section 8
Stimulating new skills
3 years
50 meeting
Let’s review:
Once the meeting starts, welcome everyone and ask the participants: • Who can help us remember what we talked about in our last meeting? • Who was able to do the activity at home that we asked you to do at the end of the meeting? How did it go? • Does anyone have questions or concerns after doing the activity?
What are we going to learn?
We are going to learn several ways to help develop the skills of a three-year old. LET’S TALK ABOUT IT! We are going to look at some pictures, so we can talk about what we all know about this topic.
What do you think a child should know how to do by the time they are three years-old?
What have you taught a young child within the last year?
What are some things that grandparents or other family members can teach younger children?
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Activity:
“My new skills” We are going to practice some activities that will help develop a three-year old’s motor skills.
What we’ll need: • Pencils and paper • Circles of colored construction paper • Small scissors
WHAT WE’LL DO: • Explain that a three-year old child has the ability to develop many activities with their body and hands, but we have to give them the opportunity to learn them and practice them. • Divide the participants into 5 groups and give each group a piece of paper with instructions (see below). Then explain that we are going to do these activities with the assistance of everyone – parents and children, and that each group should lead one of the activities. • To finish up discuss the practiced activities with the large group, talk about how they can help to develop the large and fine motor skills in a child.
ACTIVITIES FOR THREE-YEAR-OLDS: • Puzzles: Make several circles on colored construction paper and cut out a piece of the circle. Have the child find the part that is missing and complete the circle. • Jumping: Jump up and down on both feet and then try jumping on just one foot in time with music. • Drawing: Have the child draw straight lines and copy circles. Let the child try to cut the lines with small scissors. • On Tip-Toes: Stand and walk around on your tip-toes. • Climb up and down: Have a child climb up and down the stairs alone.
Summing Up:
What did we learn today? Now, we’ll review what we discussed today. • How do you feel after this meeting? Why? • What are the two most important things you’ve learned today? • What will you do differently based on what you learned during the meeting? • What did you like the most? Are there things you didn’t like? • Do you have any remaining concerns or questions about what we talked about?
Facilitator’s Manual
99 To finish, what would you recommend to improve today’s meeting when we do it again with another group. (Explain that answering this question will help the meeting be even better in the future for parents with small children.)
To do at home:
Have parents continue practicing the stimulation activities with their children, trying new things when they can do these well.
Basic information for the facilitator: Learning more about technical summary for the facilitator: We have talked about self-confidence and reasoning, now we will talk about body movement and expression, and oral expression.
1- Body Movement and Expression: It is very important that children continue to gain abilities in
their movement; this reinforces better connections in their brain and allows them to be more efficient. This allows them to have more success in learning throughout their life. The brain will collect, learn and adapt to all the challenges we place on the body. For example: • Jumping - first learning to jump with both feet, then alternating feet while jumping, and finally learning to jump rope. • With a ball – first throwing the ball with two hands, then with one hand, then throwing it to another person and finally being able to catch the ball. • We suggest that parents begin to play with music. These activities can be dancing or playing with easy instruments like rattles or tambourines. Choose activities that you enjoy doing as parents, and join in with your child. Dance and music are helpful in developing a child’s intelligence, in reading, writing, and math. With your hands – We suggest that parents help children do activities with eyedroppers, scissors, paintbrushes, buttoning and mixing, and other household activities that help them learn to use both hands at the same time. This will strengthen their ability to write.
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2- Oral Expression: Just like dance and music helps to develop reasoning, and activities with your hands help with writing, singing helps with oral expression.
Games with the tongue, such as rolling the tongue, brushing your teeth with the tongue, seeing who can go the longest without breathing, seeing who can go the longest saying a vowel, singing, telling stories, jokes and having conversations when you can use vocabulary - all are opportunities for children to express themselves more clearly.
Facilitator’s Manual