The toddlers are enjoying a fabulous fall full of squirrel songs, apple sorting /peeling, rectangle scarecrows, and name building with fall leaves. Our centers this month are designed to give the toddlers the opportunity to explore farm animals, farm books, farm puzzles, new textures in the sensory bin, and “cooking apple pie” in the dramatic play center. We have milked a “cow”, sorted leaves, and continue to enjoy the season through purposeful play.
The studio toddler class has taken the month of September to explore our environment, learn routines, and adjust to being away from parents for the first time but it is also a time of socialization and making new friends. Socializing with other children is an excellent way to foster a toddler’s social and emotional development. We set up our environment for purposeful play and social experiences. Children begin to mimic during parallel play and then start to communicate with peers. They learn vocabulary and appropriate ways to express themselves through pretend play, free choice centers, and games. As teachers, we facilitate the environment and activities and then gently guide the toddlers to use words, solve problems, take turns, and have fun through play. The result is a classroom full of new friends!
Open-ended center exploration time is an important part of early childhood education. Children are allowed to make their own decisions. It might seem pretty basic to us, as adults, but it’s incredibly important to young children. It gives them more ownership over their learning experiences.
Open-ended play also allows children to express themselves in play freely and creatively, not bound by preset limitations. Playing with open-ended materials with multiple uses and limitless possibilities, such as molding clay, wet sand, paint, blocks and other loose parts, allow for imaginative play. There are no rules to follow, no expectations, no specific problems to solve, and no pressure to produce a finished product when engaging freely in open-ended play.
Young children learn in many different ways. One way they learn is through purposeful play and open ended activities. Open ended art experiences give them a chance to explore the world around them, ask questions, and see how things work. These art experiences allow them room to be themselves, make their own decisions, and just create. We used liquid watercolors, absorbent paper towels, eye droppers, and small paint brushes to create! The children loved watching their tiny drops spread and mix into a starburst as they hit the towels.
We jumped right into reviewing numbers as we begin our journey into the fun world of math in K Prep!
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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