Our play-based program provides a wonderful foundation that supports one of our primary goals for children in the three-year-old group – essential development of children’s social skills. As children engage with each other, they trial different methods of interacting, they discover self-control, practice negotiating behaviours, learn to share, cooperate and take turns.
Through play, children feel safe to experiment. They learn what works and what doesn’t, they build confidence with their own capacity to maintain relationships and work out what to do when things don’t go as planned.
Programming initiatives will vary and therefore impact what actually occurs within each session. As an overview however, our children will have opportunities to:
- Spend time exploring a variety of activities and experiences inside and outside.
- Extend their interests and build new understandings through play.
- Participate in teacher/educator initiated teaching and learning.
- Explore the possibilities of open ended activities.
- Share group / mat times, which may include a combination of discussions, games, music, movement activities, songs, mimes and story time.
- Snack time.
- Enjoy scheduled incursions (these vary from year to year depending on programming and children’s interests).
- Build community links when visitors / guests spend time and share knowledge and skills.
- Develop, extend and build on emerging skills in these important areas:
- Social.
- Emotional.
- Physical (fine and gross motor).
- Learning / cognition (problem solving).
- Communication.