Toddlers

Toddlers (12 - 24 months)

Toddlers playing in water

Our active toddler program provides many opportunities for your child to express his or her needs and wants. We are here to support your little one in communicating his or her needs by offering opportunities for independence, such as using and repeating words or phrases, excitement in body language and utilizing his or her hands and feet to walk, grab or point. We take small steps towards your child’s milestones and work with our families to help guide our children to success.

Milestones

Social/Emotional

  • Copies others, especially adults and older children

  • Gets excited when with other children

  • Shows more and more independence

  • Shows defiant behavior (doing what he/she has been told not to)

  • Plays mainly beside other children, but is beginning to include other children, such as in chase games

Language/Communication

  • Points to things or pictures when they are named

  • Knows names of familiar people and body parts

  • Says sentences with 2 to 4 words

  • Follows simple instructions

  • Repeats words overheard in conversation

  • Points to things in a book

 
 

Cognitive (learning, thinking, problem-solving)

  • Finds things even when hidden under two or three covers

  • Begins to sort shapes and colors

  • Completes sentences and rhymes in familiar books

  • Plays simple make-believe games

  • Builds towers of 4 or more blocks

  • Might use one hand more than the other

  • Follows two-step instructions such as “Pick up your shoes and put them in the closet.”

  • Names items in a picture book such as a cat, bird, or dog

Daily Schedule

Here's an example daily schedule for our toddler classrooms.

Children reading

6:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. Drop off/Breakfast/Free Choice
8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Morning Recess
9:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Morning snack
9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. PE outside with the 3’s class
10:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. Circle time/Focus wall
10:15 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Large Group Activity/Music
10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Free choice
11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Recess
11:30 a.m. – 12:10 p.m. Lunch
12:10 p.m – 2:30 p.m. Nap
2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Afternoon Snack
3:00 p.m – 4:00 p.m. Free choice
4:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. Large Group Activity
4:15 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Story Time
4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Afternoon Recess
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Pickup