Happy Fall Toddler 2 Families!
Thank you for supporting the book fair and family night in September. Because of your purchases and donations, we have been enjoying some new books in the Toddler classroom.
This semester is off to a great start! Because we are a full-fledged toddler room our group size is 12 children each day. This means there is more movement, noise and things happening simultaneously. The children are getting used to our daily routine and the activity of the classroom. It can take 4 to 6 weeks for children to get adjusted to a new environment and routine. Fortunately, most of class has become adjusted to the classroom and the staff.
In September we celebrated Hannah, Aubrey, Josie and Cora turning 2. We look forward to celebrating more birthdays this semester. Because the children are getting older, we are encouraging more self-help skills throughout the day. The children are asked to put their dishes, utensils, and cups in the bucket after mealtime. During clean up time we sing a song that tells the children it is time to put the toys away. We even ask the children to put their cot sheet, blanket and personal nap item in the dirty laundry basket on Tuesday and Thursday when we clean linens and wash and sanitize cots. On the other days of the week, the children take their blanket and nap item to their cubbie and put it away. We hope you are seeing your child doing more at home to clean and take care of their items.
We have recently had questions about children using what may be construed as aggressive behavior in our classroom. These toddler age children in our classroom are learning about space, living, and playing in a community as well as starting to gain communication skills. Because the children are developmentally still in the egocentric stage, it will take them some time to learn about waiting, sharing, turn taking and what it means to not get everything they desire. Children work on these social skills until kindergarten age, some beyond that time. When you pair that with expressive language not as developed as their receptive language we see pushing, hitting, biting, and taking items out of turn. Children are not inherently mean or intending to hurt one another. We are teaching them that these behaviors hurt and encouraging the children to use words to express themselves. Follow the link to an article on the Zero To Three website for more information. Veronica and I are willing to discuss this more anytime.
https://www.zerotothree.org/resource/aggressive-behavior-in-toddlers/
Reminders:
• Please bring weather appropriate extra clothing for your child to change into after a messy activity or meal. Please label everything with your child’s name or initials. We don’t always have time to give you a reminder slip that your child needs more clothing, you are welcome to check your child’s box in the bathroom to see what is needed. Anytime we send home dirty clothing
• We are still taking family photos for the family basket in our classroom as well as the bulletin board. Email them to vjackson4@niu.edu or kfuss@niu.edu and we will print them and laminate them for you.
