Contents Qingdao Amerasia International School Introduction ......................3 Our Mission
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Our Vision
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Our Core Values
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Montessori Toddler Curriculum ...................................................4 Practical Life
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Language
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Sensorial
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Mathematics
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Chinese
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Music
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Gross Motor Development
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Qingdao Amerasia International School Introduction Our Mission QAIS aims to inspire a lifelong love of learning through a holistic, child-centered, inquiry-based approach. By embracing each student’s diverse needs, learning styles, and strengths, we strive to develop courageous global citizens who help to create a more peaceful world through community action, intercultural understanding, and respect for all life.
Our Vision To cultivate an inclusive and vibrant community that promotes knowledge, creativity, independent thinking and mutual respect in a nurturing and safe environment.
Our Core Values Academic Excellence: We embrace academic excellence, guiding our children’s innate curiosity and encouraging joy in learning. Independence and Imagination: We foster independent thinking and spark imagination, inspiring our children to become the leaders of tomorrow. Peace and respect: We instill respect for self, respect for one another, and respect for our planet, enhancing prospects for peace.
Montessori Toddler Curriculum The Toddler program, for children 18 months and up, takes advantage of the toddler’s natural drive to act independently. QAIS Montessori Children’s House primary focus of a Montessori Toddler Program is to prepare an environment that supports the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development of each child. The children are given opportunities to work individually and cooperatively in a group setting. They learn to verbally express themselves as they explore self, family, and the world in which they live. This helps the children move consciously in the world. Toddlers spend the year becoming comfortable in their classroom community, gaining confidence in themselves, developing an awareness of others, and learning to feel secure in the relaxed atmosphere of our school setting. Toddlers are in a developmental stage that Maria Montessori called a period of unconscious absorbent creation. In the Toddler's process of embodying the world, adults influence attitudes, characteristics, personality traits, speech habits, mannerisms, and how children come to think about themselves and the world at large. Adults prepare the Toddler's environment with enriching aesthetics, materials, and furniture in order to foster independence and nurture curiosity. The members of our Toddler staff are Montessori certified as well as loving adults who contribute and facilitating the development of our future generations. The classrooms are a special place for the young child to begin his/her steps towards independence and self-reliance. The safe, loving, gentle atmosphere puts children and parents at ease and makes for a trusting, spontaneous transition to school. Toddlers come to school five days a week, and may choose to stay for mornings only or a full day. The Toddler Program is where the children begin to cultivate an interest in learning and a desire for exploration. The Toddlers learn concentration, coordination, language skills, responsibility, and respect-all. Toddler exercises and activities recognize that children learn by doing. Classroom materials are always accessible, attractive, safe, and geared for a child’s success. Activities are changed regularly in response to children’s need for variety and challenge as they grow and learn. The toddler Montessori classroom emphasizes specific skills, but there is dynamic interplay among the areas, enhancing children’s natural learning process.
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Practical Life Practical Life activities form the cornerstone of the Montessori classroom and prepare the child for all other areas. The emphasis is on process rather than on product. Through the repetition of Practical Life activities, children develop and refine the basic skills that will serve them all their lives. The Toddler classroom offers the early Practical Life exercises, such as Pouring, Opening and Closing, Spooning, Bead Stringing, Polishing and Large Water Activities. These activities are aimed at enhancing the child’s development of fine motor control, hand-eye coordination, balance, sense of order, concentration and independence. Physical skills ♥ Control of movement ♥ Silence game ♥ Walking the line Respect and care of environment ♥ Squeezing a sponge ♥ Sweeping the floor ♥ Pouring grains and water ♥ Clamping clothespins ♥ Rolling a rug ♥ Using tools such as hammers and screwdrivers ♥ Opening and closing jar lids ♥ Opening and closing latches ♥ Using a strainer, beater, whisk ♥ Scrubbing a shell, rock, doll ♥ Caring for animals ♥ Recycling Grace, courtesy, and etiquette ♥ Greeting someone ♥ "Please" and "Thank you" ♥ Walking around the rug ♥ Shaking hands Independence ♥ Care of person ♥ Dressing frame ♥ Large button frame ♥ Zipper frame ♥ Snapping frame ♥ Hanging up coat ♥ Combing hair ♥ Washing hands ♥ Health and safety ♥ Nutrition and food preparation
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Language Around the age of two, children’s speech development experiences an explosion of words, soon followed by sentences. The Language materials in the Toddler classroom encourage the refinement and enrichment of language as the first steps on the road to writing and finally reading. Early Language materials and oral exercises like storytelling and reading aloud support the toddler’s need to be immersed in language. Activities include books, puzzles, naming objects like fruits, vegetables and animals, and beginning sound games. Pre-reading ♥ Matching cards ♥ Vocabulary cards ♥ Stories read aloud ♥ Size and shape discrimination exercises ♥ Picture-word cards Matching ♥ Tracing objects ♥ Tracing shapes Word recognition ♥ Sandpaper letters ♥ Isolating initial sounds Pre-writing ♥ Sandbox tracing
Sensorial We all learn through our senses, and this is especially true of very young children who are at the beginning of taking in and understanding the world around them. Sensorial activities assist Toddlers in the great task of organizing, integrating and learning about their sensory input. Sensorial materials include knobbed cylinders for practice with dimension, color paddles, tactile exercises like rough and smooth, musical equipment, sorting and shapes.
Mathematics To help prepare the mathematical mind, Toddlers are exposed to the world of numbers through counting games and concrete materials. These exercises encourage the development of important pre-math skills such as order, sequence, visual discrimination, sorting, one-to-one correspondence and directionality. Toddler Math activities include stacking and nesting cubes, number blocks and puzzles, and sorting and counting materials. Counting activities (1-4 and 1-10) ♥ Counting songs ♥ Counting fingers, animals, children, objects in the environment, etc. ♥ Spindles boxes ♥ Sandpaper numerals ♥ Numeral sandbox tracing cont’d 6
Concept of Time ♥ Daily routine ♥ Periods of the day (morning, afternoon, evening) ♥ Seasons
Chinese Toddler and Primary children are exposed to the sounds and rhythms of the Chinese language through games, songs, and activities. Lessons initially include counting, colors, and basic vocabulary.
Music Toddlers enjoy learning concepts such as beat, meter, and rhythm. Toddlers learn to use their bodies with the rhythm of the music.
Gross Motor Development Toddlers participate in regular gross motor development during the day. They practice moving their bodies and developing their gross motor skills.
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QINGDAO AMERASIA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
Inspiring a lifelong love of learning. www.QingdaoAmerasia.org