Specific Areas of Learning
Literacy; Children will be learning new vocabulary and listening and joining in with nursery rhymes and stories. We use carefully chosen books and nursery rhymes throughout the year according to interests and what we want to teach. The children love our story snake and rainbow rhyme puppets who come out to tell stories and rhymes!!We also follow Letters and Sounds Phase one which focuses on pre phonics and focuses on vital skills needed at school such as listening, attention vocabulary , rhythm and rhyme.
Writing; Children will be learning to write through our activities such as cornflour gloop, painting, writing shopping lists, story scribing and most importantly opportunities to strengthen finger muscles.
Maths; Maths is everywhere in our setting and is supported as part of daily routines and activities in our environment. From singing number rhymes to parachute games, sorting natural resources like shells, stones pine cones to using measuring resources in the home corner or mud kitchen! Children will be learning to count, order and match number to quantity, to subitise ( recognise number amounts without physically counting) and to share objects equally. We encourage problem solving such as `how many blocks do you need?` `do you need a tall rectangle or short rectangle?` through our teaching interactions alongside play.
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Understanding the world; Is all about the natural world, people and communities and technology. Our environment fosters curiosity about the world such as being outdoors and engaging with nature. We also use the seasons to support our teaching, the children love having real caterpillars to observe as they turn into butterflies. We use technology without screens such as cameras, scales, whisks during play. We talk about real life situations, linking to various roles and jobs such as police, hospital, hairdressers, dentists and also link with our community through walks to the library and market. We also have our monthly visits from Les and Becca at the church to do stories, singing and arts and cratfs.
Creative development; Children will be learning to be thinkers and designers of their own projects. From arts and crafts to building and constructing with various materials. children are able to have their own ideas and choose their own resources. We learn about colours and how to mix different colours through experimenting and adult questioning. We even make our own playdough every morning!!
We have small world areas with natural materials such as stones, shells for creating fairy worlds, dinosaur lands, farms and zoos.
Outside we have larger scale dinosaurs, construction vehicles and animals which can be used in the sand pit or gravel pit or where they usually end up ..in the water!!
Imagination is key to later literacy success at school !
