Preschool Curriculum for 3-4 year olds

elee124065

Sat, Nov 12 2016, 11:15 pm

I have an structured frum playgroup out of my home (7 years). The age group I have always had was younger three year olds. Now I have older three year olds (some are four already). Can I get some feedback on what you are teaching your little ones? We have the davening, parsha in our day and we learn the entire aleph bais. I think the parents want them to learn the ABC's. Currently, we are learning to recognize our English name. Should I focus more on Aleph Bais or ABC's? I have a binder for them for the Aleph Bais but for ABC's I was more interested in doing sensory/tactile experiences with them. Your thoughts? Thanks.

amother

Papaya

Sun, Nov 13 2016, 5:51 pm

Before reading - that's with both ABC and א ב , comes the preparation for reading. I did a lot (months) of work with my students (similar age) before teaching them to read, on this. We broke down words, and clapped to each sound "c-a-t", "d-o-g", "f-I-x". Stick to three letter words at first, and clap out each sound. Then, there's taking any word - such as their name - and focusing on beginning sounds, and, later, the end sounds. We played games with them all the time "if you're name begins with "c" get your lunch / wash hands / line up , the kids got used to it and it hardly took a minute, so we did this little game each day, and sometimes focused on their first names, other times, last names (to get them thinking) and sometimes did the end sounds of the names (which was much harder).

Rhyming - we did loads of rhyming with them. Games, stories, clapping out sounds, going round the children and asking them for words that rhyme with "this object" of "this word". Keep up the pace so they don't get bored.

Constantly break up the words you say into sounds, when you talk to them. Such as, "who wants to choose a b-oo-k", and "p-u-t the garbage in the b-I-n", and "line u-p". I would repeat myself alot at first, when I broke up the words, so that the children would get what I'm saying, and may spontaneously ask a child to blend the word together (what word did I say?). Sometimes they'd all call it out together. It was like a game in the class, and sometimes as an activity, or if we had a few minutes, I'd ask a child to break up whatever word it was - or show a picture of an object for him to break up into sounds.

Another activity I did - also helps you to see who has it and who struggles - is tell them to do things such as "st-a-mp your f-ee-t" and see who does it, "cl-a-p your h-a-n-d-s" or "touch your n-e-ck".

Reading lots and lots of story books - and use all these techniques whilst reading the story. The children got so used to hearing the sounds in words, that I'd read to them a story and sound out words here and there, they hardly noticed. Plus, I'd use the stories to encourage them to point out, e.g. rhyming words, or I'd stop randomly and say, "what's the first letter of this word", "what's the last letter /what's the middle letter!"

Also, reallly important, do NOT sound out the sounds of the letters fully - you sound out just the beginning part of the sounds so that it helps them to blend words together. You're aim is to prepare them for reading - helping them to understand sounds and how to blend them together. After that, reading comes much easier, and for the most part, my students found it much easier to read as soon as I taught them the ABC Wink

Look up online for pre-phonics prep activities, there's loads online. Good luck!

5*Mom

Mon, Nov 14 2016, 1:56 am

elee124065 wrote:

Your response was so very helpful. I am definately going to apply what you have stated. Cant wait to get started. Thanks so much!

I'd be cautious with this approach. This sounds like way too much for 3-and-just-4-yr-olds. Some of them might get it and enjoy it, others might be neutral but some might not get it at all and then you'd think there was a problem since the other kids are catching on just fine. It's not appropriate developmentally. The problem with this is that in the same way that success breeds success, failure breeds failure. Don't set up 3-and-4-yr-olds for failure. The sensory and tactile activities are much more appropriate. So are gross and fine motor activities, not only for the skills themselves but because they actually prime the neural pathways of the brain for later learning.

Teaching this age group is a big responsibility. I think you should have a better understanding of their developmental needs and abilities. Please do some research and reading, not just asking other preschool teachers what they do. Good luck!

opinionatedbubby

Sun, Nov 20 2016, 12:35 am

I agree 100% with 5*mom. In fact, if you are doing any alef bais, I wouldn't do abc's, it is just confusing. Plus all of papayas ideas sound very abstract for this age group. There are so many other things you can do for limudei chol: math concepts, science, poetry (just listening) social studies, health. I have the same age group , and I do many many limudei chol topics according to the alef bais letter we are at,and/or the parsha. Recently: For daled we did Dr. s ; there are so many doctor books, and the kids learned words like otoscope, and we learned about germs.We also did ducks,the re are so many cute duck books. And we made a dot- marker dreidle. For parshas Noach we did the classic floating/sinking experiments, making them guess then test, the scientific method on their level. When Avrohom Avinu looked at the stars, we did a lot of counting and numera lrecognition 1-3. By hochnassas orchim in Vayeira we made a door sign with "mishpachas ________" and worked on learning their last names.
We do all sorts of seasonal explorations, hibernation, migration, all on their level. "It's too cold for some birds, so they fly to Florida and come back in the spring when it's warm again."
A tremendous resource is Scholastic Magazine's pre k " "Cifford's My Big World" , I have a subscription fo r each kid, $5 a year and so worth it. Yes, I toss some issues, it's still worth it.
I feel strongly that kids love to learn, they just hate to be tested . I never know how much they're actually absorbing and even less how much they're retaining, still we're having a great time!

opinionatedbubby

Sun, Nov 20 2016, 12:38 am

5*Mom

Sun, Nov 20 2016, 6:18 am

opinionatedbubby wrote:

LOVE!