Toddler Class

The short year of time spent in the toddler area is among the most important of your child’s cognitive development. This is the where the true foundation in academic, cognitive, social and emotional skills are created and nurtured. During this time, the child is actively seeking out information and learning spoken language rapidly, as before he had only communicated through non-verbal cues. Toddlers crave independence, knowledge, order, consistency and exploration of their environmental surroundings. Therefore our toddler environment is carefully prepared for toddlers to explore safely and achieve these developmental ideals. Exposing children to a wide variety of artistic, expressive and technological subjects at a young age allows the child’s love of learning and aptitude to grow immensely in a short period of time. After completing one year in the toddler environment, students are better able to process, make sense and order of their surroundings and develop necessary cognitive, social and emotional skills before moving on to study more advanced academic subjects.

Toddler Class students focus on mastering these important skills:

  • Building concentration span
  • Building self-confidence, personal discipline & independence
  • Fine & gross motor skills
  • Hand-eye coordination
  • Order within the environment (cleaning up)
  • Listening, comprehension, following directions and classroom rules
  • Ability to share with others
  • Showing empathy towards others
  • Language and verbalization of needs or emotions
  • Spooning objects (small and large)
  • Sweeping objects (small)
  • Pouring objects (wet and dry)
  • Squeezing objects (small and large)
  • Care of self: Brushing hair, folding/rolling napkins, folding a sweater, Dressing one’s self (buttoning, zippering, Velcro, tying, lacing, etc.)
  • Polishing items (shoes, silver, etc.)
  • Transferring objects (using the whole hand, tweezers and tongs)
  • Grading and matching objects (by color, size, shape, etc.)
  • Water activities (washing a baby, basting water, scrubbing table, making bubbles with whisk, etc.)
  • Understanding of opposites (on-off, up-down, etc.)
  • Phonetic sounds (knowing at least 13 letter sounds)
  • Symbolic letter recognition and identification
  • Beginning letter tracing
  • Holding a pencil correctly (3-finger grasp)
  • Poking paper to promote fine muscle development in the hands
  • Recognizing name and learning how it is spelled
  • Learning basic geometric shapes (circle, triangle, square, etc.)
  • Counting numbers 1-10
  • Association of quantity with numerals 1-10 (how much quantity is in a number- i.e.- 1 =1, 2=2, etc.)
  • Understanding the concept of 0 equals nothing
  • Recognizing and grading objects based upon size, shape and color
  • Differentiating between patterned objects and matching accordingly
  • Refining the senses through grading and matching activities such as:
    • Smelling jars (differentiating between smells)
    • Sound cylinders (differentiating and matching sounds)
    • Tasting jars (differentiating between tastes)
    • Touch boards (feeling rough and smooth objects)
    • Sight (grading by size, shape and color)
  • Botany: Parts of plants and how plants grow
  • Zoology: Parts of animals, reptiles, amphibians, where animals live, how to take care of animals
  • Geography and Culture: Earth’s Landforms and Continents, native plants and animals of each continent, different cultures of each continent
  • Mandarin Instruction: Use of songs, vocabulary and conversational Mandarin (numbers, months, days of the week, colors, etc.)
  • Spanish Instruction: Use of songs, vocabulary and conversational Spanish (numbers, months, days of the week, colors, etc.)
  • Art: Use of a variety of art mediums to create student-driven creative art
  • Music & Movement: Singing and dancing to new songs every month, learning gross motor development and control of movement.
  • Gymnastics: Gross motor development activities through: tumbling, balancing, stretching, jumping, hopping, etc.
  • Computers: Students use Apple iMac Wi-Fi computers to supplement phonetic and mathematics work with computer programs.