Bruno Toddler Classroom Blog

The toddlers had a wonderful week learning and getting ready for Valentine’s Day! Both classes incorporated Valentine-themed items into their jobs. They decorated bags for the Valentine exchange and finished painting their wooden heart ornaments. A big thanks to the parent volunteers that help the children make these fun crafts! After the Valentine exchange on Friday, the classes came together to enjoy a special parfait snack!

In Classroom One, Ms. Britt decorated the bulletin board to reflect the insect theme, and the children enjoyed naming the insects and pointing out their name and picture. They heard a story about an egg boy and was introduced to the emotion egg job. Other favorite jobs included the Geo board, spooning hearts, and insect tong transfer. The toddlers also learned about what it means to be kind.

Earlier this week, Classroom Two had a great time dancing on the outdoor classroom stage and learning how to spread sunflower butter on graham crackers. Spooning wooden balls into cups and transferring hearts with tongs were two of the toddlers’ favorite jobs. They also decorated bags and colored hearts for their peers who were absent on Valentine’s Day.

“Of all things,

love is the most potent.”

– Dr. Maria Montessori

The toddler classrooms have been full of activity this week! We started the week with the Trike-a-thon that helped to raise funds for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. The toddlers and primary school students raised over $3,746 to help children fight childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. What a great way for our students to learn empathy for others and learn to ride their riding toys safely!

Classroom One enjoys exploring their new learning environment filled with bugs and insects. Many new job materials fill their classroom: insect tong transfer, insect object-to-object matching, bug sensorial rice bowl, insect picture-to-picture matching, and arranging the spiders from biggest to smallest. Many insect books and craft activities also fill their classroom workday!

Some highlights from Classroom Two are doing the snowman transfer job, reading books, Valentine’s Day crafts, and filling the bird feeder for birdwatching. They’ve already seen several birds, including a red cardinal!

Both classrooms continue to enjoy practical life jobs such as sweeping, mopping, crumbing, flower arranging, and taking care of their dishes and trash. The teachers are delighted when they see the students engaged in their work and observe them concentrating on the task at hand. 

In The Discovery of the Child, Maria Montessori states, “At some given moment, it happens that the child becomes deeply interested in a piece of work; we see it in the expression on his face, his intense concentration, the devotion to the exercise.”

This week was full of giggles and smiles from our toddlers! They were thrilled to run on the playground, point out airplanes, and watch the geese nearby. The students also spent time in the “little library” to look at books and listen to stories. While it was raining on Friday, Mr. Brendan brought the library experience to us by reading a book and letting each toddler pick out a book to take home. However, we did not let the rain stop us from going outside to explore! The toddlers put their raingear to good use by walking and splashing in puddles. You could feel their excitement in the air!

In Classroom One, the students enjoyed handwashing their snack plates and cleaning a mirror. They especially liked jobs that involved spooning objects into another container, stacking cups, and matching vehicles. Some new lessons included arranging flowers, coloring snowflakes with markers and painting a snowy owl.

Meanwhile in Classroom Two, dinosaur washing, animal puzzles, and “freeing the dinosaurs” were still the favorite jobs. The students also moved to music by tapping sticks and waving scarves. There were several moments when the toddlers would work together to build a block tower, knock it over, and repeat the process multiple times.

“Let the children be free; encourage them; let them run outside when it is raining; let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water; and when the grass of the meadows is wet with dew, let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet; let them rest peacefully when a tree invites them to sleep beneath its shade; let them shout and laugh when the sun wakes them in the morning.” ~ Dr. Maria Montessori

“The first essential for the child’s development is concentration. The child who concentrates is immensely happy.” -Dr. Maria Montessori

The Montessori philosophy believes that concentration is a fundamental aspect of a child’s development. The ability to concentrate and focus one’s attention on a task is crucially important because it helps children learn and improve, which leads to self-confidence and positive self-esteem.

The teachers can observe the students deeply involved in their work throughout the school day. We have provided a variety of activities to encourage the students to choose from. In our classrooms, the toddlers often work in groups to learn a lesson. For example, this week Ms. Kathy led a lesson on towel folding. In addition, Ms. Krysten demonstrated a lesson on freeing the dinosaurs that were taped onto a work tray. In both of these lessons, the students had to focus and concentrate on the movement and use of their fingers and hands. This, in turn, is improving their fine motor skills. The students are definitely developing confidence and a sense of accomplishment. One of our favorite things to hear throughout the day is “Look, I did it!”.

This week we spent the colder days enjoying inside activities. The toddlers were thrilled to use their gross motor skills on the indoor climbing blocks and mats. Later in the week, we enjoyed exercising in the Bruno gym and walking to the library for storytime. Our librarian, Mr. Brendan, had many new books for us to choose from. We ended the week celebrating Milo’s 2nd birthday! Happy Birthday to Milo!

Our first full week back at school was a fun but busy one! The students enjoyed exploring the playground in the sunshine. Both classes went to library and heard wonderful new stories. In Spanish class, we learned some new songs, which was also exciting. Between both classrooms, we had a total of four birthday celebrations! It’s a special time for the child’s family to visit and share in the joy of the child’s life. Happy birthday to Mara, Willow, Locke and Ben!

Classroom One focused on food prep and practical life this week. Ms. Kathy led a lesson on peeling oranges, and Ms. Britt showed the students how to spread sunflower butter on graham crackers. Dishwashing, mirror cleaning, and matching items to pictures were also popular jobs this week.

In Classroom Two, shape sorting and the magnetic dinosaurs were still the students’ favorite jobs.
Ms. Krysten gave a group lesson with the mystery box, and Ms. Melissa led the students in tapping sticks to music, using a pipette to drop water onto a silicone-shaped dinosaur, and pulling fabric cloths out of a box.

“The education of even a small child, therefore, does not aim at preparing him for school, but for life.”
— Dr. Maria Montessori

“It is interesting to notice that where life is simple and natural and where the children participate in the adult’s life, they are calm and happy.” – Dr. Maria Montessori

Happy New Year! The toddlers had a short and exciting week as they returned to their classrooms. They were thrilled to see their learning environments had been supplied with many new materials! One of the most popular classroom work areas is Practical Life. This is a key part of the Montessori method. Through these practical life activities, children develop a foundation for essential life skills. We continue to focus on self-care exercises such as serving snacks, washing hands, dressing/undressing themselves, zipping/unzipping backpacks, hanging up clothing, and blowing noses. These self-care activities allow the students to become physically independent and attend to their own personal needs.

A clean, orderly classroom is important in a Montessori environment. The practical life activities teach children how to take care of the space around them—from physically wiping up spills, sweeping dirt, and pushing in chairs, to putting their jobs away in the correct area. As you can see from the pictures below, many of the students helped prepare and serve snacks this week. Others cleared dishes and put the trash away. These exercises give children an understanding of their surroundings and how it works. The primary goal is to build order, concentration, coordination, and independence.

The frigid weather kept us from exploring our outside play area but we were able to visit the Bruno Bear’s gymnasium! The happiness and giggles that the wide-open space provided were almost magical! The students were able to run, jump, bounce balls, and push a rolling dolly. The gym is a perfect setting to fine-tune their gross motor skills!

The last week of school in 2024 flew by! Both classrooms were engaged in holiday-themed jobs, like decorating a felt gingerbread man and hanging ornaments. We were thankful that the weather was not too cold or rainy, so we spent a lot of time outdoors! The toddlers always enjoy pointing out the moon and waving at the airplanes. Also, Classroom Two celebrated Piper’s 3rd birthday! The students spent a lot of time preparing for the Holiday Program. We practiced the songs everyday, and it was wonderful to watch the toddlers move to the music and learn to dance with each other.

All of our students have grown so much this past semester, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for the next part of the year! Thank you again for letting us be a part of your children’s lives. We hope that you and your families have a restful, fun and joyful winter break!

“It is through movement that the child arrives at understanding music. It is not only by playing and singing for the child that this happens; he must understand it by his own movements.”

– Maria Montessori

You can feel the anticipation and excitement of the season build within the Toddler classrooms as the teachers have added several Christmas materials to the learning environments. Many people believe that “More is more”. However, when you look at the Montessori environment, you will see that, “Less is more.” The prepared classroom space is intentionally minimalistic but very rich and fulfilling for children. “Over-abundance debilitates and retards progress; this has been proved again and again by my collaborators.” ~ Dr. Maria Montessori (Advanced Montessori Method I,  Kalekshetra, 1965).

Not everyone celebrates Christmas but the essence of Christmas is rooted in goodness, joy, and charity. Toddlers can learn the joy of giving, spending quality time with friends and family, celebrating what they have, showing generosity to those in need, and the importance of looking out for one another.

Christmas can be a time of great excitement for toddlers, and there are many ways to help them enjoy the season: 

• Decorate: Decorate the house together, hang a stocking, or put up a tree 
• Read: Read Christmas books or stories  
• Listen: Listen to Christmas music or sing Christmas songs 
• Bake: Bake Christmas treats together 
• Make cards: Make Christmas cards together 
• Count down: Use an Advent calendar to count down the days 
• Go out: Take a Christmas walk or drive 
• Perform: Stage a holiday concert or play at home 
• Visit Santa: Visit Santa or see a large Christmas tree 
• Be kind: Perform random acts of kindness

The following pictures show some of our highlights from the week. They include: fun in our outdoor learning environments on the days that weren’t too rainy or cold, celebrating Kai’s 2nd birthday in Toddler Classroom 2, visiting Lower Elementary school to admire a special display of Christmas Around the World, and working jobs independently and as a group throughout the classrooms.

We were glad to be back together this week after Thanksgiving break! Everyone came back refreshed and ready to learn! Both classes worked on tapping sticks to music and keeping our classroom environment clean and tidy. Ms. Britt gave a lesson on a colorful cup stacking job, which quickly became a crowd favorite. Another popular job this week was a sensory bowl filled with fake snow and small objects. Meanwhile, Ms. Krysten gave a lesson on different types of vehicles, and the toddlers were also fascinated by the spinning gear job.

The middle school students dropped by on Friday to read the toddlers a story about how the tradition of collecting canned goods started at our school by the founder, Ms. Theresa, and her father. Our very own Bruno Bear made a surprise visit! What a wonderful opportunity to share with your child the gift of giving, especially during the holidays! If you would like to participate in the school wide canned food drive, we are collecting canned soup, beans and rice. All items will be donated to the Catholic Center of Concern. You may bring your items with your child at carpool drop off and pickup. The food drive ends December 18th. Thanks for everything you do to support our school!

“We must clearly understand that when we give the child freedom and independence, we are giving freedom to a worker already braced for action, who cannot live without working and being active.”

– Maria Montessori

♪ We are thankful for happy hearts,
For the rain and sunny weather.
We are thankful for this good food,
And that we’re all together. ♫

We sing the above song every day before eating lunch together. It’s a beautiful time in our day when we slow down and come together to give thanks. Dr. Montessori’s philosophy strongly emphasizes the importance of gratitude and appreciation. In addition, “Grace and Courtesy” is a core aspect of Montessori education that emphasizes polite behavior and consideration for others, including expressing
thanks and appreciation. The students are learning to express their thankfulness each and every day.
This week the toddler classrooms have so much to be thankful for! We are back together again after so many of us have been sick. We are grateful for the many lessons that were taught and learned. We are
thankful for our outside learning environment and the beauty of nature. We are filled with gratitude for the wonderful Thanksgiving meal we shared together and the delicious apple treats the children helped to prepare.

The toddler teachers are grateful and appreciative to see our students thriving in their learning environments. We hope you and your family share a blessed Thanksgiving and find many reasons to be thankful!

“The Absorbent Mind welcomes everything, puts its hope in everything, accepts poverty equally with wealth, adopts any religion and the prejudices and habits of its countrymen, incarnating all in itself. This is the child!”
-Maria Montessori