While three year-olds, four year-olds and five year-olds have many things in common, each child is different. He or she brings his or her unique mental capabilities, emotions, gross, and fine motor skills to the classroom. The school must accept the child as is, along with his or her own pattern of growth. The goal is to then help each child grow by providing appropriate tasks in each of the many areas of development.

Children learn:

1. Through active play.

2. Through first-hand sensory perception of feeling, listening, smelling, tasting and observing.

3. Through experimenting, manipulation, exploring, trial and error.

4. As a result of encounters with a variety of media, problems, ideas and people.

5. As active members of a congenial social group.

6. As a result of the process of identification with the adults in their lives.

7. Most efficiently, through activities related to their age-appropriate purposes and interests.