This Term

Below you will find information about what the Nursery classes are learning about this term.  

Please also read our topic page to find out more about our Topic Work.

Communication and Language Development

Each day we have a question of the day which we discuss at snack time through a circle time approach, this helps develops children's communication and language.  We also have time to share our news with peers.  Every week we will add a talk ticket to SCHOOP, which will include a questions linked to our work in Nursery to discuss at home.  We encourage children to share their answers with their peers back in Nursery.  Throughout the first half term children will listen to stories and participate in small groups games or activities to develop communication, interaction and listening skills.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development. 

We will spend time helping the new starters to settle in to the Nursery environment.  This will involve developing children's independence through putting their own coats on and fastening them, using the toilet independently, washing their hands and using the water fountain.

We are introducing children to our positive behaviour management strategies including our super star chart, star of the day and our Achievosaurs.  We will spend time introducing the Nursery rules and routines so that the children are familiar with them.

Each session the children will spend snack time with their key worker group where one child is chosen to be the milk monitor and one children chose to be the fruit monitor.  This involves them giving out the snack to their peers and encourage the use of manners.

Physical Development

During this half term we will introduce the children to the climbing and outdoor equipment, including the wheeled toys.  We will be completing focuses on physical development, including a sponsored fun run, obstacle courses and throwing and catching.

We will promote healthy eating through our snack time and our healthy week which involves discussing and tasting different fruits and vegetables to try.  We will also make Mr Potato heads!

Health and self care is a focus this half term.  We will be developing children's independence to care for themselves when using the toilet, washing hands and getting drinks.

Gross and fine motor skills will be developed through all our provision such as ribbon sticks, hoops, threading beads, peg boards, writing in crazy foam, tracing on tactile letter, using the interactive white board, using tweezers to pick up small objects and building with bricks.  We will be completing regular Yoga, Dough Disco and Squiggle While You Wiggle sessions to support physical development.  There will also be a 'Funky Fingers' challenge each week.

 Literacy

We enhance our provision and activities to practise both gross and fine motor control to support writing.  We have a specific mark making areas with super hero writing capes which encourage the children to mark make.  We have a variety of mark making equipment available including chunky crayons, chalks, paint brushes, pencils and felt tips.  We also have mark making proformas throughout our role-play provision. We have labels and signing in sheets for other areas which also encourages mark making and name writing.  This term focused mark making activities include writing invitations, gift tags and birthday cards.

We will introduce phase one of the Letters and Sounds programme of work for learning phonics.  Later in the term we will start introducing letter sounds using the Jolly Phonics stories.  We also use the 'Read, Write Inc' formation rhymes to support the children to learn correct letter formation.  We discuss the importance of using the correct pencil grip.  Rings are available in the mark making area for children to use to support the correct grip of pencils and pens.  To support children in recognising and writing their name, every child has a name card which they can access independently.  Children will sign in to Nursery with their parents/carers at the start of each sessions.

Literacy (continued)

The children take part in daily story time and will introduce Incy Wincy Spider as our first Talk 4 Writing unit this year.  Children may also sign out books from our library to take home to share.  Each half term the children also learn a nursery rhyme, this half term our focus will be 'Miss Polly had a Dolly'.

Mathematics

Children will learn about shape and space through provision in the sand, malleable, water and construction areas.

We focus on a specific number most weeks and this is called our 'star number'.  Children are encouraged to complete several activities relating to this, including recognising the number and its value.  Children will practise number formation in crazy foam, coloured sand, glitter and paint.

During this half term our main focus will be on counting with one to one correspondence, focus activities will include counting spikes for a hedgehog and counting candles for birthday cakes.  We will also begin to recognise numbers and will go on a hunt around the school to look for numbers in the environment.  Specific number focus activities will be on number recognition, ordering numbers and matching numbers on bikes to the correct parking spaces.

We will complete jigsaws, Maths games and contribute towards making number lines for our provision areas.  Children will complete sponge printing to demonstrate their recognition of shapes and numbers.

 Understanding the World

Children will learn about some of the people who help us to look after ourselves such as doctors, hairdressers and dentists, we will look at situation clips on the computer and the children will develop their understanding of people that help to keep us safe through visits from the care taker, a police officer and a paramedic.

Children will go on an autumn walk around the school grounds to highlight the seasonal changes that are taking place.  They will walk around the main school to help them become more familiar with the environment and areas we will be using such as the hall.  We will talk about our journey to school and landmarks in the local areas, looking at photos of the cafe, post box, fish and chip shop, garage, traffic lights and bakers.

Children have daily access to the computers, interactive whiteboard, bee bots, light panel and the listening centre to support their understanding and use of technology.

Creative Development

Children will be introduced to our areas of provision and encouraged to develop their own creativity throughout these areas.  Specific focuses to support children's creative development include creating self portraits, exploring paints to make hand and footprints and creating music on our music wall.  Children will be introduced to their own mini mes to support their imaginative play in construction and small world areas.  We will have regular enhancements relating to our theme throughout the half term such as Andy Goldsworthy art in the Imagine and Create area and recipes in the mud kitchen.