Infants And Toddlers

Our infant toddler program is an EEC licensed NAEYC Accredited mixed age group classroom, with children ages birth to two years nine months. It is a small classroom of nine children with a ratio of 1:3. The classroom is set up into smaller learning areas with all of the toys on low shelving units for the children to explore freely.

In the block area you will find soft blocks, multi-cultural block play people, cars, animals, etc. Also in the block area you will find a gross-motor section with a soft climber for the children to walk up/down and slide and a rocking boat.

Dramatic play has a kitchen set complete with dishes, pots, pans, utensils, multi-cultural food, dress-up clothes, baby dolls, etc.

Our book area is a soft area which has a couch and chair for the children to sit on while looking at their favorite picture books!

A large sensory table provides hours of entertainment for the toddlers. The teachers put a variety of materials in it throughout the year such as, sand, water, snow, shaving cream, pasta, rice, and any other material good for scooping, dumping and getting messy!

Art area is fully stocked for the children to be able to draw freely. You will find chalk, chalk boards, markers, crayons, colored pencils, many different sized papers, magazines for ripping/cutting, a wall easel for painting and magnetic drawing boards!

The fine motor area provides lots of materials for the children to start fine tuning the use of their smaller muscles and hand-eye coordination. Bins with pegs and peg boards, large knob puzzles, cause/effect toys, pop up toys, waffle blocks, and sorting boxes are just a few of the many manipulatives the teachers switch out on a regular basis.

The Infant/Toddler teachers plan their own developmentally appropriate weekly curriculum. Teachers plan curriculum using the Massachusetts Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers, NAEYC Standards, results of the children’s individual assessments and The Creative Curriculum.

Each infant will have a weekly curriculum sheet planned out just for them. Infants are learning and growing so much each day teachers will tailor the individual infant’s experiences to where they are developmentally and what the teachers hope them to achieve over the next week. Throughout the day infants participate in the classroom alongside the toddlers for example, during a short circle time teachers hold infants on their laps and clap along while the children sing, dance and read stories. Infants are given lots of time on the floor to help strengthen the neck and upper back muscles which will in turn prepare them for holding their head up, crawling, rolling over and eventually sitting!

The toddler curriculum is planned weekly and tailors to all of the children. Children this age are learning through their senses. They enjoy activities that involve seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and feeling therefore, teachers plan a lot of sensory activities for the children to participate in. Teachers follow a predictable schedule with the toddlers, but are flexible and able to change things up throughout the day as needed.

We strongly believe that parents are the first teachers and experts on their children, this is why at enrollment parents are asked to assess their child using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire and Ages and Stages Social/Emotional Questionnaire. The children are observed daily throughout the year and the teachers record the observations individually. Assessments are then prepared through the Teaching Strategies Gold system using the observations of your child and are sent home quarterly in winter, spring, summer and fall.