The Toddler Room

We feel it is important to learn the basic skills in the Nursery toddler room before numbers and colours. We support parents in reaching the early milestones of child development such as sitting on a chair for meals, turn taking, following simple instructions, verbally communicating their needs, finding their belongings i.e. shoes/coat, playing with peers and socialising in large/ small groups.

When we plan for the children with activities or resources, we plan age appropriate e.g. not learning to form recognisable marks before they can hold a pencil correctly. We will support pencil grip through play using pincer grip movements with fine pegs, puzzles or playdough and using those muscles in their fingers through play. In our toddler environment learning through play is the focus, along with staff looking through the eyes of a child. We also focus on communication and language as a setting and a have a staff member which covers this specific area, we will refer parents to home talk, SSBC or speech therapy as needed.

We have set half term tasks for the families to have a walk in the woods and fill their bag with objects which they find together and bring back to share as a group, the children would then tell us about their personal experiences. This encourages less screen time and more rich language  and engagement between the parents and children. We want our children to learn new vocabulary and learn through play whilst having fun together and be exposed to world around them.

Our toddler room offers trips out to our local woods, where the children will splash in puddles and get dirty as we encourage children to be children. They will make mud paint and use sticks as paintbrushes, we collect conkers and pine cones over our river bank and use them for loose parts in play. We always try our best to give the children the process over product, so they are involved throughout e.g. making flower paintbrushes, they will collect the sticks and flowers then help tie them together and use them to paint pictures as the process is so important to share together.

We encourage our toddlers to feed themselves at meal times using cutlery and use a open cup for drinks, they are supported to pour their own drinks using a jug. We provide water for drinks throughout the day along with milk occasionally. We cater to all dietary needs such as vegan, coeliac, dairy & soya free etc and parents preferences is recorded. For snacks the children are offered healthy choices such as dried fruit, rice cakes, breadsticks and cucumber or carrot sticks. We don’t offer chocolate or high sugary snacks.

To support independence the children have pigeon hole shoe boxes to which our toddlers take their shoes off on arrival and swap them for their slippers themselves, they have a name and the same box every time so if they cant recognise their names they will remember their own box. Coats are on a low level to allow them to reach and encourage them to ‘have a go’ we support children in choosing their own activities and laying them out which is Montessori inspired along with setting the tables up with cups and cutlery.

Outside we have a pirate ship climbing frame and a wooden train for imagination, chalk boards, a sand house and a mud kitchen. Our children also enjoy helping take care of their environment including planting in our tyres, the have the most fun in our mud kitchen! We bring resources outside and enjoy the open air. We have also had meal times outside and naps, anything that can be done inside we give them the same experiences outdoors and there is nothing better than fresh air and free movement for a 2yr old. Our toddlers get to experience the beautiful river we have through our fences watching the ducks and occasionally a fisherman!