Our children manipulate the pieces to a puzzle with concentration and stack blocks into towers with joyful energy.  You’ll hear us coming as we march through the classroom, playing instruments and singing songs! You’ll see us coming as we wave colorful scarves while we dance. We also spend plenty of time growing stronger while playing outdoors -  climbing, running, and jumping, sliding, and having fun!

Children roll up their sleeves and paint with their fingers, splash their way through water in the sensory table, and squish playdough into colorful creations!  Calming, open-ended sensory experiences like these are a cornerstone of our toddler program, as they build foundational focus, emotional regulation, and motor skills for future learning.

Our guidance is gentle, positive, and clear. As play and communication develop, children begin to seek out interactions with friends. Teachers encourage children to turn wants, needs, and feelings into words and phrases.  Teachers continue to use infant sign language as needed, but now with a social-emotional focus, focusing on words such as turn, mine, help, all done, stop, please, and thank you.Teachers acknowledge positive social interactions like turn taking or when a child approaches a friend in a friendly and gentle way. Time is spent building connections in small groups. Teachers support children with clear limits and positive reminders of limits throughout the day.

Our children begin to develop the habits and identities of emergent readers through well loved songs, read aloud stories, magnet and flannel board stories, and rich 1-1 and small group conversations. Our cozy reading nook surely isn't the only place where children read and listen to stories! Our toddler teachers keep baskets of books relating to music, science, and dramatic play in different areas of the classroom. When children see and read books about food in the “kitchen,” for instance, they are learning that readers read for different purposes and that reading is a fun part of everything we do!