🧒 Woodlands Education, Development, and Curriculum 2 to 3 Years Old

🧒 Woodlands Education, Development, and Curriculum 2 to 3 Years Old

2 to 3 - At Woodlands, we provide a learning environment that supports 2 to 3 year olds to thrive as they build a sense of being and becoming. Our Teachers and Educators understand the importance of the development, and celebration of individual personalities to help create a sense of belonging where toddlers have the confidence and resilience to play, learn and explore. Woodlands value the importance of meaningful partnerships between Families and Teachers. We recognise that this requires continuous collaboration. Upon your toddler's first day, their Educator will spend time getting to know you and your toddler. We will complete a personal profile about your child’s daily routine, sleep, and dietary requirements, interests, dislikes, and events that are important to your family. This ensures that your toddler’s transition into care and education at Woodlands is positive and familiar. 

Woodlands 2 to 3 Year Old Classrooms are designed to foster a toddler’s natural desire to do things for themself, to explore, be active, imagine and create. Our learning programs support 2 to 3 year olds to develop their self-awareness, self-regulation, communication, social skills and make sense of the world around them. 

Woodlands Teachers and Educators use their extensive knowledge of child development, current teaching and learning theories, the Early Years Learning Framework and the Woodlands Method to plan and implement learning programs, as well as meaningful transitions/routines to support and engage your toddler in the program. 

At Woodlands, each child is encouraged to learn at their own pace and learning programs are tailored to meet the needs of individual children, their interests and abilities. 

At 2 to 3 years old, a toddler's desire to be independent is soaring. They are learning about relationships, how to communicate, and how to express themselves and their individuality. Woodlands Teachers and Educators organise learning spaces in ways that; 

• Encourage self-help and agency

• Promote small group play

• Encourage small group interactions and experiences

• Promote physical activity and fine/gross motor development

• Promote opportunities for communication and language development

• Support self-awareness and self-regulation

• Support flexible and individual routines (sleep, rest, meals) 

🌏 Learning experiences in a Woodlands 2 to 3 Year Old Classroom include; 

• Practical life experiences (using ‘everyday’ materials and tools, being part of the routine)

• Self-help experiences (self-serving and independent feeding, making up their own bed, cleaning up after themselves)

• Low shelves that  promote free choice and agency

• Outdoor play

• Group experiences with other children

• Opportunities for movement and physical activity

• Music and Movement

• Storytime

• Early Literacy through continuous communication, (verbal, facial expressions, body language and actions)

• Learning about the world around us

• Becoming self-aware

• Early Numeracy through materials that allow toddlers to explore, patterns, size, volume, numbers and counting

• Experiences that support the development of  hand-eye coordination, fine and gross motor skills

• Crafts and painting

• Gardening/sustainability experiences 

These experiences are opportunities for Toddlers at Woodlands to achieve significant milestones in their physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development and reach the Outcomes within the Early Years Learning Framework.

📄 Woodlands Child Summative Assessment

• The Woodlands Summative Assessment builds a picture of your child’s progress over time, through
  the evidence collected. The Victorian Early Learning Framework and communication with parents provides key reference points in which your child's progress can be identified and documented and shows an overall picture of your child's learning journey.
• The Summative Assessment is completed, through planning to support further learning. This can be identified when there are gaps of information in relation to a particular learning outcome enabling teachers to look for further examples and which learning outcomes to highlight and focus on during planning in the future.
• Documentation collected such as photos, jottings, observations, learning stories, work samples, parent input and more, are used as evidence.
• We are providing an overview of all the documentation we have collected to show a cycle of planning, reflecting and evaluating and how your child progresses over time.

💬 Please Note:

The Woodlands Summative Assessments are completed every 6 Months, and parents are invited to meet with the teachers or educators discuss the Summative Assessment. This process is organized internally and the Campus Leadership Teams including Room Leaders will initiate the process.