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TODDLERS

Toddlers

1 - 2 Years

Your once baby is now a Toddler, eager for exploration, independence, and self-expression. An environment that is warm, challenging, safe, exciting and that fosters autonomy and self-esteem is crucial!

Their imagination is at its peak and should be encouraged. This is an important time to challenge their gross motor skills and to develop important cognitive functions.

Our Toddler Program is strategically designed to captivate Toddlers’ innate curiosity and imagination while promoting autonomy. While our hands-on sensory activities surprise them daily and encourage them to explore the world through play, our Thinking Strategies help them comprehend it.

Our experienced educators create a warm environment that prioritizes emotional safety, design a physical space that promotes autonomous exploration; plan exciting activities that surprise Toddlers daily, and use VESS Thinking Strategies to promote deep thinking.

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Abilities Fostered

Inquisitiveness

A key goal of our educational program is to nurture autonomous, life long learners, because learning autonomy has been proven to be a key determinant of life success. Learning autonomy starts with sparking curiosity and inquisitiveness, from birth! How do we promote inquisitiveness in toddlers?
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Holistic Development

We consider all children as unique individuals with multiple developmental needs. We focus on developing the whole child to their unique potential. Every experience is a learning experience carefully crafted by our teachers. Click to learn more...

Scientific Mindset

Toddlers are in constant discovery of how the world works. With a school environment that values children’s questions about the world comes an opportunity to promote a scientific mindset. Teachers actively observe our toddlers’ interests, plan experiences accordingly and guide them. Click to learn more...

Higher-level thinking

Our VESS curriculum fosters development through strategies that promote higher level thinking skills.Higher-level thinking refers to our ability to do certain mental processes more efficiently, making us better learners. This ability is fostered by developing what neuro-scientists have called Habits of Mind – a mental process that, with practice, we do routinely and naturally, turning it into a mental habit.
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Innovation & Creativity

Creativity and Innovation are at the core of the VESS educational approach. Every moment and learning experience focuses on promoting creativity. Through our Artist of the Month, for example,babies are exposed to artists’ stories, techniques, and how they use colors, shapes and lines uniquely to express their emotions.
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Citizenship

Toddler years are the foundation to instill in children the habits and values needed to excel in a global society. Toddlers in our school are seen as active participants of our community and global citizens. Our teachers focus on making them participant of classroom responsibilities, assign roles, and encourage teamwork. 
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Learning Autonomy

Learning autonomy refers to the skills and dispositions needed to be independent in one’s capacity to learn new things – and its development starts at birth! It is seen by neuroscientists as a key determinant of life-long success. The VESS educational approach focuses on developing children’s learning autonomy to be efficient learners for life. Click to learn more...

Developmental Areas for Toddlers

Social & Emotional Development

- Building and maintaining
relationships with adults and peers
- Emotional functioning
- Managing emotions
- Sense of identity and belonging

Cognitive Development
& General Knowledge

- Concept development and memory
- Exploration and discover
- Problem solving & creative expression

Communication, Language & Literacy

- Listening and understanding
- Speaking and communication
- Conversation
- Emergent Reading
- Emergent Writing
-Sentences and structure
- Vocabulary

Mathematical Thinking

- Number sense
- Numbers and operations
- Spacial Relations
- Patterns
- Measurements and data
- Geometry

Scientific Thinking

- Earth and Space Science
- Engineering and Technology
- Environment
- Life Sciences / Biology
- Physical Sciences / Physics
- Scientific Inquiry, Exploration and Discovery

Approaches to Learning

- Creativity and inventiveness
- Eagerness and curiosity
- Persistence

Creative Expression Tthrough the Arts

- Appreciation of the arts
- Creative movement
- Imaginative and creative play
- Music
- Sensory Art Experience

Social Studies

- Culture
- Economics and resources
- Governance, Civic Ideas and Practices
- Individual Development and Identity
- Individuals and groups
- Spaces, Places and Environments
- Technology and our world
- Time, Continuity and Change

Physical Development

- Active physical play
- Feeding and Nutrition
- Fine motor development
- Gross motor development
- Gross motor perception (sensorimotor)
- Health
- Personal care routines
- Safety

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Learning Autonomy

Learning autonomy refers to the skills and dispositions needed to be independent in one’s capacity to learn new things. It is seen by neuroscientists as a key determinant of life-long success and academic success, and it’s development starts at birth. the VESS educational approach focuses on developing children’s learning autonomy to be efficient learners for life.

We focus first on nurturing children’s love for learning – the first step for becoming an autonomous learner – through crafting learning experiences that are meaningful, surprising and fun We use advanced thinking language in our daily interactions to promote higher-level thinking and embeed this language in children’s thinking process.

Citizenship

Toddler years are the foundation to instill in children the habits and values needed to excel in a global society

Toddlers in our school are seen as active participants of our community and global citizens. our teachers focus on making them participant of classroom responsibilities, assign roles, and encourage teamwork – whether it’s cleaning tables after lunch or passing out the placemats, we learn about community through our daily interactions as collaborators.

Our monthly country and monthly unit expose children to the inmensity of our world, increasing their awareness of how others live and think.

Innovation & Creativity

Creativity and Innovation are at the core of the VESS educational approach. Every moment and learning experience focuses on promoting creativity.Through our Artist of the Month, for example,toddlers explore artists’ stories, techniques, and how they use colors, shapes and lines uniquely to express their emotions. Our goal is to inspire our toddlers to express through art, innovating their own art techniques and ways of telling us their stories.

In our classrooms, children have access throughout the classroom to art and science materials that they can create with, and are heard when proposing new ideas. Developing children’s citizenship, inquisitiveness, scientific thinking and learning autonomy (see other sections) fosters innovation as children feel capable of contributing in their community.

Higher-Level Thinking

Our VESS curriculum fosters development through strategiies that promote higher level thinking skills.

Higher-level thinking refers to our ability to do certain mental processes more efficiently, making us better learners. This ability is fostered by developing what neuro-scientists have called Habits of Mind – a mental process that, with practice, we do routinely and naturally, turning it into a mental habit. The VESS curriculum develops 17 Habits of Mind in children. Some of these include Inquire, Innovate, Consider Perspectives, Manage Impulsivity, Reflect to Learn, Synthesize, Predict, amongst many others.

The first aspect of developing higher-level thinking is a DESIRE TO LEARN, so that our first goal is to foster excitement for learning in children.

Once children are excited to know more, our teachers use neuroscience-proven Thinking Strategies to ask deep questions and get children’s thinking going. Doing this all day, every day, creates higher-level thinking routines that lead to children’s development of our Habits of Mind, and a true ability to be better thinkers and learners.

Scientific Mindset

Toddlers are in constant discovery of how the world works. With a school environment that values children’s questions about the world comes an opportunity to promote a scientific mindset. Teachers actively observe our toddlers’ interests, plan experiences accordingly and guide them to explore these through a multitude of strategies that develop advanced scientific and mathematical skills. Scientific exploration also teach children about risk taking, persistence, teamwork, careful observation, and objectivity. Sensory exploration in our classroom is a daily experience!

• The Wheel of Wonder – an age-appropriate version of the scientific method that guides chuildren through a series of steps during an experiment: I wonder; I think; I try; I observe; I record; I discover.

• Thinking Routines – such as our “X routine”, which asks children to compare materials through their senses

• Weekly Cooking and STEM projects – that are planned based on toddlers’ interests

Holistic Development

We consider all children as unique individuals with multiple developmental needs. We focus on developing the whole child to their unique potential. Every experience is a learning experience carefully crafted by our teachers. We focus on multi-sensory exploration, which naturally develops your child holistically. We use a monthly artist, country and “unit of inquiry” to bring the world to the classroom through novel experiences that are exciting to our students and covers multiple developmental areas simultaneously: mathematical thinking, communication, scientific exploration, and art, as well as emotional education, thinking skills, our VESS Values, and motor skills.

Our Enrichment classes of Yoga, P.E. and Music further promote whole-child development through an area expert.

Inquisitiveness

A key goal of our educational program is to nurture autonomous, life long learners, because learning autonomy has been proven to be a key determinant of life success. Learning autonomy starts with sparking curiosity and inquisitiveness, from birth! How do we promote inquisitiveness in toddlers?

• Toddlers are active participants of their classrooms and have a say about the topics to explore – teachers observe and listen carefully, adapting their planned experiences to their preferences

• The Surprise Factor – a neuroscience-proven strategy that focuses on presenting experiences to children in an unexpected and exciting way that invites them to want to explore

• Respecting children’s process and celebrating risk taking: we encourage toddlers to explore at their own pace, plan with their preferences in mind and praise trying something hard or new.

“Surprising a child with a fascinating opportunity to explore generates engagement and emotion, getting the brain ready to really comprehend”, explains Ms. Aura, Edu1st teacher of 15 years