The Toddler class ambience

After taking the first step by entering the playschool past the entrance, the next step a child takes is into the classroom. Except for the Toddler class all other classes like Nursery, Junior Kindergarten and Senior Kindergarten, have to leave the mother's company at the entrance and then onwards be on their own.

Toddler class room:
The Ambience of the Toddler class should be suitable for the age group. Most of the play schools run in shifts and also share the classroom. Now let us talk about the Toddler class where the age group is 6 months to a year. These kids do not need a formal décor like chairs and tables. Here all the activities are done by involving the mother with the child. Activities for motor control, eye-hand coordination, physical development, listening skills etc. are the focus. Small children need more space to manoeuvre around the class. That is why the "Toddler Class" should be carpeted with only a few equipment.  Here the child is accompanied by the mother and hence they can sit with the Toddler in a circle or a semi-circle, facing the teacher. Therefore, a part of the classroom should be devoid of furniture for the floor activities, oral activities such as poem recitation, story-telling even though the stories may not interest them much due to shorter attention span.

Indoor carpeted floor area

The physical movements are a must between two activities like simply moving in circles or changing their places. The other side of the classroom must be used for physical activities. Slides, Indoor Jungle gyms, light foam shapes with various colored leather cover could be kept in different ways for climbing activities, balancing and other motor and physical activities. Now a days we have plenty of options available for play materials that can help make the classroom look vibrant and attractive. The duration of the class for this age group should be about one hour only as younger children lose concentration and tire easily as well. Therefore, the timing for the play school and activities must be planned keeping in mind the child's feeding and sleeping time.

Foam material play area

Play area created out of light foam blocks

This classroom ambience can be shared with the next age group of one year to 2 years. The same ambience with the same furnitures can be used with few additions such as a table and chair for advanced activities like coloring, sorting, paper tearing and sticking. The toys and play material also should be upgraded as by now the child would have acquired some skills and better coordination and thus can perform on their own. There should not be more than twenty children in one classroom with two teachers. The larger group can be divided into smaller groups of ten children. While one group engages in floor play, the other group could be kept busy with activities such as coloring etc. The duration of this class can be one to one and a half hour.

Some suggested activities for this age group are thumb printing, palm printing, paper tearing, paper crimping, vegetable printing using Ladies finger for example, leaf printing and so forth. These activities along with many others can be found in the Activity set book "You can do".