Three Year Olds

The Middle Classroom

The Middle Classroom is a caring, nurturing community with 16 children and three teachers. When children transition to this classroom, teachers support them in learning how to be a member of a classroom community, including how to take care of their classroom, themselves, their belongings, and each other.

The Middle Classroom is a vibrant, inviting, and carefully planned environment, set up to inspire three-year-olds' curiosity and desire to explore. In addition, children have an expansive, beautiful playground adjacent to their classroom with a working greenhouse, gardens, a wooded area, a climbing structure, and swings. The curriculum is emergent, play-based, and thoughtfully planned to foster each child's development and interests.

Three-year-olds are intrigued by their peers and eager to learn how to engage and play with classmates. Trusted teachers provide support and reassurance as children form friendships, begin to play cooperatively with peers, and develop a sense of themselves as a member of the classroom community. Through daily routines and interactions, teachers help children feel secure and more confident in their abilities. Therefore, reinforcing self-help skills, balancing social dynamics, and building communication skills (listening, speaking, observing and empathizing) are essential components of the curriculum.

Developmental themes of the middle classroom:

• Learning how to be a member of a classroom community, including being kind and taking care of each other and our classroom

• Becoming curious about others outside of themselves

• Making connections with other children and forming friendships

• Learning how to be a flexible thinker and becoming more flexible in play

• Developing cooperative play skills

• Continuing to develop and practice self-help skills