Toddlers
Our Toddler Program
About the Toddler Program at LPE
The toddler years are a time of incredible growth, curiosity, and discovery. At Le Petit Elephant, we give toddlers the freedom to explore their growing independence while providing the warmth, consistency, and guidance they need to feel secure and confident.
Our Toddler Program serves children ages 18–36 months and is designed specifically around the unique developmental needs of this age group. Toddlers are busy learning how to communicate, navigate friendships, manage big emotions, care for themselves, and understand the world around them, and our teachers are there to thoughtfully guide them through each of these milestones.
At LPE, toddlers learn primarily through play, movement, exploration, and meaningful relationships. Our approach draws from Waldorf, Reggio Emilia, and RIE principles and is grounded in our own Le Petit Méthode: a child-centered philosophy that recognizes that young children learn best when they are given the time, space, and freedom to discover things for themselves.
Learning Through Play
Toddlers are natural scientists, artists, builders, storytellers, and explorers. Rather than asking them to sit still and learn, we create an environment where learning happens naturally throughout the day.
Our toddler curriculum encourages:
Language development through conversation, songs, stories, and meaningful interactions
Early mathematical thinking through sorting, counting, building, and problem-solving
Fine and gross motor development through climbing, digging, carrying, creating, and active outdoor play
Social-emotional development and learning to navigate friendships
Growing independence and self-help skills
Art, music, movement, and sensory exploration
Early Spanish and English language development
Curiosity, creativity, confidence, and a love of learning
Every day brings opportunities for toddlers to make choices, try something new, solve problems, and experience the pride that comes from doing something for themselves.
The Outdoors Is Our Classroom
We believe toddlers need movement, fresh air, nature, and room to explore. Our Toddlers spend up to five hours outdoors each day, rain or shine, conditions permitting. Our expansive outdoor environment gives toddlers opportunities that simply aren't possible in a traditional classroom. They dig in the earth, splash in water, build with loose parts, explore our gardens, climb, run, collect treasures, make mud creations, and engage in imaginative play!
Our natural playground is intentionally designed to give children real experiences with nature and the physical world, with mature trees, grass, hills and varied terrain, water play, mud kitchens, loose parts, and plenty of space to move. We don't believe childhood needs to happen indoors.
Supporting Growing Independence
Toddlers are constantly saying, "I do it!" We love that. Our teachers intentionally support children in becoming increasingly independent while remaining close by to offer encouragement, assistance, and reassurance when needed.
Children are encouraged to participate in age-appropriate daily routines such as cleaning up, washing hands, putting on shoes, carrying their belongings, helping with meals, and caring for their classroom environment.
We also approach toileting with patience and respect. Toilet learning is a developmental process, not a race, and we work in partnership with families to support each child when they are ready.
Big Feelings, Growing Hearts
The toddler years come with BIG emotions. At LPE, we don't expect toddlers to have emotional skills that they haven't developed yet. Instead, our teachers help children learn how to recognize feelings, communicate their needs, navigate conflict, and begin developing the tools they need to regulate themselves. We model kindness, respect, empathy, and gentle problem-solving while maintaining clear and consistent boundaries.
Our goal isn't simply to stop challenging behavior. It is to help children understand themselves and others so that, over time, they can become increasingly capable of navigating the world around them.
A Bilingual Environment
LPE is an English/Spanish bilingual early childhood program. Toddlers are immersed in both languages throughout their day through songs, stories, conversations, routines, music, and play.
At this age, language learning happens naturally. We embrace children's curiosity and give them meaningful opportunities to hear and use both English and Spanish in the context of real relationships and everyday experiences.
The LPE Toddler Experience
At Le Petit Elephant, we believe toddlers deserve more than a place to spend the day. They deserve a childhood. A childhood filled with dirt under their fingernails, stories under the trees, muddy shoes, music, friendships, independence, laughter, big feelings, beautiful discoveries, and teachers who truly know them.
This is the toddler experience at LPE.
Our
Toddler Teachers
Our toddler teachers understand that caring for two-year-olds is about much more than supervision. It requires patience, consistency, humor, warmth, and a deep understanding of child development.
Teachers carefully observe each child and use those observations to guide the classroom environment and curriculum. We meet children where they are while encouraging them to take the next small step toward independence.
Most importantly, we want every toddler to feel known, loved, capable, and excited to come to school each day.
Growing From Infant to Toddler
For children transitioning from our Infant Program, the move to the Toddler Program is thoughtfully considered based on each child's developmental readiness, including age, physical development, social-emotional readiness, toileting progress, classroom needs, and available space.
We work closely with families to make transitions as smooth and positive as possible.
For children joining LPE for the first time, we take the time to learn about your child's personality, routines, interests, strengths, and needs so we can help them feel at home in our community.
At LPE, we strive to cultivate in every child:
Pride in their ability to complete tasks independently
Creativity in every subject matter (not just art)
Respect for self and others
Enthusiasm for learning and exploration
A sense of belonging and confidence in themselves
A passion for reading and story-telling
Confidence in public speaking
A love of nature and music
Toddler
Schedule
*18 months -36 months
A Typical Toddler Day
Our toddler schedule balances active outdoor exploration, hands-on learning, meals, rest, and plenty of uninterrupted time for play.
7:30am–9:00am Arrival & Outdoor Play
9:00am–9:30am Morning Snack, Diapering/Toileting & Morning Meeting
9:30am–10:30am Art, Music, Stories, Sensory Exploration & Learning Activities
10:30am–12:00pm Outdoor Exploration & Adventure Play
12:00pm–12:30pm Lunch & Preparing for Rest
12:30pm–2:30pm Nap & Quiet Rest
2:30pm–3:00pm Wake Up, Diapering/Toileting & Transition
3:00pm–3:30pm Afternoon Snack & Getting Ready for Outside
3:30pm–5:30pm Outdoor Play, Exploration & Pick-Up
Daily schedules may be adjusted based on children's developmental needs, weather, special activities, and classroom rhythms.
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Visit our campus, get to know our incredible teachers, and explore if Le Petit Elephant is a good fit for your child’s unique needs. We look forward to showing you our school!