by Pam Richardson, TH Head Teacher
Materials in our classroom offer toddlers the ability to explore their natural tendencies. They open and close objects. Below, Alexander opens and then closes the container from which he selects his snack. Then, Henry puts a snack container away after getting his pear from it. Oliver opens and closes containers with twist caps while his grandfather looks on.
Toddlers have a natural tendency to hide objects. Below, Matthew has found a small Jack-O-Lantern button and will hide it inside of the nesting barrels. Toddlers also fix things. Bella is working hard on reassembling a truck.
Toddlers exert maximum effort in their work. Below, Sam is maneuvering the cart with Sofia as passenger, and Silas is pulling the wagon with Lila as passenger.
Our prepared environment provides materials that allow us to redirect behaviors appropriately. We always have a hammer work available if a child needs to hit. Below Alexander is demonstrating hammering. Silas is demonstrating pushing our heavy rolling jug.
In the photo below, Alessandra has plucked a leaf off of a section of garland, demonstrating the appropriate use of pulling or grabbing.
Toddlers are often compelled to drop things--they're welcome to drop balls or even a xylophone mallet into our water jug, as Silas has done. Items dropped in the jug make varied and awesome sounds and may provide a challenge to retrieve.
When children jump on the toddler gym, we redirect them to the trampoline. Here's Silas jumping. Alessandra and Beatrix are throwing, or perhaps they are placing balls into our basket ball hoop.
During the month of November, we read books about Thanksgiving and talked a lot about what we are thankful for. We used a turkey ink stamp and dabbed paint on the outline of a turkey. Our art colors were orange and brown. We are looking forward to sharing songs, books, and assorted upcoming holiday materials. We'll talk about Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. If you celebrate a different holiday this time of year, please let me know so that we can share it with the toddlers. Thanks! Happy Holidays to all of you!
