Our Curriculum
We use the Early Years Development Guidelines. These are then split in to the 7 areas of learning. This is a working Document
Communication and language. Talk about myself and family.
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Resources
Pretend play ie babies, photos of family members. Resources to draw their family. Resources to make an all about me book.My first poem book.
Home corner to promote re-enacting of home life. Books about families. Sniffle Station (Tissues, sanitiser, mirror board.Visual timetable Feelings check in.
Adults to provide regular opportunities to talk about themselves and their families.
Adults encourage children to notice the difference in other children and their own feature ie he has blue eyes, she has brown eyes.
Allow plenty of time to have conversations together rather then busily rushing from one topic to another. During play (ie babies) ask open ended questions to allow conversations to take place. To have 1-1 time with the individual children to complete an all about me book.
To gather photos of their families to enable an all about me book to be made and to have photos on display. Children to talk about who is who in the photos. Play with groups of objects that represent home.
By the time they are 3 years old
Children talk about themselves and their family. ie who lives at home, what their likes are at home. To show an interest in home life through pretend play. Children may use mark making to represent a family member.
By the time they are 4 years old.
Children will be developing a wide range of vocabulary at their disposal. Children are using “he, she, me, my, ours” to talk about themselves, their friends and families and extended conversations. Children can extend their sentences by using: “because”, “or” and “and” when describing themselves and others. Child takes part in pretend play scenarios based around home life such as “mummies and daddy’s” Children can talk about their day using the visual timetable and sometimes match the makaton signs. Children can use the feelings check in to talk about their feelings.
Personal social and emotional development. To manage their own needs independently.
Resources:
Visual aids. Toilet charts Spare clothes, nappies. Baby dolls and accessories e.g. bottles, bibs Home corner toys e.g. knifes, forks, cups ect
Staff to encourage active participation of activities offered within the environment. On the annual Farm trip allow time for exploration of play areas including use of the climbing equipment. During the summer term provide amble opportunities for independence and provide positive reinforcement when a child completes an activity independently e.g., changing into their PE kit when preparing for sports day. Staff to encourage positive hygiene routines. Promote independence by encouraging children to take responsibility for their own belongings. Encourage children to take part in and create own games. Encourage independence when using the toilets. Promote imaginary play using the home corner toys. Staff to encourage the use of the sniffle Station throughout the day.
By the time they’re 3 years old
Come into preschool independently with minimal upset. Eat with correct equipment e.g. fork and spoon. Takes an interest in tidy up time. Can wash hands and dry with supervision. Be able to pull items of clothes up and down but needs support with fastenings. Take an interest in how their snack is prepared. Children will go with adults to the sniffle Station and wipe their nose with assistance.
By the time they’re 4 years old
Confidently come into preschool independently most days. Be able to wash and dry hands independently. Be able to dress and undress themselves (undo zips and buttons, be able to pull clothes up and down). Understand the needs of others and be able to generally share and take turns. Eat skilfully with the correct tools. Actively taking part in serving their own snack,. Most children will usually take themselves to the sniffle Station and use it appropriately. Children can use the feelings check in to talk about their feelings.
Physical Development. To be able to use small and gross motor skills. To ride a balance bike.
Resources
Trikes, wooden beams and tyres. Playdoh. Climbing frame. Pens, chalks, scissors. Balls.
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Adults provide a wide range of tyres, wooden planks to encourage balance skills.
Encourage outdoor play. Trips to the park. Going for walks. Staff to provide support and encouragement to promote interest in physical activities.
Provide malleable materials, ie playdough.
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By the time they are 3 years old
Children have a developing awareness of the space around them with their bodies using large and small motor skills independently. Using a tricycle and propel it with their feet. Climb a range of nursery apparatus. To show an interest in the balance bikes. Children are developing their fine motor skills and hand eye co-ordination ie using playdough
By the time they are 4 years old
Can ride a tricycle with skill and make sharp turns easily. Can negotiate space generally without bumping into things. Children have a range of gross motor skills at their disposal such as running, jumping, balance. Confidently use a balance bike.
Literacy To Tell a Story
Resources
Books, props, story sacks, resources for pretend play including simple dressing up, home corner resources. Resources for mark making for children and adults to document ‘stories’ or resources to take photos of stories or play for children to sequence. Nursery rhyme bag, story stones, mini me’s, puppets.
Make a story book.
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Adults provide regular opportunities to read stories to children, both individually and as part of a group. Adults interact appropriately with children whilst they play, promoting back and forth conversation and narrating children’s play to introduce a variety of rich language. Adults use careful questions and scaffolding during children’s play to identify the thread of their play and to develop children’s ability to describe what they are doing. Adults use narration and questions to help children to think about what might happen next and to promote their use of their imaginations. Adults use a variety of skills through conversation with children to discuss what might happen in a story and to encourage children to use their imaginations to think of alternatives. Adults model rich language, using a variety of words to describe the same thing to extend children’s vocabulary, to encourage them to illustrate their play and to begin to teach children how to develop their own stories. Staff to introduce a rhyme of the week. Staff to create mini me’s so that children can be part of their own story.
By the time they are 3 years old
Children continue to enjoy daily opportunities to listen to stories and to freely access books. Awareness of familiar and repetitive stories. Children begin to develop favourite stories and to recognise stories at nursery that they also have at home. Children begin to anticipate what might happen in a story or to remember parts of the story. Children develop their abilities to engage in pretend play and talk about what they are doing in their play, eg driving a car to the shop, looking after their baby or being a fireman. Children engage more in small world play and begin to narrate their play to describe what is happening to their small world characters.
By the time they are 4 years old.
Children take interest in a story and what might happen next, discussing various options based on the story so far or their prior knowledge. Children discuss what a story might be about, using information on the front cover such as the illustrations or title of the story. Children can retell a familiar story. Playing 2ith narratives. Children begin to understand that stories are written by an author and that they can use their imaginations and thoughts to direct their own play and to create their own stories. Children can describe to adults what they are playing, who they are (their character) and who their peers are in their play.
Understanding the world Growing vegetables and plants.
Resources:
Planters. Vegetable seeds. Gardening gloves, spades, trawls. Books on different plants and vegetables, stories about gardening. Water cans.
Life cycle of a butterfly.
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Staff to talk to children about Life cycles of plants and insects to develop children’s understanding of the world around them.
Staff to model language and encourage wide use of vocabulary. Staff to encourage outdoor play and exploration of natural materials. Staff to model “gardening skills”.
Staff to actively encourage group participation in annual caterpillar life cycle to understand that things change. Make use of the planter boxes in the garden and talk about different plants with the children expanding their vocabulary. Staff to recognise when a child makes an achievement and give suitable reward
By the time they are 3 years old
Use all their senses to explore natural materials. Are interested in the world around them which is evidenced by asking questions. Show an interest in different plants and environments. Show some appreciation of change. Explore different tools in the digging areas.
By the time they are 4 years old
To have an expanding vocabulary to describe different plants, vegetables, have an interest in where these come from. Have developed fine and gross motor skills and select the correct “tools for the job” and use with confidence. Children to show a sense of pride in their own work and exploration. Show appreciation and understanding of things changing over time e.g. a plant life cycle.
Expressive arts and design. To make a model using different materials.
Resources:
A wide range of recyclable materials A range of glue sticks, tape, scissors ect Playdough, cutters, rolling pins ect Construction blocks/lego/duplo blocks
Staff to encourage use of the junk model basket and actively engage in conversation with the children as they are exploring the materials. Staff can stimulate children’s interest in modelling by working with children to manipulate different materials. Staff to provide a wide range of found materials and provide appropriate tools to manipulate them such as glue scissors and tape. Staff to offer support to children to join different materials together. Staff to listen and understand what the children’s ideas are about what they want to create before making any suggestions to encourage child led activities. staff to ensure that children can easily access all the materials and resources. Staff to rotate the different construction type blocks out each term and model different types of models out of them so the children can use the blocks to create their own. Resources for mark making to be made available in all areas of the setting.
By the time they’re 3 years old
Children will explore different materials and use their imagination to create new things out of the materials. Children can make a simple model and talk about it with an adult. Children can join different materials together with support from an adult. Children are developing their fine motor skills and hand eye coordination.
By the time they’re 4 years old.
Children can develop their own ideas and choose appropriate materials to express themselves. Children can join different materials together independently using a range of techniques. Children can use their hand eye coordination and fine motor skills generally with little help from adults.
Maths To use numbers and counting in everyday activities.
Resources:
Wooden counting puzzles Counting activities such as puzzles, sorting shapes, blocks Resources for mark making Snack resources such as a spoon or fork for choosing and dishing up snack, different bowls. Counting books Cups and bowls Visual timetable
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Staff to use initiative to incorporate numbers and counting within regular everyday activities with children which may not be “maths related” but are able to bring counting into it without distracting from child’s fun. For example, getting the children to count out their snack into their bowls.
Staff to make counting and number work fun for children by modelling counting often.
Staff to use mathematical language to expand children’s understanding of number and their language development.
Encourage counting of real-life objects. Staff to discuss mathematical ideas throughout the day e.g. “I think X has more apple than Y”. To know if there are 5 children and they are counting them they would need to stop at 5. Staff to emphasis the total number of things in conversation to promote their learning.
Staff to subsidise everyday by pointing to a group of objects and saying how many there are.
By the time they’re 3 years old.
Children begin to represent numbers by tagging to objects up to 5. Can count in everyday contexts, but sometimes will skip a number. Children will take part in rhymes with numbers. Children can compare two items where there is an obvious difference and can tell which is bigger or smaller. Can continue patterns with two elements. Can recognise 2 or 3 familiar shapes. Can respond to some directional words for example: can you move forward; you are moving backwards.
By the time they’re 4 years old
Can solve mathematical problems within the environment. Can fill a container with a smaller one to see how much it can hold. Can sometimes use time words such as yesterday, tomorrow or days of the week when talking about their days. Can usually continue a repeating pattern with three elements. Should be able to recognise up to 4 shapes. Children join in with the visual timetable to know the sequence of the day.