TODDLER

Our Toddler Community at Park Cities Montessori has an 5:1 ratio to ensure that the guides in the classroom are able to meet the needs of the children during their greatest developmental gains. 

 

All of our toddler guides recognize that the qualities, skills and behaviors of the adults responsible for meeting the needs of these young children is incredibly important during the most important stage of self construction. This is the crucial time in which children are absorbing experiences, making early decisions about the kind of person they are, and about the world. They are developing basic trust in themselves and in their environment, which will affect them for the rest of their lives.

 

In our Toddler community children have ample opportunities to work on the next level of developmental skills in the following areas: 

• Sensori-Motor Development

  • Development of Coordinated Movement

  • Development of Fine and Gross Motor Skills

• Practical Life

  • Personal Care and Health

  • Care of the Environment 

  • Development of Grade and Courtesy

  • Developmental Art Materials and Activities

• Language

  • Development of Oral Language 

  • Development of Vocabulary and Classification

 

Gross motor development for toddlers is of utmost importance. We aim to give our toddlers ample experiences to grow in this area. You will notice open space for free movement activities in the classroom and in our outdoor play space you will see intentionally designed areas for toddlers that allow for climbing over and through, a balance beam, a small bar for hanging, tricycles, slides, and objects for pushing and pulling. 

 

In the classroom students have the opportunity to refine their fine motor skills with various activities that involve transferring, scooping, squeezing, stringing, twisting, pouring, rolling, folding, and opening and closing items. 

 

Practical life skills are the skills that are focused on the most in our toddler communities. Toddlers are naturally curious and want to learn to do basic tasks on their own much more so than academic work. You will notice that the toddler community has multiple areas of the classroom and self work dedicated to practical life skills. 

 

The first area includes personal care and health. Children learn dressing and undressing, using the toilet, washing hands, washing objects around the space, folding and putting away clothes, putting on and taking off a coat and shoes, and using a tissue. By the time children at PCM leave the toddler community they are doing all of these skills and more independently. 

 

Our toddlers are taught to take pride in and care for their environment. This is done through teaching children how to use their work mat and rug, replacing materials on the shelf, setting the table, wiping the table, sweeping and dusting, cleaning up spills, mopping the floor, washing dishes and windows, caring for plants, flower arranging, and much more! 

 

Grace and courtesy is at the forefront of our teaching in every community but especially in the toddler community as they are just learning how to interact appropriately with others. Children will develop a strong understanding in this area through the assistance of their guides and other children in their community. Not just in the toddler community but in our school you will see students that greet each other by saying hello and goodbye, ask for help, give assistance to others, use respectful requests and polite conversations, use a gentle touch, and show respect for work and workspace of others. 

 

Our toddler community begins to explore developmental art materials and activities. The use of play dough, chalk boards, paint, crayons, simple scissors, and glue are available for daily use as part of their work cycle. 

 

In order to ignite the child’s senses you will see shelf work that focuses on each of the senses individually. Some examples you will see are stacking objects, object permanence boxes, geometric shape boxes, puzzles, sorting, color matching, music, mystery bags, textures and temperature work, and smelling and tasting experiences. We continue this work through our outdoor natural play space with sand, and other natural elements. 

 

Finally, we place an important focus in our toddler community on the development of oral language. Children are given multiple opportunities to engage in conversations, oral language games, singing and storytelling, books, rhyming games, and reciprocal vocalization. Continuing the language work to develop vocabulary, children complete work that involves naming objects in the environment, object to object matching, object to picture matching, and picture to picture matching.

 

As you can tell alot happens in the toddler community to prepare them for the Children’s House community where the more rigorous academic work begins. You will be amazed at what all your child comes out of the toddler community capable of doing. They are capable of so much and at PCM we guide them to reach their highest capabilities.