Our learning in the Spring term is based around a theme called ‘Once Upon a Rhyme’ – through Julia Donaldson Stories.
We also will incorporate topics and texts based on learning around Winter/Spring and festivals.
Core Texts
Stickman, The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo’s Child, A Squash and a Squeeze, Room on a Broom, Zog, The Princess and the Wizard and What the Ladybird Heard.
Personal Social and Emotional Development (PSED):
- Follow the rules and routines of the nursery with support.
- Put my coat on and attempt to zip up my coat.
- Pour my milk and help myself to snack with support.
- Begin to manage toileting independently.
- Ask an adult for help.
- Begin to talk about my emotions and manage them.
- Wait my turn and turn take with adult support.
- Tidy away the toys when I am done with them.
- Show confidence when being taken out of my setting by my key person.
- Create attachments in nursery to peers and my key person/other teachers.
- Name many children in nursery.
- Share my interests.
Communication & Language:
- Listen and respond to simple instructions.
- Listen to simple stories and understand what is happening, with the help of the pictures.
- Enjoy learning new vocabulary through stories and play.
- Understand simple questions about ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘where’ (but generally not ‘why’).
- Try to copy adult speech.
- Use gestures and copy gestures and words.
- Begin to develop conversation.
- Listen to other people’s talk with interest but may easily be distracted by other things.
Role Play Opportunities:
- Den Making
- Igloo Making
- Castles
Literacy:
- Enjoy and sing songs and rhymes.
- Tune in and paying attention.
- Copy sounds.
- Say some of the words in rhymes and songs.
- Copy finger movements and other gestures.
- Share books with adult.
- Talk about a favourite book.
- Repeat words and phrases from familiar stories.
- Notice some print including numbers, logos and the first letter in name.
- Enjoy drawing freely and making marks.
- Make marks which they sometimes give meaning to.
Physical Development:
- Hold the pencil in a palmar or digital grip; swapping and testing hands.
- Mark make using vertical and horizontal lines
- Draw circles.
- Thread beads.
- Complete a simple puzzle.
- Squash, roll and pinch playdough.
- Walk, run, jump and climb – and start to use the stairs independently.
- Explore throwing different objects and items.
- Bend my knees – bob up and down and keep my balance on the spot.
- Roll different sized objects.
- Move to music and copy actions.
Mathematics:
- Take part in finger rhymes with numbers.
- Increasingly show counting like behaviour.
- Count in everyday contexts, still sometimes skipping numbers but improving.
- React to changes of amount in a group of up to three items.
- Compare amounts saying ‘lots/more/same’.
- Notice patterns and start to arrange things in patterns.
- Compare sizes / weights etc. using gestures and mathematical language such as bigger / little / smaller / thick / thin / long / short.
- Squeeze into different types of spaces.
- Build with a range of resources.
- Complete inset puzzles.
Expressive Arts & Design:
- Name most colours.
- Hold a paintbrush/ printing tools in the palm of the hand.
- Make marks by drawing circles and lines even if it does not always have meaning.
- Create my own piece of art-picture or model.
- Mix colours to make new ones.
- Build by stacking vertically.
- Explore small worlds such as farms, castles, dollhouses and garages.
- Play with familiar resources like familiar items in the home corner.
Understanding of the World:
- Comment on recent photographs of experiences in my own life, e.g., my visit to the seaside, park, or farm.
- Name and talk about familiar features that I see in my own environment (home/school) such as house, tree, road, garage, shed, classroom.
- Identify and name a simple map.
- Know that a map has places/features on it and what it is used for.
- Follow some positional language such as near, next to, in front of.
- Talk about what I see, using basic vocabulary.
- Explore how things work.
- Name some types of weather, e.g. rainy, sunny, windy, snowy, cloudy and stormy.
- Talk about how the weather changes, and that different places/countries have different weather.
- Name some animals correctly and use simple language to describe
Embedded into all 7 Areas of Learning are the Fundamental British Values
- Democracy
- The Rule of Law
- Individual Liberty
- Mutual Respect and Tolerance
In the Early Years, these are explored in ways that are meaningful to young children as part of a setting’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural curriculum. Fundamental British values are important democratic values. There are many people all over the world who live by democratic values. Each value represents an ideal that is important to communities across the UK. Overall, the goal of these values is to enable people to be part of a democratic society and to help them to look after others around them.
- We respect the beliefs and cultures of others.
- We know that we are all special.
- We understand and respect the roles of people who help us.
- We understand the consequences of our actions.
- We treat everyone equally.
- We understand right from wrong.
- We listen to and respect other people’s opinions and values.
- We try and help other people.
