Nursery Curriculum Letter - Spring

 

Term: Spring 2023      

Dear parents and carers,

The aim of this newsletter is to give you an overview of the learning that will take place over the spring term in nursery.

The nursery blog on the school website and Facebook page are a great way to keep up to date with what is happening in the nursery, along with any upcoming events. It is very important for all parents to check the blog every Friday evening to know what is happening for your child. Please click under EYFS on the school website to view the Nursery blog:  http://www.broadford.havering.sch.uk/?page=rss. 

This half term we are focusing on Animals and the next will be New Life (Growing and change). On Wednesday 31st January the children are having a farm visit Nursery, afternoon children are welcome to attend the morning session for this event.

Below is an overview of the learning focuses for this term which supplement the planning in the moment approach to learning that the nursery also follows.

Communication and Language 

We will be encouraging the children to speak in full sentences to express themselves. Each term there will be focus texts which will allow the children to become familiar with the story and retell the story using their own words. This will also support them to increase their vocabulary and learn the meaning of new words.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development 

This term we will have new children starting and they will be settling into their new environment and making friends with the children currently attending. We are working to ensure all children are aware of expectations and learning the routines within the setting. They will also be working on sharing resources and taking turns. 

Those children who are more familiar with the setting will continue to develop positive relationships with their peers and to develop special friendships with other children. Opportunities for children to take on more responsibility such as taking leadership of an area of the provision for tidy up time will be offered. The children will also explore the zones of regulation, a whole school approach, through stories and during play.

Physical Development 

This term there will be a continued focus on gross motor and coordination activities to strengthen the children’s shoulders and core muscles for whole body movements; this is a prerequisite to writing. They will engage in gross motor activities such as: hula hoops, climbing frame, basketball hoops, balancing on the logs and vertical painting. In addition to this the children will begin to collaborate with one another to move larger objects and engage in outdoor games such as skittles.

Children will continue to engage with finger gym activities as well as Dough Disco to support the development of their fine motor skills.

Maths

The children will work on number recognition and representing numbers in different ways. There will be a mixture of ordinal (numbers in order), cardinal (a number of objects to count or name by sight), nominal (using numbers as a name ie bus number). This will deepen the children’s number sense and basic math skills. These basic skills will set us up for the rest of the year. 

Children will also begin to develop language to describe 2D and 3D shapes in the environment. They will make comparisons between the sizes of different objects and explore capacity.

Literacy 

Stories are a key part of our curriculum and high quality texts will be used throughout the day to foster the children’s love of reading. We have a story focus each week and this will be shared on our weekly blog, there are always opportunities to re-tell the story in the setting.

The children are working in small groups to develop their phonological awareness. This half term the focus is listening and attention and the next half term we will be looking at breaking words into syllables.

Messy Play

Messy play, or sensory play, is the term for any activities allowing children to work with their hands to create a controlled mess. Often involving traditionally messy ingredients such as paint, sand, slime, water, clay or mud, it is geared toward exploring feelings and imagination. Your child will have opportunities to participate in messy play on a daily basis; you will see some of these activities on the blog.

Independence

In nursery, independence will be promoted for your child and encouraged through the daily routines. These include: walking in independently; using their coat peg; self-registering; toileting; changing into wellies for the outside area; pouring water into their cups; and cleaning their cups. Please support your child by practicing putting on and taking off their socks and shoes at home, as well as their coats, hats and gloves.

Practicing doing up zips would be really helpful, we will introduce a chart this term to encourage the children to learn this skill.

Key Dates

Check the blog on a weekly basis to keep up to date with key dates this year.

• NSPCC Number day - Friday 2nd February.
• Farm Visit (To Nursery) Wednesday 31st January.
• Stay and Play sessions - 7th February
• Half term Monday 19th February - Friday 23rd February.
• Easter last day of term is Thursday 28th February.

Important information:

     

• All uniform, cups and pack lunch boxes should be labelled with your child’s name. 

• Please can toys from home stay at home. We have lots in school and it saves toys being lost or broken. 

• As the number of children in our setting increases we have limited space for bags,

please bring a draw string bag or a plastic bag.

We look forward to working with you over the upcoming term and thank you for your support. If you would like to contact a member of the nursery team via email, the address is: nursery@broadford.havering.sch.uk 

        

Kind regards,

The Nursery Team