Nursery Curriculum Information
Term: Autumn term 2023
EYFS Curriculum
The EYFS curriculum is divided into seven different areas of learning and development which are all important and inter-connected. These are:
Prime areas: (We focus particularly on the three prime areas as these lay the foundations for success in the other areas of learning).
Communication and Language
Physical Development
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Specific areas
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the World
Expressive Arts and Design
As a Catholic school, we also teach RE.
Communication and Language
The development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development.
This area involves developing Listening, Attention and Understanding and Speaking.
Examples of learning within this area include: listening to stories, talking to others, understanding instructions such as ‘Get your coat and wait by the door’ and asking and answering simple questions. Children will have lots of opportunities to extend their spoken language by using talk in their play such as saying “Let’s go on the bus”, “You can sit there” and “What would you like for dinner?”. Adults will support children’s communication by taking part in role play with the children and commenting on their play.
Physical Development
This area involves Gross motor skills and Fine motor skills.
Examples of learning within this area include: developing movement and balance by riding scooters and bikes and developing ball skills. Using the play village and climbing equipment will help to develop children’s gross motor skills. Children will also develop their self-help skills and learning to become independent by learning how to put their coats on and use zips and buttons. They will also learn about making healthy choices about food, drink, exercise and how to look after our teeth.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
This area involves developing Self-regulation, Managing self and Building relationships.
Building strong, warm and supportive relationships with others enable children to learn how to understand their own feelings and those of others. Examples of learning in this particular area include: children developing in confidence, beginning to understand how to manage their feelings and forming friendships with their peers.
Literacy
This area involves Comprehension, Word Reading and Writing.
It is crucial for children to develop a life-long love of reading.
To develop language comprehension children will have lots of opportunities to take part in extended conversations about the stories they hear and also learn new vocabulary. To develop word reading children will be taught that print can have many different purposes and is not just seen in books. Children will learn the names for different parts of the book and how to handle books correctly to help them understand sequencing. Children will also develop their phonological awareness.
In writing children will use their print and letter knowledge in their early writing through their play by writing for a range of purposes. For example when writing shopping lists, birthday cards or labelling a picture they have drawn.
Autumn Term CLPE texts
We use high quality core texts, recommended by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), to support our learning across all areas of the curriculum. We work with each text for approximately three weeks, before moving on to the next one. In Autumn 1 our topic will be space/travel and our CLPE text will be ‘Naughty Bus’ by Jan and Jerry Oke and ‘I Like Trains’ by Daisy Hirst. In Autumn 2 we will move on to a topic about bears and the text we will use to support this will be ‘A Brave Bear’ by Sean Taylor, and ‘The Everywhere Bear’ by Julia Donaldson.
‘Naughty Bus’ by Jan and Jerry Oke.
The book tells the story of a young boy who receives a toy bus as a present and has great fun exploring the world with his new toy which turns out to be quite a naughty bus – or is it the boy being naughty?!! This is a very unusual picture book with a story told through close up photography and mainly narrated by the toy bus. Very cleverly recreating children’s imaginative play this book is great fun to share with your child and to use as a springboard for their own play ideas. The children will be exploring transport and travelling and they will get the opportunity to make their own buses, learn about bus routes and look at maps of the local area.
‘I Like Trains’ by Daisy Hirst.
Mathematics
This area involves Number and Numerical patterns.
In the Autumn term the topics we will be covering are; Colours, matching, sorting, numbers 1 and 2, subitising and pattern.
We will begin by sorting and matching colours to different objects. Children will explore colours in different areas and experiment with colour mixing and using a variety of media to learn about colours. Children will sing nursery rhymes and songs to learn about number and
We will also link our maths learning to our topic work about travel. Children will be investigating numbers in the environment such as on the front of buses and houses and ordering numbers from smallest to largest. They will also begin to learn about one more and one less in role play when passengers get on and off the bus.
Please click the link to access online maths games: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/3-5-years/counting
Understanding the World
This area involves learning about Past and present; People, Culture and Communities; and The natural World.
Children will talk about their own families, learn about different occupations, understand that there are different countries in the world and develop positive attitudes about the differences between people. They will learn about the natural world, looking at life cycles of plants and animals and understand the need to respect and care for the natural environment and living things.
During our travel topic, children will develop their knowledge and understanding of the world around them through learning about transport in the past and present.
Expressive Arts and Design
This area involves Creating with materials and Being imaginative and expressive.
Children can express themselves by selecting their own resources whether it be through the media of music, dance, art or role-play. They will use different materials and textures to express themselves and experiment with colour mixing. Children will also have the opportunity to use their imagination to create their own ‘small world’ scenes using building blocks and constructions and act out different emotions in their play. During our travel topic, children will be acting out and retelling the story of the ‘Naughty Bus’ outside. Children will be making their own buses using a variety of materials and make links to our maths learning about colour by choosing what colour their bus will be.
Religious Education
In R.E lessons this term our topics will be Myself, Welcome, Birthdays and Judaism.
Myself: Children will learn about themselves, their names and their own feelings when they are called by their name. Children will learn names of their peers in their class and that we are all loved by God.
Welcome: Children will learn about their own and others experiences and feelings of being welcomed into different groups. We will talk about how we welcome people into a family before moving on to learning about how people are welcomed into God’s family through Baptism.
Birthdays: We will start this topic by discovering what a birthday is and how it may be celebrated. We will then learn about Advent, when people get ready for the birthday of Jesus at Christmas.
Judaism: Children will learn about a special days. We will talk about special days that we have and then we will learn about a special Jewish celebration called Hanukkah, The Feast of Lights. We will listen to the story of the oil lamp in the Temple and why Jewish people celebrate this special day.
Catholic Social Teaching
Throughout the year, OLM focuses on different elements of Catholic Social Teaching (CST). Each half term we look at a different theme and discuss what each one means:
Autumn 1 - Care of Creation
Autumn 2 - Preferential Option for the Poor
Spring 1 - Solidarity and Peace
Spring 2 - Community and Participation
Summer 1 - Dignity of Workers
Summer 2 - Human Dignity
Tapestry
Tapestry is an online learning journal to show your child's learning journey and development in their Nursery year. You will be able to access this from home in order to look at photographs, videos and notes following your child's time at school. Please check this regularly.
How to help at home
You can support your child with the early stages of reading, writing and mathematics by:
- Continuing to encourage an enjoyment of books, stories and poems; reading and sharing the class library text sent home and by visiting the local library.
- Continuing to encourage your child to join in with rhymes and songs.
- Continuing to provide your child with a variety of writing equipment to encourage drawing and writing skills, encouraging your child to give meanings to the marks that they make.
- counting everyday items such as biscuits or solving simple problems like sharing out food.
