Nursery - Lions and Tigers
Welcome to our Nursery Class Page!
What we're learning this term
Autumn 1
Weeks 1&2
What a fantastic first two weeks we have had in Nursery! The children have enjoyed re-telling ‘Owl Babies’ and other familiar stories using puppets, developing their vocabulary, recall and confidence in speaking, with Colourful Semantics helping us to extend sentences. In Maths, we have been sorting by colour and matching pairs, encouraging the children to look carefully at similarities, differences and patterns. Our Phonics learning has focused on careful listening, making and describing different sounds and beginning to use a wider range of vocabulary. We have also been developing independence, confidence and physical skills through swimming, Dough Disco, climbing, balancing and outdoor play, alongside exploring emotions, kindness and empathy through Jigsaw and hospital role play. Baking has been a lovely highlight too, with the children following simple recipes, counting ingredients and developing their fine motor skills while making Owl Pancakes and Owl Babies nest cakes.
Week 3
In Nursery this week, we have been celebrating what makes each of us unique and special through the story Incredible You. The children enjoyed talking about their different features, interests and talents and created some wonderful self-portraits on mirrors. We have also been exploring our senses by identifying and matching different smells. We enjoyed making muffin pizzas, practising our skills of spreading tomato sauce and grating cheese. In Maths, we have been working hard on repeating patterns, with many children now able to continue a pattern independently.
Our Wellbeing Wednesday included rainbow breathing, yoga and listening to The Swan by Camille Saint-Saëns, talking about how the music made us feel. In Phonics, we explored making different sounds using musical instruments and enjoyed singing Miss Polly Had a Dolly. We have also enjoyed lots of active outdoor learning, including climbing and balancing, adventurous play, parachute games and Mrs Bramall Says. Our daily movement sessions have included Dough Disco and practising big arm movements with our flipper flappers. What a busy week of learning, exploring and having fun!
Week 4
This week in Nursery, we have continued exploring repeating AB patterns using Compare Bears and fruit kebabs. We have enjoyed reading Incredible You, creating chalk self-portraits and celebrating the unique qualities, skills and talents that make each of us incredible. We have also explored our sense of taste, bravely trying a variety of foods and talking about our likes and dislikes. The children have developed their fine motor skills through chopping and squeezing oranges, lemons and limes, discovering how much juice they could make.
During snack time, we have enjoyed sharing our ideas and developing our Communication and Language skills, answering ‘why?’ questions and practising extending our answers into full sentences. We have listened carefully to Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Aviary, imagining the birds fluttering and darting through the music. Outside, we have continued to develop our climbing, balancing, confidence and decision-making through adventurous play and supervised risk-taking. Another busy week of singing, dancing, laughing and learning together!
Week 5
This week in Nursery, we have been exploring families through The Family Book, celebrating how every family is different and sharing our own family photographs. We have also been discovering the signs of Autumn through stories such as Little Pumpkin, The Leaf Thief and The Pumpkin Thief. Through Little Pumpkin, we have been learning about the life cycle of a pumpkin and enjoyed investigating pumpkins and creating beautiful autumnal trees.
In Maths, we have been counting to 3 and beyond, developing our understanding of one-to-one correspondence and recognising that the last number counted tells us how many there are altogether. We decorated pumpkins using pressed flowers and leaves, enjoyed retelling Gruffalo Granny through small-world play and made playdough Gruffalos. We also developed our physical and self-help skills by peeling and chopping vegetables to make Gruffalo Granny’s soup, which included some delicious pumpkin!
Week 6
Nursery has enjoyed a wonderful final week of half term, filled with spooky celebrations, imaginative play and exciting learning experiences. The children had great fun at our Pumpkin Party, dressing up, dancing, playing games and having their faces painted. They also created spiders using playdough, explored how oobleck changes between a solid and a liquid, and used their imaginations to invent magical spells and transform their friends into different animals during drama.
Stories have continued to inspire our learning, with Room on the Broom, The Pumpkin Thief and The Farmer’s Away! Baa! Neigh! proving firm favourites. The children enjoyed experimenting with animal sounds, creating observational drawings of pumpkins and exploring Autumn patterns using loose parts. In Maths, we practised counting acorns to five, developing our understanding of counting each object once and recognising that the final number tells us the total quantity.
Over half term, we encourage families to support the children in developing their independence by practising putting on and fastening their own coats.
We wish all our Nursery families a happy and restful half term holiday and look forward to welcoming everyone back for more exciting learning!
Nursery – Autumn 1 Curriculum Overview
Celebrating Me!
This term our Oracy text is The Gingerbread Man. We will develop our speaking and listening skills through retelling the story, learning new vocabulary and joining in with repeated phrases.
Alongside this, our key texts linked to ourselves and our families will be Owl Babies, Incredible You and The Family Book. These stories will support our learning about who we are, our families, our feelings and what makes each of us special.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
We will settle into nursery, develop relationships and learn our routines and expectations. We will talk about ourselves and our families, celebrate what makes us unique and develop positive attitudes towards differences between people.
Communication and Language
We will develop our listening, attention and speaking skills through stories, songs, rhymes and conversations. We will learn and use new vocabulary, talk about familiar books and experiences, and develop our confidence when sharing our ideas.
Physical Development
We will develop our gross and fine motor skills through movement, mark-making and creative activities. We will join in with daily movement sessions to start our day, using the parachute to develop our gross motor skills, coordination and control. We will enjoy climbing, balancing and exploring our adventure play equipment, developing our strength, confidence and physical skills. We will take part in Squiggle While You Wiggle and Dough Disco to develop our large-muscle movements, hand and finger strength and coordination, helping to prepare us for writing.
Literacy
We will develop a love of books, stories and rhymes. We will talk about characters, events, ourselves and our families. We will begin to understand that print carries meaning and enjoy making marks to communicate our ideas.
Mathematics
We will explore patterns in the world around us, including patterns on clothes and objects. We will create and continue simple ABAB patterns, spot mistakes in repeating patterns and use mathematical language such as spotty, pointy and blobs. We will also develop our oral counting to 3.
Understanding the World
We will learn more about ourselves, our families and our own life stories. We will explore similarities and differences between people and develop positive attitudes towards diversity. We will use our senses to investigate natural materials and explore the world around us.
We will also be celebrating Harvest Festival and Diwali
Expressive Arts and Design
We will explore music, singing, movement, colour, creative materials and imaginative play. We will learn and sing familiar songs, explore pitch and colour mixing, and use role play and objects to represent our ideas and experiences.
EYFS Curriculum
We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, which is structured around seven areas:
Communication and Language
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the World
Expressive Arts and Design
Swimming
Swimming takes place on Thursday mornings. Children alternate swimming groups each week. A full costume (girls) and trunks (boys)is required. Goggles may only be worn with a signed consent form. Long hair must be tied up and earrings removed. A rota will be displayed on Class Dojo each week.
Snack
EYFS encourages healthy eating. Please ensure your child brings a healthy snack. No sugary snacks or drinks please.