My 2-year-old and I are part of a small cooperative toddler school group. We call it PeeWees. There are four kids, and their moms, in our group. We meet once a week for a 2-hour drop-off block. Each mom takes a turn hosting/teaching the group for two consecutive weeks, then she has six weeks off. We each follow the same basic schedule: arrival/free play, welcome/circle, snack, art, activity, circle/goodbye. We share and pass around a bin of supplies: paints, markers, smocks, alphabet chart, parachute, CD, rug squares. Our teacher pool consists of an art historian, an avid athlete and outdoorswoman, a speech-language pathologist, and an early childhood music teacher.
We loosely follow an approach called The Storybook Journey. It's a literature-based approach to every aspect of curriculum: "The environment, materials, and experiences are intentionally designed to immerse the children in a playful exploration of the story's rich literacy potential, concepts, vocabulary, sequence, and plot, as well as the sheer delight of exploring a story through their play." (The Storybook Journey: Pathways to Learning through Story and Play by Sue McCord.)
Each teacher will choose a book she wants to use for each 2-week block. She plans by brainstorming every single concept she can glean from it, from colors and art, to concrete objects, to life lessons and emotional or literary concepts, etc. Then she chooses how she can apply any or all of those ideas into the daily schedule. On this page you'll find links to the write-ups we've done about each class - enjoy!
(we were absent Week 2)
Week 1
Week 1
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