Nursery
Hello Everyone! Welcome to Nursery
Within our nursery provision we aim to support and encourage children’s development and learning through a variety of different activities (both adult directed and child initiated in secure indoor and outdoor situations). We facilitate this learning through our skillful interactions and observations which lead to the next steps planning. We also have high aspirations for every child, believing that they should be empowered to take ownership of their learning and their environment.
In nursery, we provide rich learning opportunities, promoted through play and exploration as well as through exciting and engaging teaching. We offer structured activities to encourage children to think critically and to be creative and confident learners. Our planned learning areas enable children to practice and apply what they have learned. We aim to give the children a broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress throughout school and their lives.
We recognise that all children develop and learn at different rates, so our Early Years provision is designed flexibly to meet the needs of all individuals and we seek to develop the children’s core skills of:
Communication and Language - through which children learn about listening, attention, understanding and speaking.
Physical Development – which emphasises gross and fine motor skills in moving and handling as well as health and self-care.
Personal, social and emotional development – through which children gain confidence and self-awareness, the ability to manage their feelings and behaviour and learn about building effective relationships with others.
We believe the relationships which the children develop in the early years, with each other and the staff, are central to their happiness and will lay the best possible foundations for them to become independent learners.
We promote Characteristics of Effective Learning as they underpin the children’s learning within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).
The ways in which they engage with others and their environment – playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically –support learning and development across all areas and enable the children to remain effective and motivated learners.
In addition to this, the children access maths, literacy, art and science through structured carpet input and continuous provision in the learning environment.
Summer Term
We are welcoming 13 new children into Nursery this term. Our topic’s this term vary, we start by thinking about colours, shapes and numbers. Our topic for a further three weeks is all about ‘Bears’ and we look forward to having a Teddy Bears picnic just before half term. After half term, we look at mini beasts then on to our topic which includes pirates, the seaside and holidays. Hopefully, the weather will be nice so we can use our wonderful playground and the grassy area opposite nursery or explore the schools’ other fantastic grounds.
After two weeks of visits and admissions we introduce our weekly themes –
Colour, shape and number
All our activities focus on number, shape and colour. We concentrate on numbers 1 – 20. There are opportunities to play number games with an adult in a small group; print with numbers; join in with singing number rhymes; have a go at number jigsaws; use number mats on the carpet and have a go at writing numbers on whiteboards. We also put out lots of activities involving shapes; magnetic shapes; 2 and 3D shapes in the tuff spot; playing shape games, shape jigsaws, making pictures using shapes, cutting out 2D shapes and using shapes to make a house.
Everything in Nursery also focuses on colours – colour songs on the whiteboards; playing colour games; coloured water; making parrots with coloured feathers; colour mixing and using coloured pegs to explore patterns.
Bears - Goldilocks and the Three Bears and We’re going on a Bear Hunt
We listen to, and re-create the stories using puppets. We have lots of props, games, books and songs about bears. We watch bear themed stories on the Interactive whiteboard and taste porridge. In the creative areas we decorate bear templates with fur and material and paint bears and make patterns on porridge bowls. We change our role play area into the Three Bears cottage so the children can act out the stories themselves. In the puzzle and games area we have lots of dress the bear puzzles, lacing bears and Goldilocks games as well as care bears and cards to develop positional language and there will be bears to colour in in the drawing area along with an outline of a house; the children will be encouraged to draw the bears and Goldilocks and use their mark making skills to write about the story. Making beds and chairs for the bears in the construction area using blocks and Duplo is fun to do, especially when there are different sized bears too and, if the weather permits, we will be acting out the story of ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ outside.
Mini Beasts
We will put out lots of information books for the children to look at as well as stories about mini beasts and videos on the Interactive White Board. Our listening area will have the story and CD of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, there will be mini beasts to colour in or trace and are cutting area will have mini beasts that the children can cut around. In the tuff spot there will be spiders to pick up with tweezers and in the construction area, the children can have a go at making houses for insects using wooden blocks. We have lots of mini beast puzzles as well as mini beast themed numbers on flies and fly swatters and mini beast number for our number line. Our creative areas will give the children the opportunity to use mini beast printers and paint or sticking colourful objects and material on butterfly shapes. The sand will contain large mini beast figurines and the water tray will turn into a ‘pond dipping’ theme using nets, magnifying glasses, containers and mini beasts. Outdoors, small groups will go over to our pond to explore what is in them and have a go at pond dipping.
Pirates
In this week we will be sharing pirate stories, dressing up as pirates, making telescopes and eye patches and singing pirate songs. There will be pirate ships and pirates to make imaginary games with and we will put ‘treasure’ in the sand for the children to find in ‘egg box’ treasure chests. There will be lots of pirate games to play together and gold doubloons to count. In the drawing area the children will be encouraged to make treasure maps, follow a maze and colour in pirate pictures. Outside we will be digging for treasure in the sand, wearing pirate bandanas and walking the plank.
Under the sea – the seaside and holidays
Over three weeks, we will be reading stories related to under the sea, the seaside and holidays and singing sea songs. We will also be talking about our own seaside & holiday experiences during our group times. In the water area the children can play with boats, pebbles and shells and make sandcastles and add their own decorated flags in the sand. Our let’s pretend area will turn into an Ice cream shop and the puzzle and games area will have lots of seaside puzzles for the children to complete. Commotion in the Ocean will be the book and CD in the listening area and in the drawing area we will be encouraging postcard writing as well as providing lots of seaside themed pictures and dot to dots for the children to colour in. In the creative areas we will be making sand pictures, painting pebbles, making necklaces from pasta and decorating sea creature shapes. Outdoors there will be opportunities to play with boats in the water, use large paint brushes and water, make flags and castles and eat ice pops.
In the last few weeks before the end of term we will be preparing the children who are going to Reception for this transition. There will be visits to nursery by the reception teachers and staff and lots of discussion in group times about what to expect and how they might feel. We will be supporting the children to view this change in a positive light, pointing out all the exciting new opportunities they will have in reception. We know they are all ready to move on and that they will have a brilliant time in their new class.
Our Nursery
Gallery
Busy Things - Busy Things is a multi-award-winning collection of educational games and activities to help children learn between the ages of 3 and 11. All nursery pupils have free access to this. Please look in your child's reading record for the login details.