Developmentally Appropriate Goals for a Two-Year-Old Lesson Plan

The following information was compiled by me based on viewing few preschool curriculum standards, WIDA levels, and milestones appropriate for this age group.

A two-year-old class can do better with a teacher in front of the class than a one-year-old class. You can hold classes from 20 up to 45 minutes as time goes on.

Here are some milestones for this age group:

• Understand the words for familiar people, everyday objects, and body parts

• Use a variety of single words by 18 months and speak in sentences of two to four words by 24 months (may combine nouns and verbs, like “mommy eat”); have a vocabulary of 200+ words by 36 months

• Repeat words they hear

• Start asking “what’s that?” and “why?”

• Begin using plurals (dogs) and basic pronouns (me, you)

Based on a preschool curriculum that uses WIDA I believe these objectives are appropriate for this age. You may notice that some of these objectives also are in the one-year-old blog. That is because it is important to include level one when teaching.

Here are listening objectives shown as "I can" statements:

• I need people to show me pictures and use their hands to help me understand. 
• I can understand when people say “hello” or “goodbye.”
• I can notice that people will sometimes wave when they say “hello” and “goodbye.” 
• I can understand one or two words when people show pictures or when they use their hands to show me what they mean. 
• I can understand questions that let me choose “yes” or “no” for an answer.
• I can recognize different sounds in English words. 

Here are speaking objectives shown as "I can statements:

• I can use one or two words at a time.
• I can use greetings as a way to begin talking with other people.
• I can use my hands to wave, point, or show what I want to say and what I need.
• I can use a few words that help me get what I need.
• I can connect two or three words together.
• I can try to say English words I have heard before. 

Please use this information when trying to plan for your future lessons. I feel that it is important to think of the purpose for the lesson first; then, think of an appropriate topic afterward. You can find more information on what else this age can do from the source below.

Sources:

Milestone for Twos