The purpose of the Practical Life Exercises is to teach respect for one’s self, other living things and the environment. We use daily living activities and experiences as opportunities for learning, like diapering, feeding and playing.

Children explore the world through their five senses. Our sensorial activities allow the toddler to concentrate on each sense one at a time: listening to music; watching puppet shows; matching pictures and puzzles; and manipulating materials, such as stacking nesting boxes/cylinders, textured balls and pads, object permanence box, see-inside posting, shape and color sorting sets. The toddler then begins to recognize qualities such as color, size, sound and texture, helping the toddler make sense of his environment.

A young child is exposed to hearing sounds and is introduced to the meaning of each through conversations in the classroom. Activities like storytelling, flannel board, finger-plays, puppet shows, flashcards, help-yourself book basket, and recitation of rhymes raise a toddler’s interest to learn words and use them to express their wants and needs.

According to Dr. Maria Montessori a child who likes to touch and move items is interested in counting materials like shape-matching boards, giant dice, geometric shape sorters, number tubs and sand paper number boards that are available to introduce a toddler to the world of numbers.

The most important goal of the cultural area of studies in a Montessori classroom is for the child to discover his own place and purpose in our vast universe. Cultural studies give the children opportunities to develop skills, knowledge, and a positive attitude for understanding and accepting themselves and others in world society. The child is exposed to all areas of life.

Arts and crafts activities in the Toddler classroom enhance motor skills, concentration and independence while cultivating self-expression and imagination. Painting, coloring, gluing, cutting, playing with play-doh, making marks on paper using pencils, markers and crayons introduce the toddler to the world of art.

This is a fantastic way to get Toddlers involved in the classroom. They develop rhythm, as well as learn to enjoy singing. With creative movement they develop coordination which nurtures a child’s command of expressive actions necessary to their emotional and social development. We have a variety of musical instruments that they use to play music or create their own music with.

Our Toddler room provides an environment that encourages the child to work, build concentration and establish a joy of learning. It is a place where the child’s basic needs are being met which enables the toddler to create their own self-image and character development.