Toddlers
- Ages 18 months to 2.8 years of age.
- Our focus is:
- Potty training
- Gross motor skills
- Independence
- The Montessori toddler curriculum provides a unique classroom environment, beautifully designed to appeal to the child’s natural curiosity and meet the diverse development needs.
- It is a period characterized by the need to explore everything, move and develop large motor coordination and strength.
- We believe at this age there is huge expansion into language.
- They develop a capacity to create symbols, images and concepts.
- They become aware of themselves as a separate and independent person.
Toddler Curriculum
At Allegro Montessori we have six main areas of curriculum and activity at the Toddler level: Practical life and daily living skills, sense awareness, language development, social, motor and cognitive enhancement.
In practical life they will experience real life situations and activities promoting dressing and undressing, grooming and toilet learning, carrying things, cleaning and grace and courtesy.
Sense Awareness is learning about dimensions, shapes, colors, tactile, auditory, taste and smell. Primary language development is the acquisition of the language connected to their observations and sense training. We also have stories and singing as well as special materials for more abstract vocabulary.
Social development is encouraged through planned group activities such as circle time, snack time, food tasting, and story time.
Motor activities are separated into two categories. Large motor development includes playground time, walks, and use of the gym where children can run, play with balls, and ride tricycles. Fine motor skills are explored through pouring, using tweezers, and other transfer work, as well as cutting and drawing.
Cognitive activities expand the toddler’s ability to focus and think, they develop problem-solving skills and begin to learn number concepts, both quantity and symbol. A variety of materials are available for counting, matching and sorting activities.
Art and music are approached from a skills based perspective and the children can freely choose cutting, gluing, painting, and other materials. We listen to music of all varieties to help children develop an ear for music. In many instances, this is the first experience the child has of being away from his/her caretaker. Separation, waiting one’s turn, sharing, and patience are all important lessons that each child learns.