Toddler Program

Ones

Our “Ones” classroom is for children transitioning from our older Nursery classrooms (approximately 18 months) up until approximately 24 months. In our “Ones” classroom, there is further emphasis on independence and motor skill development. Additionally, the development of social skills including sharing and playing with their peers is developed through our “Centers” based play approach in the classroom and in the atrium play center. Additionally, they are also introduced to “Circle Time” and the need to be able to sit and focus during brief teacher led activities including arts & crafts projects, story time and music.

Children promoted from the “Ones” into the “Twos” should be able to feed themselves, sit in chairs and have generally been weaned from pacifiers, bottles and sippy cups.

Twos

We have several “Two year old” toddler classrooms as potty training becomes a big focus at this age and the children will reach this milestone generally somewhere between 24-36 months of age.  Each classroom has two separate bathrooms within the classroom so children can more easily be potty-trained. 

Our Older Two’s program is for children who are developmentally ready to be promoted and potty-trained. We will closely work with the parents to reinforce routines used at home in your potty training effort but it takes a joint effort to push this along.  We work very closely with the families to figure out what works best at home in this effort and we share what tips we have seen from working with their children in the classroom.

Our Twos continue to use a play-based approach to learning through centers, circle time and other activities. Children will start using crayons and other art mediums to color and develop fine motor skills. Through circle time and table time, they also begin the process of learning basic identification of numbers, shapes and letters through a variety of puzzles, manipulatives and books.

Teachers use the Abeka curriculum, developmental checklists and age level training to devise activities in our learning centers within our center wide weekly thematic topic.  They will use a variety of arts and crafts activities to develop the children’s fine motor skills and to create beautiful works of art for their parents.    The teachers use books, rhymes and music to teach colors, shapes, and the start of letter and number recognition. 

Activities focus on the development of fine and gross motor skills including self sufficiency in feeding, pottying and self-care.  There are at least 2 daily circle times for teacher led activities including story telling, singing, flashcards and other learning manipulatives.

The toddlers have their own outside play area with a variety of surfaces and structures to help develop their gross motor skills.  We have stationary playground equipment, riding cars, and play houses for imaginative play.   The atrium play center also has riding toys,soft play structures, ball puzzles, and sensory tables for the children to use on rainy or very hot days.