Exploring Seasons

Children in the Foundation Stage have access to the outdoors on a daily basis. Children learn about the seasons through first hand experiences.

This week it snowed! It was a wonderful opportunity for children to use all of their senses to explore this first taste of winter and it evoked some descriptive language.

“It’s freezing cold!”

“Crunch, crunch, throw it at you.”

“Look at the sky, it’s grey.”

“My footprints go round and round.”

Poppy, Poppy What Do You Say? Wear Me On Remembrance Day.

Exploring form through the topic of Remembrance; The practitioners in the EYFS follow our whole school pedagogy for art, which started by looking at artist Andy Goldsworthy’s work. The children then collected red, natural objects from the garden. This also enabled them to notice, observe, sort and classify objects.

The children have watched videos, listened to stories and compared images of soldiers from the past and soldiers now. They can also recite a poem all about the significance of poppies.

We are Storytellers . . . .

Stories form a huge part of our curriculum. A story can be told anywhere within our provision and we ensure a range of beautiful resources are on offer to our children. We also enhance provision to link to stories being studied or inspire children within their play. Children participate in a daily story session this involves books, puppets and role-play.

We value stories and reading to our children so much that every child is read to at least twice during a session and most lots more!

Autumn Leaves Are Falling Down!

During Forest School sessions for the last half term the children in nursery have been noticing and exploring the season of Autumn.

They have been reading fiction and non-fiction books, reciting poetry and songs to support their conceptual, scientific understanding and of course having hand-on experiences as you can see here!

All of these elements have enabled children to acquire new vocabulary;

“Leaves have blown off in the wind.”

“Some trees have orange leaves now.”

“In autumn there are some acorns on the ground.”

What do people celebrate and why? Learning about Diwali in the EYFS

Today we had special visitors to help us learn about Diwali Festival of Lights.

Our visitors Jan and Vicky follow the Sikh religion and talked to us about how they celebrate. We have also been watching videos about a family who follow Hinduism. We looked at diva lamps and the embroidered Indian suit that Jan wears to celebrate when she visits the temple. Jan brought in food that she had made and would eat to mark the festival and we were able to taste it.

We sang a song about candles and used stem sentences to support our conceptual knowledge of this celebration. We have also read a range of story and information books in order to develop our understanding.

“Some Hindus and some Sikhs decorate their homes with lights.”

“Some Hindus and some Sikhs give presents such as sweets.”

“Some Hindus and some Sikhs clean their homes to celebrate Diwali.”

A Visit From Nurse Sophie

Children have access to a wide range of role-play resources in the EYFS. They can use these in order to develop their vocabulary, imagination and story-telling skills. Our Home Corner is a constant feature in our setting in order for all children have access to nurturing, homely resources that reflect their lives and culture and those of others.

Practitioners enhance the role-play provision to link to the overarching theme during each term.

The Doctors Surgery has just opened in order for children to develop, use and apply their knowledge of the human body, as we focus in on ‘Our Unique Selves’ this term.

Practitioners plan cultural capital experiences, carefully at key points, so that children can access and use resources purposefully. Today Sophie the nurse visited. The children learnt about her uniform, equipment and role. They learnt new vocabulary such as patients, stethoscope and prescription and the meaning of these words by exploring resources and singing repeated songs.

Alex Bear loves to read!

Each week in nursery Alex Bear goes home with a child. He loves to read and wants to share lots of stories over the weekend with our children and their families. This promotes a love of reading for our youngest children.

Parents then upload what their child and Alex read on the Seesaw App so that we can see it in class. The children love seeing which books he’s read and this motivates them to read even more!

Alex loved reading Dear Zoo and The Jungle Boogie with Zulikha.

What a great start to the term! Relationships, routines and fun!

The children and practitioners in nursery have had a wonderful start to the term.

We support children to transition into nursery in many different ways, starting with home visits. This enables children to meet their teacher in the place they feel most comfortable and allows parents and staff to chat about important information that will shape the provision offered to children in the EYFS. It builds the foundation for strong relationships between families, staff and children and we have continued to nurture these by interacting with the children at every opportunity.

Children have been exploring the environment and developing an understanding of the opportunities on offer and where resources are kept. ‘Sorting time’ is a wonderful time for mathematics. They are already beginning to show our school value of respect.

Routines are a crucial within our setting and children have been helped with visual timetables to involve themselves fully within these. They are starting to show the ability to self-regulate and following an adult’s instructions.

Educators pride themselves on getting to know children well and are continually interacting, observing and assessing what children can do and what they need next.