Approaches to Learning
Children are born with an inclination to learn. This is reflected in behaviors and attitudes such as curiousity, problem-solving, maintaining attention, and persistence.
Approaches to Learning - Older Preschoolers (45 to 60+ Months)
Older preschoolers want to learn new things - and often display a contagious sense of excitement and wonder for whatever it is they're learning about. This is a fun stage for parents and caregivers, because most kids are past the tantrum-prone toddler phase. Now it's even more fun to get out and explore, visit parks and museums, and discover new interests and activities. Watch your child carefully to identify and support their growing interests.
About This Domain
The Approaches to Learning domain addresses how children learn and includes children’s attitudes toward and interest in learning. It reflects behaviors and attitudes such as curiosity, problem-solving, maintaining attention, and persistence.
Share discoveries with a trusted person when reunited with that person at a later time.
Demonstrate eagerness to find out more about other people, discover new things in their environment, and talk about these things with others.
Choose to participate in a wide variety of activities and demonstrate willingness to try new experiences.
Demonstrate interest in mastering new skills (writing name, riding a bike, dancing, building skills).
Ask questions and wonder about things that interest them (ask questions about future events, describe changes they notice in the seasons).
Choose among different ways to explore the environment based on past experience (use a magnifying glass that the class used previously to explore something new).
Use what they know from past experience to understand a current situation (get an umbrella to go outside because it is raining).
Demonstrate increasing independence, initiative, self-direction, and purpose when making choices. (“I’m going to the block area to make a track for my race car.”)
Demonstrate self-help skills, independently identifying and seeking things they need to complete activities or carry out play scenarios (gather supplies and create a sign for the block building they created).
Set simple goals that extend over time, make plans and put effort into following through. (“Let’s make a rocket ship. We need blocks.”)
Move independently to another activity once their current activity is completed.
Consistently remain engaged in self-directed activities (finishes a card they chose to make for a loved one).
Sometimes able to ignore irrelevant information when focusing on a task (sorting buttons by color regardless of shape).
Persists in working to complete tasks, trying different ways until successful (when a block tower falls, try putting the blocks together in a different way to build the tower again).
Plan and follow through on longer-term tasks (planting a seed and caring for the plant).
Keep trying until a challenging activity is complete despite distractions or interruptions (multi-piece puzzle started before lunch and completed later).
Seek help and work cooperatively with others to complete a challenging activity (ask and work with peers to build a block bridge across the water table).
Expand their sense of self-reliance.
Approach new experiences independently.
Ask to participate in new experiences that they have observed or heard about.
Independently seek new challenges.
Demonstrate resiliency and coping skills when faced with challenges (after spilling paint on their favorite shirt are able to help clean up and continue painting).
Describe the steps they will use to solve a problem.
Apply their prior knowledge to evaluate different strategies for solving a problem.
Explain how they reasoned and solved a problem to another person.
Demonstrate satisfaction or delight when solving a problem or completing a task.
Exhibit flexibility in considering alternative suggestions offered by others.
Quickly recover from setbacks when working and playing with others.
Develop and sustain more complex pretend play themes in cooperation with peers.
Use more complex and varied language to share ideas and influence others during play.
Choose to use new knowledge and skills during play (add features to pretend play scene related to class project, write list, build a structure like that displayed in a book they have read).
Demonstrate their cultural values and “roles” through play (uses a blanket as a shawl while dancing).
Plan pretend play scenarios and use or create a variety of roles, props, or tools to bring them to life.
Use materials or actions in increasingly varied, creative, and resourceful ways to represent experiences or ideas.
Develop creative solutions in play and daily situations.
Make up stories, songs or dances for fun during play.
The South Dakota Early Learning Guidelines serve as a shared vision for all adults supporting young children's experiences prior to entering kindergarten. Positive interactions with trusted adults, engaging with peers, and consistent environments that are safe, healthy, and enhance learning are vital elements to support young children.
Goals and Developmental Indicators describe expectations for what children learn starting with infancy and covering all ages through kindergarten entry. These goals apply to all children regardless of what language they speak, what strengths/disabilities they may have, or specific unique family circumstances. Strategies to enrich the environment, support development and learning, and adaptations provide a variety of ideas to consider.
At the “heart” of the document are tables or developmental continuums that describe children’s learning and development from birth up to kindergarten. You can find these tables under the Learning Domain tab in our main navigation. These Goals and Developmental Indicators are divided into five domains:
Children are born with an inclination to learn. This is reflected in behaviors and attitudes such as curiousity, problem-solving, maintaining attention, and persistence.
Children's feelings about themselves and their relationships with others is the foundation for personality development. These characteristics and skills impact every other area of development.
From birth, children are learning language and developing the ability to communicate. Talking, singing, reading, and responding effectively when children express themselves are great investments supporting learning.
This fascinating area of development includes understanding how children aquire, organize, and use information in increasingly complex ways. Through play, skills are developed as the foundation for exploring and understanding more sophisticated concepts.
Physical growth, muscle development, nutrition, self-care, health and safety practices are included in this area. Safe and healthy practices suppport the ability to learn more effectively in all areas.