Toddle Inn Daycare Society
What we offer...
Responsive Environments
Outdoor Play
Every program has a designated play area, specifically designed to cater to the developmental stages of children. This allows them to explore, stretch, and learn about their bodies in space. Our playgrounds provide diverse activities for children to engage in, including sandboxes, water tables, mud kitchens, and musical walls. These features encourage children to develop their creativity while promoting physical literacy and social interaction.
Indoor Play
Our age-designated classroom layouts cater to the diverse needs of children and include various centres such as dramatic play centres, sensory tables, library areas, calm-down spaces, craft areas, and block centres. This offers a wide range of activities that children can choose from, providing them with a holistic learning experience. Providing a diversity of play centres targets children's cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development.
Dramatic play
Dramatic play encourages children to use their imagination and creativity. It allows children to explore different roles and situations, which develops their social and emotional skills. It also helps them build their language and communication skills, as they engage in conversations and interactions with others. Our classroom settings promote imaginative play by providing housekeeping and dress-up centers.
Sensory play
Sensory play engages a child's senses, such as touch, smell, sight, sound, and taste, to promote their cognitive, social, and emotional development. This type of play occurs through exploring and experimenting with different materials and textures. Sensory play also helps children regulate their emotions and reduce stress and anxiety. We offer sensory play in our classrooms through sandboxes, water tables, playdough, slime, and sensory bins filled with various materials.
Fine motor activities
Fine motor activities involve the use of small muscles in the hands, fingers, and wrists, to improve dexterity and coordination. Our classrooms are equipped with the necessary tools and materials to carry out activities such as threading beads, cutting with scissors, and manipulating small objects. Building fine motor skills is essential for performing tasks that require precision and control, such as writing, drawing, and using tools.
Gross motor activites
Gross motor activities involve large muscle groups to improve coordination and control of the whole body. These activities are essential for the development of fundamental movement skills such as running, jumping, throwing, and catching. In our facility, children have the opportunity to develop their gross motor skills in both indoor and outdoor environments through activities such as games, sports, exercises, dancing, yoga, and building blocks. Engagement in these activities improves balance, spatial awareness, physical fitness, strength and endurance.
Open-ended art
Open-ended art is a creative approach to art-making that encourages children to explore their imagination and express themselves freely. This type of art can be created using a variety of materials found in our classrooms, such as paint, clay, paper, and loose parts. Our centre implements open-ended art to promote creativity, problem-solving skills, self-expression, and imagination.
Loose Parts Play
Loose parts play involves the use of open-ended materials that can be manipulated and combined in various ways. These materials can include natural objects such as sticks, rocks, and leaves, as well as man-made objects such as blocks, fabrics, cardboard and other recycled materials. All of our classrooms are equipped with loose parts to encourage children to explore their environment and use their imagination to create their own play experiences.
Calm down spaces
Our classrooms provide calm down spaces for children who may feel overwhelmed. These spaces are designed to promote emotional development in children and help them become more aware of their emotions. Additionally, they serve as a safe and secure environment for children to express their emotions in a healthy and constructive manner. By creating these spaces, we aim to provide a peaceful and relaxing environment where children can take a break from the hustle and bustle of the classroom and recharge their energy. We believe that providing these spaces supports children's emotional regulation and fosters a positive and inclusive learning environment.
Guided Meal Times
Meal times should be more than just a time to eat, but also a time for learning and building healthy habits. Our classrooms have a minimum of four designated meal times throughout the day, including breakfast, morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack. To promote good table manners and skills, we provide children with appropriate dining materials such as dishes, cups, and utensils. Meal times are a great opportunity for children to develop a positive relationship with food and discuss concepts of food and nutrition. By providing a fun and engaging mealtime experience, we encourage children to make healthy food choices and develop a lifelong appreciation for nutritious meals.
Off - site excursions
Our programs provide a range of age-appropriate opportunities for children to learn about their community and develop a sense of belonging as citizens. Our toddler and preschool-age programs offer neighbourhood walks around the community, which help children learn about their environments. Meanwhile, our Pre-K and OSC programs go on weekly splash park field trips during the summer months. Additionally, we incorporate library trips for our reading-age children to encourage literacy. Our programs are designed to foster a love of learning and a sense of community in children of all ages.
Musical Exploration
Musical exploration is a powerful tool that can engage all developmental areas of children's brains, leading to enhanced creativity and learning. By incorporating music into their learning experiences, children can benefit from a fun and engaging way to learn and develop important skills. Our programs offer musical play through singing, dancing, playing instruments, or simply listening to music. We utilize music as a highly effective tool to facilitate seamless transitions for children within our classrooms.
Intercultural Competance
Intercultural competence is an essential skill that children can utilize to understand, appreciate, and effectively communicate with people from different cultures. By fostering intercultural competence in children, we help them become more open-minded, empathetic, and respectful towards others. At our program, we are dedicated to providing children with opportunities to learn and experience different cultures through events and celebrations. This skill can also help them navigate diverse social situations and build meaningful relationships with people from different backgrounds.
Dizzy Play
Dizzy play is a type of play that involves children experiencing a sense of being on the edge, and experiencing laughter. We strive to create a classroom environment that accepts and encourages this form of play, while also ensuring that children can engage in it safely. Dizzy play can take on many different forms, including disrupting and restoring order, making nonsense, and clowning around. By providing a space for children to engage in dizzy play, we hope to foster body exploration, humour and language play.
Encounters with nature
Exploring the natural world is a great way to engage all of a child's senses. By immersing themselves in nature, children can use their senses of sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing to learn about the world around them. Whether it's feeling the texture of a leaf, smelling the fragrance of a flower, or listening to the chirping of birds, children can develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for the natural world. We organize trips for children to grow a community garden over the summer. In addition to that, we've created a natural environment at our centre with grass, trees, and flowers for children to utilize.