Autumn Term – Getting to know you

During the first half term our main priority is to settle the children into their new ‘enabling environments’ so they feel happy and secure. During your child’s induction sessions, parents/carers will be asked to fill in an ‘All About Me!’ booklet about your child. The booklet aims to provide key information which will support the Nursery staff to find out more about your child and to help us know how we can support them best to settle into Nursery life. The Nursery staff will focus on playing and chatting with the children to build ‘positive relationships’ with them. Staff will find out what makes them ‘a unique child’ by finding out about their likes, dislikes and interests. There will be lots of opportunities for the children to develop their confidence by talking about themselves, their families and to begin to play with other the children, making new friends.

The Nursery staff will support the children to explore a wide range of activities and different resources which aim to support the children’s ‘learning and development.’ During the session children will have opportunities to take part in adult led activities, child-initiated play and outdoor play. Staff will encourage the children to explore the large indoor environment with carefully planned learning areas and the beautiful outdoor environment with a dedicated outdoor learning area.

Once the children are settled into Nursery they will be introduced to our special friend, ‘Benjamin Bear.’ Benjamin helps the children to learn what acceptable behaviour is and reminds us to make the ‘right choice’ by being kind, being helpful and being safe. Benjamin Bear chooses a different child daily who has been making the right choices and rewards them with a special ‘Star of the Day’ sticker and certificate.

During the topic ‘Getting to Know You’ the children will learn the names of different parts of their body and how they work. They will have the opportunity to create self-portraits using a range of media such as drawing, playdough, painting and collaging. The children will be invited to bring in a photograph of their family to display on our ‘family tree’ to promote discussion about families and how they are the same or different. During snack time the children will be encouraged to discuss how they can make healthy choices, such as eating healthy foods, washing their hands regularly and brushing their teeth.

The Nursery staff will spend lots of time talking and interacting with the children to support their communication and language development. Children will learn how to become a ‘good listener’ in a language rich environment by singing lots of nursery rhymes, sharing a range of books and stories and tuning into different sounds in the environment around us. Once the children are settled into Nursery the Nursery teacher will screen every child’s speech and language development using the WellComm toolkit. This will help to identify any children who may need extra interventions to support their Communication and Language Development.

During the autumn term there are lots of religious festivals and different cultural celebrations, such as Bonfire Night, Diwali, Remembrance Day and Christmas. The children will learn about why these events take place and how they are celebrated. There will be lots of opportunities for the children to talk to their friends to find out how they are the same or different as they begin to make sense of their own life-story and family history.

Early reading and Writing Skills

• Listen to and join in singing nursery rhymes
• Enjoy rhymes and show an interest in books and rhymes
• Develop some favourite stories, rhymes and songs
• Listen to and join in with stories, one-to-one and in small groups
• Learn to discriminate between different environmental sounds
• Start to distinguish between the different marks we make
• Show a preference for a dominate hand when mark making
• Begin to hold mark making tools using a comfortable grip
• Use different mark making tools, such as crayons, pencils, felt tips and chalks
• Begin to recognise own name during self-registration
• Begin to show awareness of print in books and the environment

Mathematic Skills (Master the Curriculum)

– join in with number rhymes (1 per week) – recognise and matching colours – matching (sameness) – sorting (colour, size and shape) – number 1 –
number 2 (subitising) – pattern (repeating ABAB, fix my pattern)

Spring Term – What a Wonderful World!

During the spring term the children will have lots of opportunities to learn all about the world we live in. The children will explore where we live and learn about the features of houses, streets, cities, and different countries. There will be opportunities to share books, videos and pictures that introduce the children to different countries and different places they could visit and explore such as libraries, museums, famous landmarks or even space! The children will learn about people who help us in our local environment. Such as police officers, fire fighters, doctors and nurses as they begin to show an interest in different occupations. We will also continue to learn about different celebrations such as Chinese New Year, Easter and Eid.

By now the children will have taken part in lots of weekly outdoor learning sessions. They will have been digging in the mud, finding creatures and exploring the natural world. In the autumn term the children will have observed how the leaves change colour and fall off the trees, talking about the changes they can see. During this term the children will explore the elements of winter and experience being outdoors in cold weather. There will be opportunities to explore what happens when water freezes into ice and investigate what happens as the ice warms up and melts. We might even be lucky enough to get some snow!

Now that the children are happy and settled in Nursery, weekly PE sessions will take place. The children are encouraged to independently undress themselves and change into their PE kits with little support. During PE sessions the children will explore different ways of moving such as walking, running, skipping and jumping. There will also be lots of opportunities to use a range of equipment such as hoops, balls, and bean bags to develop their balancing and ball skills.

 

 

Early Reading and Writing Skills

• Understand that print has meaning
• Know that we read English text from left to right and from top to bottom
• Use the names of the different parts of a book e.g. front cover, title, page, word, picture
• Recognise own name during self-registration
• Begin to trace the letters in their name
• Use a pencil, holding it with a tripod pencil grip
• Engage in conversations about books using new words
• Develop their phonological awareness, so that they can spot and suggest rhymes
• Begin to hear initial sounds in words

Mathematic Skills (Master the Curriculum)

– subitising up to 3 objects – counting up to 6 objects – recognising numbers 1-5 – composition of numbers 4 and 5 – height and length – make comparisons between objects relating to size and length.

 

Summer Term – Animals and Growing

Nursery’s final topic is all about animals and growing. The children will learn about lots of different types of animals, such as; pets, farm animals, mini-beasts, jungle animals and sea creatures. We will learn the names of different animals, what they look like, what they need to live and grow and how we can care for them. We will also learn the names of baby animals and where different animals live. The children will have the opportunity to learn about different life cycles, such as the butterfly and chickens. They will be encouraged to observe changes and to talk about growth and changes that they observe and see over time.

Towards the end of the spring term the children observed the growth of living things that spring brings, such as buds growing on the bushes, blossom growing on the trees, bulbs starting to sprout. With the warmer weather arriving the bulbs and flowers that the children planted in the spring are now starting to grow. The children will be encouraged to water the bulbs and flowers in the outdoor area to develop an understanding of what they need to grow and how to care for them. The children will have opportunities to observe seeds, flowers, plants and trees grow to develop an understanding of growth and change.

 

During the summer term the children will be given a ‘taster’ of the phonics sessions they will take part in when they begin Reception next year. At Calshot Primary School we follow the ‘Essential Letters and Sounds’ (ELS) phonics programme. The children will learn a sound a week from phase 2 of the programme, beginning with the sounds s, a, t, p, i, n. This will give the children opportunity to develop their phonological awareness by hearing initial sounds in words and recognising words with the same initial sound. The children will also learn how to form these letters by learning letter formation rhymes, which help the children to understand how to form the letters using different movements. The children will be given opportunities to practice letter formation in a range of ways, such as writing in sand, using large sheets of paper with felt tip pens and writing shopping lists or notes in the home corner.

The children should now have developed good self-help skills as they have had lots of opportunities to dress and undress themselves for PE. This term we focusing on dance and gymnastics where the children will have opportunities to use and remember sequences and patterns of movement to music. We will also practise lots of running and racing in preparation for the all-important Nursery sports day!

Early Reading and Writing Skills

• Recognise some letters and sounds
• Begin to hear and say initial sounds in words
• Recognise my name during self-registration
• Write or trace my name during self-registration
• Write some or all of my name
• Use some print and letter knowledge in their early writing
• Begin to form some letters correctly

Mathematic Skills (Master the Curriculum)

– sequencing daily routines – positional language – more than/fewer – 2D shapes – 3D shapes – number composition up to 5 – what comes after? – what comes before?

Core Nursery Rhymes	Core Number Rhymes
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Baa Baa Black Sheep Humpty Dumpty Hickory Dickory Dock The Wheels on the Bus Wind the Bobbin Up Miss Polly Had a Dolly	Once I Caught a Fish Alive 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed 5 Fat Sausages Sizzling in a Pan 5 Little Ducks went Swimming One Day 5 Little Men in a Flying Saucer 5 Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree

Each week the children will learn a new nursery and number rhyme which is linked to the week’s focus book and adult led activities. By the end of the year the children will have learnt a wide range of rhymes and will be able to join in singing the words and carrying out the actions.