Please check this page regularly to find out about what we have been learning in nursery.
Term 4: April 2017 – June 2017
Topic – Transport
Our transport topic will allow the children to explore lots of different transport. They will create a mind map of transport and then explore these. They will create drawings and paintings of modes of transport. They will make boats from recycled materials that can float in the water tray and explore floating and sinking. They will also learn to make paper aeroplanes that can fly and take these outside to play with. They will use the small transport objects to explore sharing equally, counting and counting on and back.
Topic – Seaside and Holidays.
The children will use their knowledge of transport to explore how we get to our holiday destinations. They will create a variety of art including textured sand pictures, sea creature drawings and prints and make lots of crafts of seaside scenes and creatures. They will practise their mark making and storytelling skills by telling recounts of holidays that they have been on and create a bucket list of things they like to take on holiday. They will create fish scales patterns and practise counting through a range of activities. They want to build big sand castles outside and will learn about floating and sinking as well as learn about shadows after making their shadow puppets. Some of the children have asked to learn about specific destinations such as Tenerife and Spain and so we will explore these areas and locate them on the world globe.
Topic – Forest Trips (Minibeasts)
The children will go on their final forest trip this term and will continue to learn about minibeasts and their habitats through a variety of activities. They will also play games to explore and enjoy the forest and outdoors.
Nursery Trip – Science Museum
This years trip will be to the Glasgow Science Museum where the children have been invited to a ‘Fun with Forces’ workshop. They can explore the floors of scientific adventure and purchase some items from the shop.
Finance Week
The children will learn to recognise coins through a range of activities. They will go on a coin treasure hunt and they want to play ’10 Current Buns’. They will learn how we make some money and what we use it for and how to keep it safe. We encourage children to ask to pay for items when they go on shopping trips with adults at home.
Health and Well-Being
This term Sally will explore the body and emotions with the children. They will learn to give each other space and respect themselves and others. These activities will be recorded in Sally’s book in the nursery reception area for you to view.
Term 3: January 2017 – March 2017
Topic – Seasons – Winter – Introduction to Spring
The seasons topic will continue throughout the year. The children will learn all about all the seasons and this term we will continue learning about Winter and then we will introduce Spring. Please feel free to look at our Seasons Big Books at any time. These are displayed every day in the nursery. In these you can see photos of your child’s learning. Thank you so much for all of you who have taken the time to leave comments on these books. The children love to hear your comments and we do too. We also like to update this website showing some activities the children participate in so please check this regularly.
Topic – Scotland (January 2017)
Every year the children learn about Scotland. We hope that they begin to feel a sense of belonging as they learn about their country and traditions.
In Literacy, the children will learn new songs and rhymes. They will perform some of these at the Scottish assembly on Friday 27 January. They will listen to stories about Scottish history and imaginative stories in Scots where they will learn some new words. They will watch video clips where they follow Barnaby Bears adventures as he visits Edinburgh Castle and Loch Ness in search of the monster. Does he find him? You will need to wait and see! The children will build Edinburgh castle out of materials of their choice indoors or outdoors. They will make pencil drawings of Edinburgh castle and blow paintings of Loch Ness Monster. We will be encouraging children to orally tell an imaginative story about their very own Loch Ness monster and some of these will be scribed into their storytelling book. These can be viewed at any time as these are kept in the children’s personal folders.
In Maths, the children will look at tartan patterns and make one of their own with materials of their choice e.g. painting, weaving and colouring pens. When playing with the playdoh we will encourage the children to make Loch Ness monsters and use mathematical language such as tall, taller, smaller, longer, shorter, etc. The children will compare and order these sizes. We will continue to practise our counting and numbers as we play peevers outdoors.
The arts and crafts table will be set up to encourage the children to create some Scottish art e.g. Scottish flags, tartan, Charles Rennie MacKintosh drawings, etc.
The children will learn the Gay Gordons dance and listen to Scottish music in the nursery and have the freedom to play musical instruments to this music.
They will also have the opportunity to taste some traditional Scottish cuisine such as shortbread, tattie scones, Scottish Pride bread and cheese.
Topic – Chinese New Year
We will spend Monday 30th January learning about Chinese New Year and tasting some Chinese cuisine. The children will be encouraged to make some Chinese arts and crafts on this day.
Topic – Space (February – April 2017)
The children seem to be very excited about this topic. They have asked to make life-size robots, spaceships, moon buggies and rockets that they can go into and play with. Some children want to make planets and learn all about them. The role play area and outdoors will be set up to offer the children the opportunity to do this. I think the staff are just as excited!
The children will continue to practise their writing skills e.g. they will write their name in a starry glitter tray. The literacy area will be set up as a Space travel agency where the children will have the opportunity to learn all about the world, planets and star constellations. They will continue to use the and learn more about the world using the globe. We will watch video clips and powerpoints that will give us lots of information on space and the children will be encouraged to ask lots of questions. We will find these answers together by reading reference books together or researching on the internet.
We will make shape rockets / spaceships and play sorting games with shape aliens made by the children. The children will continue to develop their counting skills and number recognition through games. They will learn to use positional language and follow instructions by guiding their life-size robots. We will also make Underpants patterns developing the children’s recognition of pattern.
The children will be able to make lots of arts and crafts e.g. imaginative aliens, flying saucers, printing stars and moon pictures, black and white collages, make green gloop to play with, create star constellations, etc.
We will set up a science table in our observation area where the children will have the opportunity to learn about magnets, bubbles (gravity), develop observation skills by using magnifying glasses to explore pictures of the moon, stars and planets.
N.B. Thank you so much to the parents/carers for the excellent ideas for our topic. (We received the most replies so far this academic year – thank you!)
Term 2: October – December 2016
Topic – Weather and Seasons (Autumn – Winter)
This topic is all about the weather and the changes in the weather throughout the seasons. The Seasons topic will run throughout the year and this term we will learn about Autumn and will touch on Winter before our Christmas topic. The children will learn to recognise and describe the different weathers we experience in the different seasons and what we need to do to look after ourselves in these different weather conditions. We will explore how the environment is affected and how it makes us feel, as well as how we look after our environment.
The children will use autumn resources to develop their counting skills e.g. counting spiders legs, ladybirds dots and leaves, etc. We will explore autumn colours and therefore colour mixing to make these colours. The children will create colour patterns and shape pictures. We will compare the size of sticks and place these in length order.
Our focus in literacy will be talking about characters in stories and their actions. We will also learn how to read pictures in a story to tell part of a story. The children will also listen to traditional, familiar stories and will be encouraged to retell their favourite stories in sequence in their own words.
The children have suggested activities they wish to do and learn how to do e.g. make leaf beasts and people; make hedgehogs; finger paint a tree; blow paint forest monsters/beasts; create fireworks, nightime and snowy pictures.
We will also learn some of the autumn colours in French and how to describe the weather e.g. hot or cold. The children will continue to learn French words for greetings and learn to follow some instructions in French.
Topic – Forest
We will also be visiting the forest twice this term. The children will explore nature and minibeasts in the forest. Each time we visit the forest the children will be encourage to take part in various activities and will also have time for free play to explore the forest safely. They will learn how to keep themselves safe in the forest.
Term 1: August – October 2016
Topic – Pets and Vets
The children will develop their knowledge of household pets and vets throughout this topic as well as develop many skills.
In Maths we plan to learn about data handling where the children will collect information and place this information into charts and graphs. They will learn to read these charts and graphs and discuss the information within them. They will develop their knowledge and understanding of shape by creating shape pictures of pets and vets surgeries and discussing shape. We plan to support their learning of measurement e.g. weight, height, length and capacity. They will compare and describe using everyday language including longer, shorter, taller, heavier, lighter, wide, narrow, empty, full, more and less. They will develop their counting by counting dots on the Dalmation dog, completing dot to dots and counting pets and pets treats etc.
The children will develop their reading skills asking questions about stories and answering questions. They will be encouraged to choose books for the staff to read with them and also we will be encouraging them to read themselves. They will begin by choosing a page of their book to tell us about. Then progress to reading us the story by using the pictures as a guide. They will be challenged to create their own imaginary pet stories and some of these will be scribed by the staff and kept in their personal stories booklet for all to see. The children will create a ‘Lost’ poster using descriptive words to describe their imaginary pet. At rhyme time they will learn new rhymes connected to the topic developing their recognition of rhyming sounds.
The children will also be learning through drama, for example, charades, hot-seating, freeze and role play. There will be a variety of arts and crafts activities for them to develop their drawing and creativity skills and lots of opportunities to be creative in the outdoor area such as building dens and sheds for pets using a variety of different materials and objects.
Term 4: April – June 2016
Topic – The Farm
The children will experience a variety of outcomes and experiences across the curriculum within The Farm topic.
In Maths and Numeracy they will develop their counting to 10. Some children will develop their counting on and back as well as their estimation skills through various games. They will develop their colours and shapes in games both indoors and outdoors. The children have already had experience with charts and graphs in our last topic and will further develop their understanding in this topic.
The children will develop their literacy skills by taking part in many discussions about The Farm. We will use a range of media for example video clips, visitors, stories and rhymes as well as a visit to the Almond Valley Heritage Centre to develop their listening, talking, reading and knowledge of the farm. One of our parents is kindly coming in to speak to the children about their farming experiences. The children will talk about and write about their favourite part of the trip. They will also choose stories to listen to and will talk about their likes and dislikes about the characters in the stories. We will encourage them to develop their questioning skills using these stories as a stimulus. We have planned to develop their recognition of rhyme and word awareness through stories and games.
There will be a variety of arts and crafts activities set up in the nursery for the children to choose from in their free play for example, printing, collage, painting, puppet making, shape animals, potato prints, drawing and animal masks.
We have planned to make a scarecrow, take photos to observe our growing plants and make playdoh animals.
We will take part in litter picking, planting vegetables and flowers as well as talk about springtime and summer and compare these to winter and autumn.
Physical Education
Staff attended a training course on a new PE resource and have already been using this to plan activities with the children which they have really enjoyed. This term we will be learning through exploration and through rhymes and songs. These activities are cross curricular and will cover expressive arts, numeracy and literacy also and will take place indoors and outdoors where possible. We will also be practising for our sports day as well as develop ball skills.
Finance Education
This term we will also develop the children’s knowledge and understanding of money and coins. They will learn to recognise a variety of coins by shape, size and colour. They will discuss where people get money from and what we use money for and how to keep our money safe. The children will use the shop in the nursery to purchase something and take part in a treasure hunt for coins in the playground. The children who have already been a visit down the high street to visit the cash machine and purchase items from the shop will share their experiences with the class.
Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood
This term we will be encouraging the children to take part in activities and discussions about developing friendships and relationships. They will build an awareness that we need to respect personal space and boundaries. We will explore our similarities and differences in appearances as well as what our likes and dislikes are. The children will learn about their growing bodies and the correct names for their body parts and how to look after our bodies. They will learn about where living things come from and how they grow and will demonstrate how to look after a baby using the dolls in the nursery.
Term 3: January – March 2016
Topic – Scotland
The children will develop their knowledge of Scotland and Scottish lifestyles through stories, poems, songs and internet research. They will carry out a variety of science activities developing skills such as observation and prediction.
The children will continue to develop their literacy skills e.g: writing stories; sharing experiences, opinions and feelings; predicting and making connections to their own experiences; and asking questions.
In maths they will learn about tartan patterns and counting through games and songs. They will continue to develop their knowledge and understanding of the seasons and measure.
Lots of other experiences will be given such as tasting Scottish food, Scottish dancing, learning Scottish songs and performing at our Scottish assembly.
Topic – Health and Wellbeing – The Garden Gang and Healthy Lifestyles.
This topic’s focus will be around the awareness of how to live a healthy lifestyle and keeping safe. They will build an awareness of how cleanliness, hygiene and safety can affect their health and wellbeing and apply this knowledge in everyday routines. They will explore and discover where foods come from as they prepare and taste a variety of different foods and learn how to make simple yummy treats, as well as through growing their own food in the nursery garden. They will observe the growth of these plants and learn how to take care of them and what plants need to grow. The children will learn what things they should not touch or eat and how to keep themselves safe in a variety of situations and show ways of getting help in unsafe situations and emergencies.
Through play and fun activities, the children will develop an awareness of their growing body and learn the correct names for different parts and how they work, as well as how to look after their body. In PE they will learn how to keep active daily in fun ways and develop their fitness through fun themed fitness activities.
The children will develop a variety of literacy skills e.g. listening, sharing opinions, feelings and ideas, writing and reading. In Maths they will continue to develop their counting skills as well as data analysis, 2D and 3D shapes, direction and positions, patterns, symmetry, seasons and money.
They will also developed a range of other skills including observation, questioning, problem solving, fine and gross motor.
Term 2: October – December 2015
Topic – Circus
The children listened to a variety of circus stories developing skills such as predicting and connecting to our own experiences. With support, they wrote their own imaginative stories about the circus. They were encouraged to participate in discussions and share their opinions and feelings about animals in captivity. They created a chart showing their favourite circus acts.
They developed a variety of numeracy skills within this activity, e.g data handling, counting, counting on and back and more than / less than. They created symmetrical clown pictures and created patterns on our Elmer elephants. Their counting skills were developed through songs and colours in French using Elmer. Miss Whitefield came in to talk to the children about her trip to the jungle to see the elephants which gave the children an opportunity to develop their questioning skills.
In PE the children developed a variety of gymnastics skills such as balancing, forward and backward rolls and co-ordination, as well as juggling, hula hopping and ball skills. After weeks of practise, they performed our own Circus Showcase.
Through expressive arts, our aim was to promote confidence through performing, singing and drama activities. In art the children learned about colours and texture and did blow painting, making masks, painting and drawing.
Topic – Christmas
The children explored the Christian story of the birth of Jesus developing an awareness of their beliefs and values. They were encouraged to retell the story in their own words and sequence the story using cards. They developed their listening and talking skills through various stories and were encouraged to ask questions. They learned about fair and unfair behaviours and the importance of sharing and playing nicely together, e.g. taking turns. The children wrote their Santa letters, made Christmas cards and invitations and practised writing their names.
Through the advent calendar and songs they were encouraged to develop their counting skills. Some children learned how to share items into equal groups and they learned more about seasons, comparing seasons by discussing the weather and their observations of their environments in each season. They also began to build an awareness of money through our ticket office.
The children created a variety of Christmas pictures and decorations. They learned Christmas games and dances, as well as songs which were performed in front of our visitors at our Christmas party.