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.
Health and Physical Development - Older Preschoolers (45 to 60+ Months)
Your chubby-cheeked toddler is rapidly growing into a more coordinated preschooler. Continue to encourage healthy eating and sleeping habits, physical activity and appropriate technology use (laptops, touchscreen, etc.) to develop fine motor skills. Both indoors and outside, children need opportunities to move freely, to explore different types of play equipment, and to participate in planned and spontaneous movement activities.
About This Domain
The Health and Physical Development domain focuses on children’s physical growth and motor development, sound nutritional choices, self-care and health/safety practices. Healthy children who are able to move and play are ready to learn more effectively in all domains.
Demonstrate willingness to try new healthy foods and make nutritious eating choices independently and with support.
Regulate food consumption based on their own feelings of hunger and fullness
Given a selection of familiar foods, identify which foods are nutritious and which are not.
Talk about variety and serving size of foods needed to be healthy, naming some foods and beverages that help to build healthy bodies.
Communicate ways exercise keeps us healthy and makes us feel good.
Participate in structured and unstructured motor activities that build strength, speed, flexibility, and coordination (red light, green light; chase; free play).
Transition independently from active to quiet activities most of the time.
Develop strength and stamina by increasing their amount of play and activity, using more muscles for longer periods of time.
Communicate ways sleep keeps us healthy and makes us feel good.
Independently start and participate in sleep routines most of the time, including listening to calming songs and/or stories.
Stay awake and alert except during voluntary nap time.
Demonstrate stability, flexibility, and balance while performing complex movements by standing on one foot, turning, stretching, bending, hopping, balancing on beams, jumping, and moving to music.
Demonstrate more coordination of upper and lower body when, throwing, catching, kicking, bouncing objects, swinging, and hitting objects with racquets or paddles.
Move quickly through the environment and be able to both change directions and stop (run fast, pedal fast).
Show awareness of own body in relation to other people and objects while moving through space. When asked, can move in front of, beside, or behind someone or something else.
Participate in play and movement activities and describe how physical activity contributes to their overall health (“Exercise helps make me strong!”).
Engage in complex hand-eye coordination activities and play with a moderate degree of precision and control (fasten clothing, cut shapes, put together small pieces, string beads).
Display strength and control while using a variety of tools and materials including scissors, pencils, crayons, small toys, spray bottles, and hole punchers.
Draw and write figures with more detail (faces with features, letters, or letter-like forms).
Participate in self-help skills, such as buttoning, zipping, snapping and pouring.
Dress and undress themselves independently.
Independently practice personal care and self-help skills, including washing hands, brushing teeth, toileting, flushing, throwing tissues away.
Help with meal and snack preparation.
Describe the value of good health practices to their well-being (wash hands to get rid of germs, drink milk to build strong bones).
Identify, avoid, and alert other children to potentially dangerous behaviors, such as keeping a safe distance from swings.
Consistently recognize and avoid people, objects, substances, activities, and environments that might cause harm.
With support, show how to respond safely in emergency situations, such as fire or tornado, and in the presence of strangers or dangerous objects. Recognize basic safety symbols, such as poison symbols.
Know how and when to alert adults to dangerous situations or in an emergency, including in public places, such as a store, identifying people who may be able to help them.
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.