Amherst Community Church Child Care Center

Toddler Room

Children enter the Toddler Room around 18 months of age. Our Toddler Room is staffed with a ratio of 1 teacher to every 3 to 4 children.

This room is always on the move. The toddler age is so exciting, challenging, and busy. Our children are in constant discovery. Their need to have everything and to touch everything (including others!) is so strong that we need to begin the process of teaching personal space.

Toddlers often want to do things all by themselves and may even get upset when someone will not let them do it alone. The teachers in this room routinely will be found on the floor, interacting and watching the children as they involve themselves in movement and discovery. The environment is set for open-ended learning to allow each child to grow cognitively, emotionally, socially, and physically, and always at his or her own pace.

Social learning is a strong element of the day, every day, all day long. We begin with the constant reminder of gentle touches. Toddlers are just beginning to realize cause and effect. They learn that they have the ability to get others' attention, even though it may not be in appropriate ways. These are normal toddler behaviors; we expect it and work with the children, and their parents, to show our toddlers more appropriate interactions.

We will still see parallel play and will encourage small group activities so that the children learn the give-and-take in a relationship of friends. Language development begins to flourish with the toddlers. They begin to understand that items have names, and before our very eyes and ears, the words develop.

As in all of our classrooms, a love of reading is shared with the children. Each classroom has many books, with additional books rotating in so that the children have the opportunity to discover their magic, and teachers read daily to the children.

Emotional growth is another strong element in the Toddler Room. Children learn give and take, waiting turns, calming skills, and empathy. This area of development may be the hardest to plan for as a teacher. Our teachers are trained to use those teachable moments, understand each child's temperament, and think fast on their feet. Each situation of the day affects each toddler's emotional development. Having to share a toy or waiting for a cracker at snack time is a step in emotional development. This is where our teachers give our children words to their feelings, and give guidance to each child.

Physical development can be enjoyable, yet frustrating, to our toddlers. They want to climb, climb, and climb some more. Walking may still be a challenge, since the children are progressively developing their muscle strength and coordination of movement. We encourage the development of their large motor skills through daily time spent in our Small Muscle Room, an indoor play area with appropriately-sized play equipment. Fine motor skills also continue to develop, which we encourage by giving the children plenty of opportunities to color, paint, and self-feed.

Cognitive development may even be in overload for a toddler. There is so much to discover, and toddlers want to do it all and right now! Some toddlers will go from one activity to the next. They may spend five minutes with a doll, then go and dance to some music for three seconds, and then see that a friend has a ball and want that very same ball. This is when one of our a teachers will sit and play with a child and encourage him or her to focus on an activity. The teacher may need to be dramatic to make the activity exciting and keep the interest of the child. The teacher may need to limit the amount of stimuli in the room so the child can focus. Our teachers understand this. Each day is filled with new excitement and discovery for the toddler age.

Amherst Community Church Child Care Center
77 Washington Highway, Amherst, New York 14226

Telephone: 716.834.9701 ~ Email: info@accccc.org