Happy New Year from the studio toddler room! The weather has kept us busy indoors this month but we have filled our days with crafts, discovery bins, winter centers, stories, dancing, and learning through play. Our color focus is white and our shape is the triangle so we incorporated these focus targets into most of our centers, small groups, whole group and purposeful play.
The toddler class is making the most of our time indoors on these cold days. We have enjoyed some extra center time, baked, painted, crafted, crawled through an arctic cave and bounced “snowballs” on the parachute!
Sensory play supports language and cognitive growth, fine motor skills, and problem solving skills. It aids in enhancing memory functioning and is great for calming. The sensory tub and discovery bins are popular in our room. This is truly hands-on learning!
We provide an environment that is safe and interactive. Learning centers allow children to understand the social world, develop communication skills, and build relationships. Our classroom is designed as an invitation to play and explore.
Our dramatic play center was converted into a veterinarian office. The toddlers enjoy pretending to take care of the puppies. They use new vocabulary, take turns, and get a little puppy snuggle.
Creating is important for the toddlers. They improve their fine motor skills, experimenting with materials is the foundation for science, and it provides a sense of pride which boosts self confidence. We often do crafts in small groups which allows for instruction and discussion of shapes, colors, letters, counting, and theme vocabulary.
Cooking with children provides practical experience with many skills such as following directions and measuring. It helps toddlers develop fine motor skills, eye hand coordination and even early concepts of math and science. We make chocolate chip muffins when talking about the letter M then oatmeal cookies when focusing on the letter O. The toddlers also tasted chicken soup with rice after reading the book by Maurice Sendak. Fun process – yummy product!
Large motor skills helps children gain strength and confidence in his/her body. It also helps them to get exercise and physical activity, which is important for a healthy lifestyle. The toddlers love to play outside but the parachute and tunnel are a special treat!
Celebrating the season with a star print craft.
Star cookie cutters with red playdough enforce our shape and color of the month.
Practice matching colors with holiday bows and trees.
J is for jingle bells.
K is for kiss under the mistletoe.
Holiday themed centers provide an opportunity to engage the toddlers in pretend play, sharing, and fine motor skills.
More crafts of holiday fun.
During circle time we discussed our favorite things about Christmas. The toddlers placed their picture under their favorite thing.
We had such a terrific time at our 2019 Valentine’s Day parties. The toddlers were so excited to celebrate with their families. Ms. Joanie played her guitar, we had snacks, passed out valentines, created crafts, explored the sensory bins and had lots of fun!
We had a blast this week celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday! Each day we chose one of his books to focus our lessons and snacks around. These books included: Horton Hears a Who, The Lorax, Wacky Wednesday, Hop on Pop, and The Cat in the Hat.
Monday: Horton Hears a Who
We made our own snack to represent the clover Horton carries!
Tuesday: The Lorax
We planted green bean seeds in our Lorax cups!
Fine motor truffula trees
Truffula seeds (aka Trix cereal) for snack!
Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday
The kids and teachers dressed “wacky” for the day, even the classroom was “wacky”!
Coloring under the tables… How wacky!
“Wacking” specific letters with a fly swatter!
Wacky Wednesday snack: jell-o that appears to be red koolaid! We tricked them all!
Thursday: Hop on Pop
We practiced our rhyming skills by hopping on words that rhymed and trying to pop the bubble wrap!
Popcorn snack!
Friday: Cat in the Hat
Dr. Seuss sensory tubs!
We embraced our October theme whole heartedly this month! What’s better than giving academic time a Halloween twist?? Here’s a taste of what we did this month!
Spider Counting!
Building letters with pumpkin seeds
Letter building with candy corn
Halloween cutting center
Feeding the Alphabet Zombie (he loves his letters!)
Acting out the Five Little Pumpkins
Spider swatting and number recognition!
Fall Number Mats
Wicked letter find and sort!
Silly Monster Craft!
Each week we focus on a new letter, and then use it in our daily activities. We learn about our letter of the week during small group time, such as what it looks like and how it sounds, and then implement the letter into our daily activities. Because repetition is a crucial part of a toddlers’ learning, we then use our letter of the week in our morning activity tables and even for art projects!
We learned about the Red-Eyed Tree Frog that lives in the Canopy Layer of the rainforest. We discussed the adaptions that help him survive in the rainforest habitat…be sure to ask you K- Preper what they learned! We also started working on our own Red-Eyed Tree Frog. Look for those to come home soon!
Creative Tots has specialized in the private education of both toddlers and preschool age children for over 15 years. We began in the heart of Madeira and now also have a new Mason location. We are specifically designed to focus on early childhood development for children ages 18 months to 5 years.
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