Literacy (reading and writing)
We want to develop a love of reading and the confidence to talk about and share texts. Children take part in a daily group session with their key worker group where we read a story and talk about it in different ways. Children are encouraged to talk about characters, what happens next as well as what they liked or did not like about the story. We love to read and encourage our children to cosy up in our lovely reading area to share a story. We also run a weekly library service for all of our children. Once a year we also hold a bedtime stories event where children come back to school in their pyjamas for lots of lovely book related activities and watch the staff act out one of their favourite books. We encourage writing in lots of different places and use lots different tools for children to write such as pens, crayons, paintbrushes, chalk and lots more. However we love to develop the small muscles in your children’s hands alongside by doing lots of little precise activities. Without these, the muscles don’t strengthen as quickly and can make holding a pencil even trickier!
Mathematics (all things number, shape and measure)
Developing a strong grounding in number is essential so that all children develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically. It’s great that some children can count to 100, but we like to make sure that a child can master early number before moving onto bigger numbers. Can they pick 3 out of a pile of objects? Do they notice when patterns? Can they recognise 2 objects without counting them first? What happens if you take one away? Or add one more? Children at our nursery take part in a daily maths group activity singing number nursery rhymes, using props and objects to help as well as mastering other early maths skills in a fun way.
Understanding the World (everything around us)
This involves our staff guiding children to make sense of their immediate and extended world around them. From visiting parks, libraries and museums to meeting important members of society such as police officers, nurses and firefighters. On top of this, children listen to a wide selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems to help them understand our world through different cultures, societies and environments.
Expressive Arts and Design (arts, music and children being their creative little selves!)
Our children love being creative and we love to enhance this! Children this year have painted beautiful pictures, made up their own songs, put on a dance show for their friends and staff, used tablets to search Google maps for places they know and lots more. We love children being expressive and have lots of resources to aid their creative flow!
