demonstrate left-to-right and top-to-bottom eye movement when engaged in appropriate activities (looking at pictures in sequence, following print on a page).
Show basic parts of a book (front and back), hold book correctly, indicate where to begin reading.
Print first and last name on unlined paper.
Trace, copy and generate shapes, letters and numerals. Children may still be reversing some letters.

MATHEMATICS

Identify, name and draw a circle, square, rectangle and triangle when shown an example.
Identify some three-dimensional objects (box, can, etc.).
Sort objects, group into a set and tell what the objects have in common (color, shape, size, etc.).
Build groups or sets that have more than, less than and equivalent quantities and tell which have more and less.
Pair and count objects using one-to-one correspondence.
Count orally from one to twenty.
Count objects in a set orally one-to-one from zero through ten.
Construct, identify and name sets of objects zero through ten.
Identify and name numerals zero through ten, in and out of sequence.
Match sets of objects to numerals zero through ten.
Point to objects and name their ordinal position first though fifth.
Write numerals zero to ten, in and out of sequence, on unlined paper. Children may still be reversing some numerals.
Identify and name sizes such as big, bigger, biggest; small, medium, large.
Identify and name lengths such as long, longer, longest; short, shorter, shortest.
Put objects in graduated order from shortest to tallest, thinnest to thickest, etc.
Identify and name a penny, nickel, dime and quarter.
Help create and explain a simple graph, such as a bar graph, showing how many boys and girls are in the class.
Complete and construct simple patterns with objects such as cars, blocks, etc.
Demonstrate (with objects)spatially related terms such as on, above, below, beside, under, on top of, behind and over.
Identify the days of the week and months of the year.

Logical thinking Activities:

Classify blocks by size
Sort crayons, markers, and pencils into containers
Compare sets using more and less
Sorting buttons, keys, coins, pasta, cereal, fabric or paper scraps, marbles, balls, stamps, postcards, jar lids, leaves, shells, playing cards, etc. and explaining why
Sorting zoo and farm animals for storage
Going on a shape or color hunt.
Give children a small card with a number on it. Put a large number card on the floor and ask children with the matching card number to hop, jump, etc., then place their small number card on top of the big one. Continue until everyone matches their numbers.

Seriation Activities:

Create graphs of snack time choices or how many kids walk or ride the bus
Voting
Differences in food
Comparing number of sunny days, cloudy days, etc.
Hang pieces of yarn in front of the room and ask which is the longest or which is the shortest. Have the kids arrange the yarn by lengths from shortest to longest

Measurement Activities:

Measure shoes, height, length of table, etc. with yarn or hands
Sizes of containers
Blocks to build towers with length or height equal to other objects
Number of steps it takes to get somewhere,
Measure ingredients for cooking.

Shape Activities:

Hunt for shapes throughout the room
Pass around a shape and have children look at it and feel it with eyes open and closed
Have children hunt for shapes in a magazine and paste them on a page
Have the children make objects using a variety of shapes
Have ten cutouts of all different shapes and envelopes with that shape in them, kids place shapes into their corresponding envelopes
Trace shapes, then color them in
Place one of each shape on a magnetic board or flannel board. Have the children look through a basket of shapes and place a shape next to its corresponding match
Select several sheets of paper and draw one large shape (can also use numerals). Set out 20 inch long shoelaces or string. Invite the children to create the shapes or numerals by placing the laces on top of the shape or numeral on the construction paper sheets.
Use pieces of masking tape to make large outlines on the floor of a circle, square, triangle, etc. Let the children take turns walking, crawling or hopping around the edges of the shapes. Or ask the child to first identify the shape before walking around it.

Numeral Activities:

Have the children tell how many of each body parts they have. How many noses? How many eyes, ears, chins, fingers, etc.
Select five index cards. On the left-hand side of each, write a numeral from 1 to 5. Then, on the right side, punch a matching number of holes with a hole punch. Let the children take turns counting the number of holes in the cards and naming the matching numerals. For older children, give them paper squares with numerals and let them punch out matching numbers of holes.
For each child cut the numeral 1 to 5 out of posterboard. Set out glue and small objects, such as buttons, toothpicks, cotton balls and circle stickers. Help them glue matching numbers of small objects on their posterboard numerals. (1 toothpick for the numeral 1, 2 buttons for the numeral 2, etc.)
Cut five apple shapes out of cardboard. Cut one finger hole in the first shape, two in the second, and so on. Color the apple shapes red and mark each one with the numeral that matches the number of holes in it. Let your children take turns choosing an apple shape, sticking their fingers through the holes and then naming the number of "worms" they see.
Number the inside bottoms of six paper baking cups from 1 to 6. Place the baking cups in a 6-cup muffin tin. Give a child a box containing 21 counters (pennies, small buttons, beans, etc.). Have the child identify the numerals in the bottoms of the paper baking cups and drop in the corresponding numbers of counters.
Divide a paper plate into six equal sections and label the sections from one to six by drawing on sets of dots. Write a numeral from 1 to 6 on each of six spring-type clothespins. Let the children take turns clipping the clothespins to the matching numbered sections on the circle.
Select five index cards. Write a numeral from 1 to 5 on each card. Give the cards to a child along with 15 paper clips. Have the child choose one card at a time, name the numeral and then attach that number of paper clips to the card.
Make a blank book for each child by stapling 10 pieces of white paper together with a colored paper cover. Write "My Counting Book" and the child's name on the front. Number the pages in the book from 1 to 10. Let your children look through magazines or catalogs and tear or cut out small pictures. Then have them glue one picture on the first page of their books, two pictures on the second page and so on.

Opposites Activities:

rough and smooth-use rocks, fabric squares, etc.
hard and soft
Use boxes for the following opposites: big/little
open/closed
light/heavy
thick/thin
full/empty
wide/narrow
many/few
far/near
first/last

Pattern Activities:

Look for patterns on leaves
Working with simple patterns in their bead and block construction
Building patterns with two colors of Unifix cubes or pattern blocks
Constructing a pattern with two colors of napkins at snack time
Clapping the rhythms of their name
Coloring every second or fifth or tenth day on a calendar of days in school
Exploring patterns in wallpaper
Create patterns using sponge printing, collage materials, geometric shapes or wrapping or wall paper
Find patterns on the United States flag

Color Activities:

Glue a colored button to the bottom of a 6 cup muffin tin, using 6 different colors in each tin. (Have the same number and same color of buttons off to the side.) Encourage the children to match the colored buttons to the ones in the tins.

Try guessing how many of the same colored buttons, beads, etc., there are in a glass jar, then count to see who came the closest.
Cut red, yellow and blue cellophane into desired shapes. Have the children glue the shapes on sheets of waxed paper, overlapping the edges of the cellophane as they glue. Attach construction paper frames to the collages, if desired. Then hand them in the window to let the light shine through all the colors.
For each child put a small amount of red liquid tempera paint and a small amount of yellow into a Ziploc storage bag. Seal the bags closed. Then let the children squeeze their bags to mix the colors and create orange. Follow the same procedure using blue and yellow paint to make green; red and blue paint to make purple, etc.
Cut a 12-inch circle out of white tagboard and divide it into eight sections. Use crayons of markers to color each section a different color and draw matching colored dots on eight spring-type clothespins. Then let the children match the colors by clipping the clothespins around the edge of the wheel on the appropriate sections.
Cut two squares each out of six different colors of construction paper and glue the squares on twelve index cards. Mix up the cards and spread them out face down on a table. Let one child begin by turning up two cards. If the colors match, let the child keep the cards. If they don't, have the child replace both cards face down exactly where they were before. Continue until all the cards have been matched. Then let the child who ended up with the most cards have the first turn when you start the game again.
Use red, yellow and blue yarn to form three circles on a carpet (or cut circles out of construction paper). Set out red, yellow and blue wooden beads. Then let the children sort the beads by placing them inside the matching colored circles.
Cut six squares out of different colors of construction paper and insert them in the sides of a plastic photo cube. Do the same to a second cube, using the same colors. Then let the children move the cubes around to find the matching pairs of colors. For variation, use one cube as a color die. Let the children take turns rolling the die and then naming the color that comes up.
On a piece of paper for each child, attach several different colored self-stick dots in a row to start a pattern (red, blue, red, blue; orange, yellow, green, orange, yellow green, etc.) Then give the children more dots and let them continue the pattern across their papers. When they have finished, start a new pattern on each paper, if desired.
Turn a shoebox upside down and cut two parallel rows of slits in the top. Draw different colored dots on the ends of one set of tongue depressors and matching colored dots on the ends of another set. Insert one set of sticks in one of the rows of slits. Then let the children insert matching colored sticks from the second set in the appropriate slits in the other row.
Make colored eyeglasses by cutting frames out of desired color of tagboard and glue matching colored cellophane squares over the eyeholes. (Use red, yellow and blue and combine the colors to make green, orange an purple.) Then attach pipe cleaners to the sides of the frames and bend them to fit over the children's ears.
Place a small mirror in a glass of water and tilt it against the side of the glass. Stand the glass in direct sunlight so that the mirror reflects a rainbow on the wall. Name the colors with the children (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple). Explain that sunlight contains all these colors mixed together, but when it hits the water (or raindrops in the sky), all the colors are separated.
Cut large squares out of selected colors of construction paper and spread them out on the floor. Then ask the children to perform different actions by giving directions such as: "Jason, can you put your foot on a red square? Brian, can you jump over a purple square?" Finally, ask everyone to find a square to stand on and let each child name the color of his or her square.
Cut small matching squares out of different colors of construction paper. Place the squares in a paper bag and have each child draw out a square. Play music and let the children move around the room to find their "color partners" by matching up their colored squares. Then have them hold hands with their partners and circle around the room. After everyone has joined the circle, stop the music, collect the squares and start the game again.

MOTOR SKILLS