The Toddler Class:
Starfish – 2 year olds
Toddlers are explorers and researchers by nature.
They learn and understand through their bodies and their senses. They touch, smell, taste, see, hear, pinch, squeeze, throw, catch, run, jump, climb, dance, sing, because they are making meaning of life.
Relationships are the base for the construction of knowledge. In a group children have more opportunities to express their ideas and become inspired.
Children at this age usually join school for the first time. Their social context evolves into a school setting, which means entering in relation with other children and adults everyday, for some hours daily. This becomes a consistent rhythm in their lives. They enjoy meeting friends again and form their social space. These relationships are the base for the construction of knowledge. In a group children have more opportunities to express their ideas and become inspired by others. Moreover, their motor play is evolving into a social play. They are starting to show interest in playing with others, in a parallel play.
The exploration of materials and objects started since birth, but now at school children are exposed to a wider diversity. They play with clay, paper, color, wood, fabrics, wire, light and much, much more…
They give different meanings to the materials, get to know their properties, establish differences among them, understanding what use can be given, make choices, and express their creative thinking. The encounter of materials supports the children to express their emotions in many different ways as they continue to discover their own identity.
The Toddler group has their own class and the ratio is three teachers per fifteen children. The children participate in enrichment classes with specialty teachers, in Music, Dance and Spanish . The children also experience the daily explorations of materials at the Atelier.