3-4 Years

Cognitive Social
- Piaget calls this stage the preoperational stage, as children are not ready to • Select and use activities and resources, with help when needed. This helps them to

engage in logical mental operations. achieve a goal they have chosen or one which is suggested to them.

- They start using their cognitive abilities to solve problems in their everyday life. • Develop their sense of responsibility and membership in a community.

- Egocentrism • Become more outgoing with unfamiliar people, in the safe context of their setting. •
Show more confidence in new social situations.
- Animism- attribute life to inanimate objects- role play in the classroom.
• Play with one or more other children, extending and elaborating play ideas
- Transductive reasoning- children do not use deductive or inductive reasoning;
(Source: Twinkl)
instead, they jump from one particular to another and see cause where none exists. For

example, Sarah was mean to her brother. Then her brother got sick. Sarah concludes that she

made her brother sick.

(Source: A Child’s World, by Diane E. Papalia, Sally Wendkos Olds, Ruth Duskin Feldman,

2008)

Linguistic Physical
- Simple sentences that reflect tremendous expansion of vocabulary, as At this age, children develop quite quickly-
well as remarkably adept understanding of syntax, despite errors of bodily growth
overregularisation. The toddler potbelly tightens as abdominal muscles develop and the arm and legs grow
- Vocabulary and concepts continue to expand in terms of both longer. The head is still large, but the other parts of the body continue to grow.
comprehension and fluency, and the child internalizes rules of syntax;
At this age, children make great advances in motor skills- both gross and fine motor skills, 3-
overgeneralization errors offer insights into how children form rules about language
year-olds cannot turn or stop suddenly.
structures.
At 4 years old they have more effective control of stopping, starting, and turning.
(Source: Cognitive Psychology by Robert J.
Sternberg)
Vocabulary
- At 3 the average child knows and can use 900 to 1000 words
Grammar
- At 3, children typically begin to use plurals, possessives, and past tense
and know the difference between I, you, and we.
- Sentences are generally short and simple, often omitting articles, such as
a and the
- Sentences include some pronouns, adjectives, and prepositions.
- Can answer what and where questions, why and how are harder.

(Source: A Child’s World, by Diane E. Papalia, Sally Wendkos Olds, Ruth Duskin Feldman,

2008)

Abilities and levels of development in children aged: 3-4 years old

Considerations for teachers

- Encourage how to listen carefully and why listening is important.
- Use new vocabulary throughout the day as they acquire quickly.
- Ask questions to find out more and to check that they understand what has been said to them.
- As they have started to articulate their ideas and thoughts in well-formed sentences, devise speaking activities.
- Storytelling on a regular basis
- Encourage learners to retell the story, once they have developed a deep familiarity with the text, some as exact repetition and some in their own words.

© The British Council, 2013

The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
- Include games/songs that include movement.
- Take children outdoors to explore and inquire.

Considerations for the classroom

- include activities that involve free play and structured play.
- Learners must have sufficient space to play.
- Set different stations within the classroom (e.g., the shop corner, the restaurant corner, the kitchen corner)
- For fine motor skills development to make sure to have a playdough corner
- Toys available for free play-building blocks and soft toys.
- Visual cues- rules and routines displayed with pictures.
- Job charts- displayed with pictures.
- To bring an awareness of print, to make sure that everything is labelled.
- chairs and children’s trays are labelled.
- Make sure that there is a quiet corner for reading, with a variety of age-appropriate fiction and non-fiction books.
- Make sure that materials are kept at children's eye level.
- include different objects for counting: shells, pasta, bottle caps, sticks

Suggested activities
1. Circle time: Children take turns to talk about their weekend, day etc
Introducing Circle Time · Explain to pupils that you are going to spend some time sharing some ideas. Everyone should be able to see and hear everyone else. Ask pupils what
they think would be a good way to sit so that everyone can do this. (Let children offer their suggestions. · When a circle is suggested ask pupils to move quietly so that
everyone is sitting that way. · Elicit circle time rules from the children. Turn negative rules into positive ones · Write the rules down (demonstrate writing) · Show small objects
to the children and tell them that this would be a way to help them to remember speaking one at a time · Practise using the small object “My name is….”
Outdoor activity: Two long sticks/ pieces of cloth can serve as the banks of the river. Children jump from one bank to the other. The sticks can be moved further apart at times
to make a wider river. Children can find ways to get from one side of the river to the other, like sliding, crawling, rolling, etc. We can create our own story by using this situation.
For instance, Once upon a time there was a very bad tiger. He wanted to eat all the monkeys. The monkeys had to cross the river… Now we are the monkeys, how are we
going to cross the river?
Reading and Writing: The teacher will show learners the book cover and ask them what the story is about. Learners give their views. The Teacher reads the story Learners
draw their favourite part
Free Drawing Children will be given time daily to do free drawing in their drawing books. Children talk about what they have drawn- teacher scribes
Talking about Myself
Pupils will observe themselves in the mirror and draw their portraits. Pupils will talk about themselves to teacher. My name is…. I am sad when…. My favourite food is…
Teacher prompts them to talk about themselves. Teacher scribes. Skills: Communication Skills: Speaking Observational skills
Station 1 Number (on going): To count and model numbers up to 5 Constructing meaning Count quantities orally- introducing the numeral they represent Transferring
meaning Connect numerals to the quantities they represent Applying with understanding Count to determine the number of objects in a set and associating the numeral.
Patterns: Children will be introduced to AB patterns. They will extend AB patterns They will then create and extend their own AB patterns.
Interacting with Print
Encourage students to interact with and make use of the print provided in the classroom. make pupils “read the room”. Taking pupils on a ‘print walk” around the room gives
them the opportunity to “read’ and revisit charts they have made.

© The British Council, 2013

The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.