Your Two-Year-Old (2 to 3 years)

At this age, children are making new discoveries daily. As two-year-olds begin to exert their independence, our Early Foundations Discovery Preschool program opens their eyes to a world of learning, sharing, and exploring. Our balanced approach in the classroom engages young minds with a blend of music, art, and movement, as well as the early education fundamentals they’ll need as they continue on to preschool.

Open to 9 a.m.	Breakfast, Learning Centers, and Child-Directed Play: Children participate in quiet activities and eat breakfast. As children finish breakfast, they can visit learning centers or participate in individual or small-group activities until most of the children have arrived and finished eating.
9 a.m. to 9:20 a.m.	Morning Routines and Whole-Group Activity: Teachers bring the group together for morning routines, calendar, sharing, discussion of the day’s planned activities, and featured activity.
9:20 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.	Learning Centers and Small-Group Activities: Children choose from activities in the library and language arts, math and manipulatives, blocks, science and sensory, dramatic play, and creative arts learning centers. Teachers implement small-group activities with a few children at a time, focusing on skill-building activities and observational assessments.
10:15 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.	Snack
10:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.	Group Time: Children come together to listen to a daily read-aloud and/or to finish or repeat activities from the morning group time.
10:45 a.m. to 11:35 a.m.	Outdoor Play: Children select from a variety of outdoor activities.
11:35 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.	Lunch: Children wash hands and help prepare to eat lunch.
12:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.	Rest Time and Quiet Time: Most children nap or rest quietly. As children wake from rest time, they can select from a variety of quiet choices, such as manipulatives, drawing, books, or puzzles.
2:15 p.m. to 3 p.m.	Learning Centers and Small-Group Activities: Children choose from activities in the library and language arts, math and manipulatives, blocks, science and sensory, dramatic play, and creative arts learning centers. Teachers implement small-group activities with a few children at a time, focusing on skill-building activities and observational assessments.
3 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.	Group Time: Children come together for an afternoon featured activity and closing routine.
3:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.	Snack
3:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.	Children select from a variety of outdoor activities.
4:15 p.m. to Departure	Learning Centers, Small-Group Activities, and Book Sharing: Children select from a variety of activities that are easy to clean up, such as books, listening center, and manipulatives.

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PLEASE NOTE: While personal-care activities, such as hand washing and diapering, are scheduled throughout the day, these will also occur outside of the schedule to meet individual children’s needs.

What Your Child Will Learn
Your two-year-old will learn age-appropriate social, emotional, physical, and intellectual skills.

Social

• Practicing conversation skills through group story-telling and reading aloud
• Starting to play alongside others rather than alone
• Imitating the actions of classmates and teachers
• Learning to share and cooperate

 

Emotional

• Identifying own feelings and those of others
• Expressing creativity through art and music
• Developing imagination and exploring dramatic play

 

Physical

• Riding tricycles, tossing balls, dancing, and jumping
• Increasing balance skills using bean bags and balance beams
• Developing fine-motor skills by pouring, cutting, drawing, and stringing
• Practicing self-help skills such as hand washing and dressing

 

Intellectual

• Learning new vocabulary and repeating words and short sentences
• Indentifying numbers and counting
• Using the senses to investigate the world
• Problem solving and making predictions

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