Nursery

Hello and welcome to Nursery!

We are ready to learn and play and hope you are too!

Please have a look at the activities below to help your child at home:

Promoting Independence:

Children feel a real sense of achievement when they can accomplish things by themselves! For example, being able to dress and undress independently. Learning to tie shoelaces can be tricky, so think about different types of fastenings, for example Velcro. Children have access to an outdoor space throughout the day, so being able to put their coat on and zip it up independently really helps them. Another important part of being independent at school is being able to use the toilet, including washing and drying their hands. It is also helpful if they are able to blow their nose on a tissue and put it in the bin.

Communication and Language:

Parents can have a huge impact on their child’s speaking and listening development. Your child is given many spoken instructions throughout the school day and needs to be able to shift their attention from what they are doing to listening to what the teacher is saying. An activity to promote this is to go on a ‘listening walk’ where your child listens for all the sounds around them. You could also jot down all the sounds your child notices and talk about these back at home to retell the journey based on the sounds they heard. ‘Simon Says’ is another game that could really help. Give your child an instruction to do, like ‘Simon says put your finger on your nose’ and see if they can follow your instruction. The game becomes more difficult as they are only supposed to follow your instructions if you start the sentence with ‘Simon says…’ Can your child listen carefully and only follow the instructions when directed? Encouraging your child to learn and use new words is essential for developing vocabulary. Outdoor ‘treasure hunts’ work well to encourage this. Collecting objects found on an Autumn walk help introduce new types of vocabulary. Ask your child to describe what these objects look like/feel like/smell like.

Reading and Writing:

Sharing songs and books is a good way to develop sound awareness and identify what sound a word begins with. Say the sounds that words begin with as you come across them day-to-day. Encourage your child to develop an interest in books and other forms of text, for example comics, labels and posters. Read with your child as often as you can and discuss what you have read; for example, ask what they liked about it. It is very important that your child is able to recognise their name. Write your child’s name on pieces of paper and hide them around the house. Encourage your child to find them all. You can then introduce other names such as Mummy/Daddy/name of sibling. A good foundation to being able to write is to develop your child’s fine motor skills. This will help your child to hold a pencil firmly as they write. Threading is also a great way to develop fine motor skills, whether it is with beads or buttons, or making necklaces out of dried pasta. Playing with handheld construction toys, small toys and cutting and sticking activities are other ideas to help develop your child's fine motor skills. If your child is ready and interested in writing, begin by focusing on your child’s name, as this will also help with reading and name recognition. Encourage them to write their name into greetings cards, or on to artwork they have created.

Mathematics:

One to one counting can be done incidentally throughout the day, for example counting steps as your child climbs the stairs. You can count anything - how many cars pass you on your walk, how many houses have a red door, how many pieces of fruit are in the bowl. You can also do this when giving things out, for example: “an ice cream for you, an ice cream for Jack and one for me – 1, 2, 3 ice creams!” Encourage reliable one to one counting by showing your child how to point to each item as they count, or to move the items as they count so they do not count each item more than once. This will help your child understand what numbers mean. Ask them to find the same amount of different items. For example, find 3 spoons, 3 hats or 3 socks. You can also sing counting songs, e.g. 5 Little Speckled Frogs, 5 Little Monkeys, etc.

Number Recognition:

A number hunt is a fun way to look for numerals on doors, on clocks, buses, cars, signs, at home, or on TV. You could also play ‘I spy’ but with numbers.

Shape, Size and Quantity:

Go on a shape hunt to see how many circles, squares, rectangles and triangles your child can find, for example square windows, circular plates, and rectangular posters. You could look for patterns too. Talk about the shape and size of objects, e.g. big car, little car, round ball, square table, rectangular book and ask your child questions such as ‘Can you pass me the biggest box?’, or ‘Which one is the smallest shoe?’. Play with blocks and encourage your child to think about size, colour and shape. Also play with containers and ask, ‘How many socks can you fit in the box?’, ‘Which container holds the most, or the least, sand/water?'

Other ways to help your child…

Use everyday experiences as learning opportunities. Encourage your child to help you with simple jobs around the home, for example gardening, tidying up, baking and cooking. This will help them to develop coordination and listening skills as well as independence and self-confidence. Explore different ways of being creative:

• colouring and drawing with pens, pencils and crayons
• painting
• cutting and sticking materials together
• building models with ‘junk’ materials like cardboard boxes or construction toys like Lego
• exploring sounds made by instruments or ‘noise makers’ (for example rice in an empty yoghurt pot) and listening to and moving to music.

Your child is offered a piece of fruit as a snack during each session. Encourage them to try a range of different fruit to explore their likes and dislikes and also practise peeling bananas and oranges. Encourage your child to be active; play running games, practise riding a bike or a scooter and play simple games with a ball or frisbee.

Staffing:

AM - Teacher - Mrs Patrick
PM - Teacher - Mrs Yeomans
Teaching Assistants - Miss Martin and Mrs Brown

Topics:

Autumn term topics -Colours, Autumn, Bonfire Night/Fireworks, Me and my family, Christmas.

Spring term topics - Winter, Nursery Rhymes, Spring Festivals.

Summer term topics - Spring, Summer Fun.