A child’s brain is developing and building the most connections with neurons in the first 2 years of their life. Childcare provides learning opportunities for parents to enable their children to achieve optimal development in those years.
SimplySmart childcare and Montessori has a program that is designed to create the ability in children to ask questions and seek out answers while expanding their learning opportunities. Learning in early childhood happens mostly through senses- touch, smell, see, hear and taste. They learn largely through interactions with each other, childcare providers, parents, and other people in their lives.
How do teachers figure out what the child is interested in?
At SimplySmart Daycare and Montessori programs, teachers interact, observe and discover the child’s interests during different moments of the day. They first start by paying attention to what the child gravitates to when they enter the classroom and move around the space. The toddler and preschool teachers after setting up learning invitations, navigate between the different spaces to talk to the children about the different materials laid out that day in the classroom and figure out which areas grab the children’s interests. Then they also engage with the children in answering their questions and encouraging them to explain their learning to the teachers, so they can figure out the gaps.
For example, if the teachers have an invitation in sensory with snow and shovels that day, they engage with the children regarding the weather. Some questions they ask are – when does it snow? Does it snow everywhere in the world or in specific places? What do we need to clear the snow? etc. This enables the teachers to observe if the children are absorbing this information. They also observe how many children are gravitating to the sensory area vs going to a different area. These engagements and observations in a toddler or preschool classroom enable teachers to craft the program for the next day or week.
How do teachers incorporate children’s interests into the learning plan?
Teachers work at incorporating their observations in different ways within the classroom program plan. A great option for them is to use a morning circle to talk about interests and incorporate them. Creative activities are great for incorporating children’s interests. For example, if the children are really interested in snow, the next day the teachers in creative can ask the children to use cotton and other craft items to create their version of a city with snow. They can also incorporate it into language with different books on weather and winter.
Another example would be to integrate it into the child’s recognition of the alphabet “S” and the sound it makes. Depending on the age of the children in the classroom the teachers can integrate their observations into the program plan while ensuring the development of math, language, fine motor and other skills.
SimplySmart teachers believe in the philosophy that children are capable and competent and can learn whatever they set their minds on. At SimplySmart there is a strong emphasis on an expression that enables teachers to understand a child’s interests better and develop learning opportunities catered to their needs. The teachers utilize different ideas and opportunities to develop the program with practical life, sensory, open-ended, Montessori, and other materials and expand a child’s learning opportunities every day.
SimplySmart has a Mississauga Daycare and Montessori location, a Brampton Daycare and Montessori location, and other locations across the GTA like in Oakville, Toronto, Vaughan, Waterloo, etc. So if you are looking for a great Montessori in Mississauga or at any of the above cities in the GTA click on the link below to book a tour or find out more.