Toddler Room

The Toddler Room is for children aged approximately 2-3 years old. This is an exciting time for your child with many new challenges, experiences and opportunities. A real time of learning and exploration! This is also a time when children are developing their independence but also need support and encouragement to build their self-esteem and positive attachments. We motivate your child to try new things, support them with new challenges and praise their efforts and achievements however big or little!

The Jack and Jill Toddler Room offers a wide range wide range of resources and activities designed to stimulate language skills, enhance physical development, build confidence and encourage social interaction. We also begin to introduce a more structured routine in the Toddler Room in preparation for transition to the Pre-School Room.

During their time in the Toddler Room, we will encourage your child to:

Building confidence and helping your child develop

• Extend their vocabulary and build more complex sentences
• Improve their listening and understanding skills
• Increase their confidence and self-esteem in every area
• Treat other people with respect and good manners
• Improve their physical co-ordination and motor skills
• Build their concentration by attempting longer and more complex tasks without being rushed or interrupted
• Sit up at a table for eating and activities
• Use an open-top cup and cutlery
• Help tidy up after activities
• Share and take turns
• Start to move from nappies to pants

Great facilities and lots of activities

Creative play and outdoor play are an essential part of the day! Most of our activities and resources are available inside and outside and most are linked to the EYFS curriculum to ensure that the children have a good start in numeracy and literary (through active learning and fun and games). Activities for toddlers include:

• Messy play: sticking, drawing, painting, sculpting, play dough, mark-making
• Sensory play: we help children develop all their senses from with a range of sensory equipment and activities. We use natural resources such as bark, pebbles, water, seeds, etc whenever possible.
• Practical life: weighing and measuring, pouring and stirring, sorting and arranging!
• Story corner: lots of books to read and lots of stories to enjoy with actions, singing, rhyming and repetition. Story corner can be a quiet, relaxing time for enjoying books alone, in pairs or in small groups or a more energetic time for group stories full of fun.
• Music and movement: lots of fun and ideal for helping your child develop their gross motor skills, rhythm and their language, focussed listening, creative and social skills!
• Small world and home-corner: from dressing-up to role-plays, from mini-shop to mini-vet, from small-world dinosaurs to small-world zoo, there are so many creative and imaginative activities!
• Outdoor fun: Mud kitchen, digging and planting, water play, bug life, weather watching, den building, balancing, throwing, rolling, jumping, skipping, bouncing, dancing, outdoor singing, etc!

Mixed age learning

For most sessions, the children are based in the baby unit, toddler room or pre-school room according to their age. For some sessions and some activities, the children may be mixed together with older or younger children. For example, the babies and younger toddlers might play together in the “baby garden” while the older toddlers might be outside with the pre-school children in the “big garden”. Children may also be mixed for some group activities and if they arrive early or stay for the late session. Mixing the children ensures that all the children know each other and all the staff know all the children. Mixing children in this way also helps encourage social interaction, gives the younger children confidence (and a chance to learn from the older children) and gives the older children a great opportunity to demonstrate their skills and knowledge to the “little ones!”

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