Take a thematic approach to teaching when working with toddlers. Select a theme and incorporate a variety of activities and tasks that relate to the theme. For example, if you've selected an ocean-theme, integrate activities that relate to the ocean, yet teach content area knowledge and life skills, as well. With the given theme, you could set up an under-the-sea dramatic play area, in which children pretend they are ocean creatures, you could read stories that relate to the ocean for literacy and you could have children count ocean-related toys to foster number recognition. Through this approach, children learn that topics are often related to one another and can apply what they know about one topic to another, increasing comprehension in a meaningful way.
In a toddler curriculum, hands-on activities are the name of the game. Incorporating activities that allow children to physically touch and manipulate items not only grabs their attention and engages them, it also allow them to make concrete connections to what they are learning. Another added bonus, these activities foster development of fine and gross motor skills. When selecting activities to incorporate into your curriculum, choose age-appropriate materials and tasks and allow those tasks to be open-ended. For example, to encourage scientific discovery, fill a sand table with sand, oats, leaves or some other soft material and provide children with items they can use to manipulate the material; buckets, shovels, sifters and measuring spoons, for example. Encourage children to use the materials to explore and make observations, however, don't have any expectations regarding the activity; simply allow children to work at their own pace and however they'd like (within reason). They'll make discoveries in a fun way.
Use play as a teaching tool with this age group. Design activities that encourage play, but that also aim at teaching specific skills or concepts. For example, set out blocks and encourage children to use the blocks to build houses, bird nests and roadways. While they are constructing their creations, talk about the shapes of the blocks, count the number of blocks that have been used and make patterns with the blocks. Although children appear to be simply playing with the blocks, they are also learning valuable academic skills.
Use crafts as a creative approach when teaching toddlers. Craft-making provides children with an array of benefits, including vocabulary development, artistic expression, fine motor skill development and an appreciation for varied opinions. Again, children are entertained and engaged while creating crafts, but they are also acquiring academic, physical and social skills. Name the colors of objects that are used, talk about the crafts children are creating and discuss the feel of the items that are being used when creating craft projects.