3 Year Old Program

At Congregation Israel of Springfield the main goals of the 3-year-old program include the development of social skills, self-confidence, and love of school and learning. This stage is the amazing period when children are moving out of babyhood and into childhood. Typical three and four year olds can clearly communicate their needs, ideas and questions, are very talkative, can participate in group activities because their attention spans have grown longer, and are developing classification skills and reasoning abilities. The average 3 ½ year old knows more than 1200 words and can ask questions beginning with “who”, “why”, “where”, and “what”.

Throughout the day and through various experiences our children will:

• Develop a positive self-image, independence, acceptance of themselves and others
• Gain security and feelings of success early in their school years
• Learn to work and play individually and in groups cooperatively
• Enjoy aesthetic experiences that develop imagination and creative self-expression
• Learn to adjust emotionally in shared group experiences
• Develop perceptual skills:

• Develop motor coordination skills:

• Learn to think for themselves and solve problem situations
• Develop a healthy curiosity about their world
• Learn and use language as a satisfying means of communication and expression
• Develop the ability to listen, concentrate and follow directions – Stay on task to complete something
• Learn that school is a good place to go and learn, and that there are people who care about them and love them away from home

• Jewish Heritage  - Our three year olds continue to be exposed to basic Tefillot, Mitzvot, Chagim, Brachot and Shabbat through songs, dancing, music, movement, crafts, cooking and games. We try to create an environment that makes children feel happy about learning Jewish themes.

           Each week the children participate in a Shabbos party and take a turn being the Shabbos Aba      or Ima. Rabbi Marcus also visits to provide meaningful and exciting parsha lessons to our youngest learners

• Hebrew – We work to infuse Hebrew into everyday tasks and lessons whenever possible. Each week the children learn a new Hebrew letter and vocabulary word. They enjoying singing the aleph bet and alpeh bet games.

• Literacy Lessons - Our 3’s are learning to put letters and sounds together as a first step to becoming future readers. They learn a new letter each week. They need to see print as often as possible. This may be accomplished by recording their own words and displaying them clearly. Graphs and large charts are very useful for the teacher. Children’s attention is constantly being drawn to the print in and around the classroom. The children are also read to every day.

• Math

• Science