Physical Development

Physical development is a Prime Area in the Early Learning Goals.  The children always have access to areas and resources to develop their fine and gross motor skills every day. 

Fine Motor:

We have  a fine motor skills area. Children are encouraged to have a go at the various activities to develop their fine motor throughout the day. 

Gross Motor:

We  currently have a hall slot for a focused PE time on Wednesday morning (Bears) Thursday morning (Badgers)

The sticky kids CD helps children move creatively to music developing control and co-ordination. We use this during our PE time.

We will also engage in activities involving ball skills and controlling an object eg a bean bag over the term. We use the outdoor environment to develop their movement and balancing skills.

We have also started Cosmic Yoga each week. this takes place in our key worker groups in nursery each week.

Learning Outdoors

Learning outside the classroom supports the development of healthy and active lifestyles by offering children opportunities for physical activity, freedom and movement, and promoting a sense of well-being.

Learning in our outdoor area gives our children contact with the natural world and offers them experiences that are unique to outdoors, such as direct contact with the weather and the seasons.

Outdoor play also supports children’s problem-solving skills and nurtures their creativity, as well as providing rich opportunities for their developing imagination, inventiveness and resourcefulness.

By using our outside classroom, we regularly see the enjoyment, and sense of wonder and excitement that is generated when children engage with the outdoor environment.

Literacy - Reading and Writing 

 Reading has a high priority throughout the Nursery Unit with books in all areas of provision inside and outside to support learning.  Children are read a wide range books daily to promote the love of reading. Throughout the year the children will engage in rhyming activities and listen to a wide range of rhymes and songs.  Early reading skills are taught daily through sharing stories to develop vocabulary and knowledge about book handling skills.   We use story mapping and story sacks to encourage story telling and to develop their language. 

Our class libraries are on Tuesday mornings. We have our own library baskets in each nursery class. each class has a turn to take a group of key worker children to the school library every week.

Writing

It is vital that children develop their gross and fine motor skills and demonstrate increasing control before they can hold a pencil correctly.  There are lots of opportunities in the nursery environment both indoors and outdoors to develop these skills and the children are encourage to use a variety of one handed tools to help develop a firm pencil grip.

Children will begin to give meaning to their marks and eventually write some recognisable  letters. During our focused phonic sessions they will be taught how to distinguish between sounds in the environment, use vocal sounds, and learn to distinguish between initial sounds and  begin to link some letters to the initial sound.  Throughout the summer term the children will practise oral blending and segmenting CVC words.

 Mathematics

Understanding the world

 Children learn about their environment and explore using all their senses and talk about what they see. They are taught how to care for living things through practical activities. Children are encouraged to learn about their family and community.  They are taught about different occupations and how those jobs fit into the community.  They are encourage to develop positive attitudes towards people and learn that we are all different. 

The Nursery Team

Teacher:

Miss G. Hanrahan (Bears)

Mrs K Stickler (Badgers)

Teaching Assistants:

Mrs K Hughes (Bears)

Miss K Palombella (Bears)

Miss E. Nixon - Apprentice (Bears)

Miss R Boyle (Badgers)

Mrs R. Fisher (Badgers)

Mrs R. Sutcliffe (Badgers)

The Nursery hours we offer are....

30 hours  - Monday to Friday 9.00 - 3.00 pm

or

15 hours part time, consisting of:

Monday, Tuesday all day and Wednesday morning

Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, Friday all day

For further details of Nursery admissions and hours provided please click here

Phonics

In Nursery we follow Bug Club Phonics supported by the Letters and Sounds guidance to teach reading and writing.  Each daily session follows a set format in which children practice their previous phonic knowledge. The sessions are practical with lots of games to develop children's speaking and  listening skills, knowledge of rhyme, alliteration and oral blending/segmenting. 

In the Spring term the main focus will be rhyme, alliteration and oral blending and segmenting . Throughout the term the children will experience a wide range of  practical activities linked to developing their speaking and listening skills to help articulate the letter sounds.

All activities are linked to  phase 1 aspects 4-7 .

Some useful websites:

You tube - there are lots of activities which encourage singing along to rhymes, alliteration and counting songs.

www.simplyphonics/phase1 games aspects 4-7

Phonics Play.co.uk (phase 1) Aspects 4 and 5 (Rhyme and alliteration)

Topmarks.co.uk - Rhyming games

Cbeebies - alliteration/rhyme with Felix phonics

Spring Events

Spring 1

Celebrating Chinese New Year - 29th January -The Year of the Snake

Spring  2

We are hoping to have a nurse or midwife to talk about how we grow and change. (If you would like to come in and talk to the children please speak to a member of staff )

Creating a vegetable garden and planting seeds to observe flowers growing.

Learning Journeys

In Nursery we use Seesaw as our learning journey. We also use floor books to show the work we have been doing about our topic and key events that we celebrate over the year. We have a mark making book for each term. Samples of the children's work is put in the books over the year. The Learning Journey displayed in our cloakroom shows the progress children make from Autumn to the Summer Term .

Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum

Please click the picture below to access the current EYFS curriculum..

Home-Learning 

Please can you encourage your child to:

• Put on their own coat on and zip it
• Put own shoes on/take off
• Tidy up their toys
• Use a knife and fork
• Follow a 1 or 2 step instruction
• Speak in short sentences (3 or 4 words)
• Use the toilet (including flush and handwashing independently)
• Recognise  and write their first name (surname if able)

Please share stories with your child regularly at home and sing songs. This is vital for early reading skills and language development.

Homework Sheet-   We have an activity sheet for Spring 1 and Spring 2. The activities link to the themes we are doing in nursery to develop important skills linked to the EYFS curriculum.

Thank You

Seesaw

In  the Early Years we use the seesaw app to observe any wow moments and photograph any significant whole class experiences. We also use it as a communication tool to inform you about what is happening in nursery. We  use our professional knowledge and have regular discussions to talk about the children, their interests and next steps in their learning.  We share this learning with home and actively encourage home 'wow' moments to be shared with us using this app and your child's login.

 Communication and Language

Listening, Attention and Understanding

Children are taught how to develop their listening skills during small group activities. They will begin to listen to stories and join in with songs and rhymes. Children are encouraged to  recall what happens  in the story to develop their understanding. They will eventually be able to understand a 2 part question or instruction.

Speaking

The children are encourage to verbalise their needs to develop their speaking skills. They will begin to speak more clearly in sentences and start to use connectives. They will develop a wider vocabulary throughout the year as they listen to stories and engage in a  range of activities relating to our topics and their interests.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Building Relationships

Children will learn how to make friends and interact their peers. Throughout the year they build relationships by learning how to share, take turns and talk to each other to resolve conflict. They also learn how to talk about their feelings during our small group sessions and use the feelings area to help them discuss how they are feeling. We use stories to help the children understand their own feelings and how others might be feeling.

Self Regulation

Children will begin to regulate their behaviour by understanding their own feelings and how others feel. They are taught how our rules and routines keep everyone safe and therefore begin to follow the rules independently.

Managing Self

Children will learn to have basic hygiene skills and manage their own clothes eg toileting unaided, zip coats. They are taught about making healthy food choices and the importance of toothbrushing. 

Children will become more confident in new situations and be able to talk about their home and community.

Expressive Arts and Design