Room Layout For 18 Months to 2 Years Room

Last time I worked in the toddler room it was just two of us with 16 kids. So, I know exactly what you mean when you say it's hectic! Toddlers are the busiest, hardest, most stressful rooms to work in! But the most affectionate!

For a toddler room, it's important to have book area, writing area, pretend play, puzzle area, block area, art area and sensory areas as the main ones. Having these area give the children a wide variety of choices on different experiences throughout the day and cover their age/stage of development and skills for their age. When having these areas as well you can have a definite space for children to play in depending on what they choose.

What furniture do you have in your room to work with? How many tables, shelves, etc do you have in the room atm? Do you have interest areas?

I am also including my previous toddler room routine. It is a general guideline and is flexible. I have not included nappy/toileting within the routine... But hopefully this gives you an idea on how I ran the room...

My Toddler Room Routine:

7-30 am - 9:00 am: Indoor Free Play

9:00 am - 9:30 am: Morning Tea

9:30 am - 9:45 am: Group Time 1

9:45 am - 11:45 am: Outdoor Play

11: 45 am - 12: 00 pm: Group Time 2

12: 00 pm - 1:00 pm: Lunch

1:00 pm - 2:30 pm: Sleep

2:30 pm - 3:00 pm: Indoor Play

3:00 pm - 3:30 pm: Afternoon Tea

3:30 pm - 3:45 pm : Group Time 3

3:45 pm - 5:30 pm: Outdoor Play

5:30 pm - 6:30 pm:Indoor Activities (limited)

OK so this is basically an idea on how the routine was in my toddler room. I tried many different routines but this worked the best. The toddlers need outside time to run off all their pent up energy so spending time outside was very important. However, while outside I set up planned experiences from the program (on the verandah) that the children could engage in as well as the usual sandpit, bikes and play equipment. To me whether they are playing inside/outside makes no difference as long as they have an opportunity to interact in the experience I had planned so that's why before my shift I set it out for them... Half of my experiences were planned indoor and outdoor... Art, Books, Home corner, Blocks areas were set up both indoor and outdoor as well.

Group time is very important to me so I have 3 group times throughout the day.... They are only about 15 minutes each but it could be more or less depending on what the focus is... Group 1 - morning songs, activities on offer for the day, story. Group 2 - intentional teaching, group discussion, topics on interest, experiments etc. Group 3 - End of day round up, what they enjoyed doing, group game, story, songs.

Well let me know about the furniture you have and areas if any so I can try and figure something out,

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L.A