The years from three to five are very special in terms of physical and mental growth of children. It is an established fact that 80 percent of the brain develops by the time the child is four years and is ready in transition

• from clumsy coordination to more refined skills;

• from body talk to verbal communication ;

• from strong reliance on outer controls to developing inner controls ;

• from personal awareness to growing social concern;

• from the here and now to a wider intellectual awareness and curiosity;

• from acquiring isolated facts to conceptualizing and developing a deepening interest in symbols .

Consequently they are curious, energetic, active and very eager to learn all from experiences. They are active and their attention span is limited to 7 to 15 minutes at the maximum. Besides they are in the process of developing fine muscle coordination, particularly the wrist and fingers and therefore will be clumsy in holding and using pencil like writing tools. Their thinking is perception bound and egocentric and limited to concrete objects and events. Their vocabulary is limited and listening comprehension is yet not adequate for any formal learning. Likewise the social skills are not sufficiently developed for effective group interaction and possibly need one to one relationship with the teacher. For them the teacher is a surrogate mother.

Goals and objectives

Considering both physical and mental developmental stages and other characteristic nature of the children of this age group, the goals and objectives of their education at this stage are broadly outlined as follows:

• All round integrated development with adequate attention to each and every domain.

•  Development of a good physique with adequate muscular co-ordination and basic motor skills.

•  Development of good health habits and building up of basic skills necessary for personal adjustment such as dress, toilet, washing, eating, etc.,

•  Development of emotional maturity by guiding them to express, understand, accept and control their feelings and emotions.

•  Encouraging aesthetic appreciation.

•  Stimulating intellectual curiosity and to helping them to understand the world in which they live and to foster new interest by giving opportunities to explore, investigate and experiment.

•  Encouraging independence and creativity by providing sufficient opportunities for self–expression.

•  Improving communication skills by developing the children’s ability to express their thoughts and feelings through fluent, correct and clear speech.

Strategies

Activity based learning will be the predominant way of induction for the children to learn and gain the various objectives outlined above. The activities are to be designed in such a way that they are developmentally appropriate with methods like informal and play-based programmes. While designing the playbased programmes, care is to be taken, based on the following:

1.The universal, predictable sequences of growth and change in children.

2. Their individuality, in terms of growth pattern, personality, learning style and family background.

3. Cultural diversity and secular values of children should be respected and therefore being flexible and capable of being adapted to diverse social and cultural setting and lifestyles.

4. The fact that children of this age group learn best through play which is self-centered, self-directed and self-chosen.