Nursery Curriculum

Younger babies enjoy outdoors and painting

In the last few weeks, the littlest babies have been venturing outdoors to explore the first signs of Spring. As well as showing them new shoots and flowers coming through in the nursery garden, they have enjoyed playing with the outdoor toys and going on strolls to the park.

Indoors the babies have been practising painting – a favourite pastime which encourages the babies’ hand-eye coordination is using a brush to paint on cling film. They have also been listening to stories and joining in at nursery rhyme time.   

Isla painting

Arnold listening to The Gruffalo at story time

Always time for a hug – Nora and Arnold cuddling 

Older Babies enjoy painting and pizza making

The older babies have been making the most of all the free-play options indoors and out. There is a medley of toys and equipment to satisfy little ones’ play needs, as well as sensory play stations which change every day. The beach sensory play with sand, sea creatures and water tray was particularly popular this month – we think the babies might be missing holidays too!

In arts and crafts, the older babies have enjoyed painting with sponges and brushes – ideal for honing hand-eye coordination – and sticking colourful tissue paper and shapes onto paper. The older babies also spent time making and baking pizzas in the nursery kitchen. At circle time we have been listening to our favourite stories and singing nursery rhymes.

Watch your toes! Our beach sensory play area

Matthew and Cohen practise their painting skills

Clover making pizza

Toddlers learn the numbers one to ten and enjoy outdoor time

The Toddler Room has been a riot of activity with the children playing and making lots of vibrant paintings and 3D displays. The children created colourful fish for the room’s aquarium and made wonderful contributions to the trees and birds in our big Spring displays.

Getting fresh air is an important part of our toddlers’ day and we’ve been enjoying time outside playing in the mud kitchen, making sounds with the instruments on the sound wall, and role playing in (or running in and out of!) the garden playhouse.         

To help recognise those all-important first letters and numbers, the toddlers have been practising the numbers one to ten and making marks with crayons on paper.

Our lovely fish tank

Practising first writing skills by making marks – good work Cameron!

Jareem painting and sticking

Pre-Schoolers tell us about their families, oh, and try to find a bear!

We’ve been learning about each other’s families during the last few weeks. As well as telling each other about our family members, such as our mums and dads and whether we have any brothers or sisters, we have been drawing pictures of them.

There are some amazing family drawings on display around the nursery – some are pictured below.

Our pre-schoolers have also been whipping up a storm in the kitchen making yummy biscuits and, slightly less yummy, green playdough for St Patrick’s day.

There has also been some grizzly goings on as the pre-schoolers were invited to go on an intrepid bear hunt.

The game was inspired by the book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen which we have been reading at circle time. Children had to navigate a variety of different obstacles, such as long wavy grass and swishy, swashy water, just like in the book. And yes, they did track down their bear!

To help our pre-schoolers recognise and write numbers, we have been playing fun number related games, such as learning to count with rhymes and playing number games in small groups.

Engaging writing games also help the children master first writing skills. The first step is learning how to hold a pencil. Simple activities like using child-friendly scissors to cut paper and card, and using plastic tweezers to pincer small objects, help build hand strength and pencil holding skills.

We’ve also been working on tracing the letters of our names with many children close to writing their whole name – impressive work, well done!

Bear hunting equipment – get ready bear!

Matilda’s drawing of her family

Millie’s drawing of her family

Babies enjoy the Christmas lights and get busy baking

With the weather still mild the babies have been getting outdoors in the fresh air. As well as spending time in the nursery garden, they have been on trips to the local park to feed the ducks. Their ‘quack, quack’ sounds are coming on wonderfully! The babies also enjoyed a special outing to see Windsor Castle. The lit-up Christmas tree drew lots of big smiles and pointing.      

It is never too early to learn how to cook up tasty treats, and our older babies have been mixing up some truly marvellous creations in the kitchen. Their chocolate biscuits were especially delicious. Top marks children!

‘Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree…’ the babies on their festive outing to Windsor Castle.

Cookie making.

Toddlers get to grips with the Gruffalo!

Our toddlers have been learning about the Gruffalo, a much-loved children’s story which follows a mouse on his walk through a forest. To scare away his predators – a fox, an owl and a snake – the mouse invents a tall-tale saying he is on his way to meet the Gruffalo, a monstrous creature whose favourite food happens to be fox, owl and snake. Much to his surprise, the mouse then encounters the real Gruffalo!

As well as reading the book at circle time, to help bring the story alive, our toddler room has been transformed into an interactive Gruffalo world.

There is a Gruffalo den for the children to play in and several themed play areas, including a Gruffalo wood made of lego bricks. The Gruffalo sensory play stations are especially popular. Here the children can mix up wonderful oozy concoctions, including gooey chocolate reindeer cake (the Gruffalo’s favourite delicacy apparently).

Our busy toddlers have also been making, sticking and glittering a huge range of sparkly Christmas goodies for their take home goody bags – no peeking, it’s a surprise!

Knock, knock, is the Gruffalo home?  

Mmm! More chocolate reindeer cake anyone?

Our indoor snowman – no melting allowed!  

Even our sensory play had a Christmas cakeover, sorry we mean makeover.  

Pre-Schoolers ride to the North Pole

Our pre-school children have been busy playing and learning the last few weeks.

Currently reading the classic children’s story The Polar Express about a boy’s train journey to the North Pole, the children were delighted to discover their room had been turned into a wintery landscape, complete with magical train carriage.

The children are relishing taking turns riding on the train with their friends and conjuring imaginative stories.

Our pre-schoolers have also been working hard developing their writing and maths skills. Earlier this month we held Maths week, where the children played a variety of fun, interactive number games. The games are designed to help them recognise and name numbers, as well as maths related vocabulary, such as ‘above, below and on top’.

The pre-schoolers tackled the games with gusto and were quick to recognise and match certain numbers. Well done children!     

Vivie making a sparkly festive wreath.

All aboard our magical Polar Express Train – next stop the North Pole! 

Babies enjoy squishing and singing!

Our littlest ones have been enjoying plenty of sensory play. This involves putting those little fingers to work feeling, squishing and smooshing all kinds of different materials and textures. Alongside touching shiny autumnal conkers and crunchy leaves, the babies have been playing with water and, a firm favourite, spooky slime.

We try to get out in all weathers and the babies have spent time in the nursery garden and being taken on walks to the park. Saying hello to and feeding the ducks is a source of much excitement.

To help the babies learn the sounds and meaning of words, a regular part of their routine is singing nursery rhymes and songs. As well as energetic bouncing, the babies love to shake rattles and sing along.   

Things that go crunch in the night! The babies enjoyed touching the autumnal sensory play.

Toddlers get seriously spooky!

Our Toddlers loved dressing up for Halloween and playing in the nursery pumpkin patch. They also enjoyed lots – and we mean lots – of spooky sensory play, including working their hand-eye coordination by picking up ‘googly eyes’, bats, bugs and other Halloween creatures with tweezers.    

Other eerie activities included concocting magical potions, pumpkin carving and making Meg and Mog’s breakfast from play dough and shaving foam. Yum!   

Role play is brilliant for sparking early imaginations and we have introduced a wide range of new dressing up outfits for the children to wear, from doctors and dentists to construction workers and scientists. To fuel their creativity further the children have been playing in the nursery’s pizza and ice cream parlour whipping up delicious treats for everyone.   

In arts and crafts the children have been making and painting sparkly firework paintings. They also created numerous red poppies to mark Remembrance Day.

Reuben and Millie’s amazing Pumpkin 

Olivia enjoying all the spooky shenanigans

‘Wing of bat, eye of newt…’ our magical potion ingredients

Our wicked witch sensory play

Our Remembrance Day poppies

Getting a pizza the action – the children’s pizza parlour

Pre-Schoolers carve pumpkins and practise computer skills

As ever the pre-school room has been a hive of activity these last few weeks. As well as scooping out scary pumpkins and harvesting the nursery pumpkin patch, the children have been drawing, colouring and painting pictures. This included an impressive array of Remembrance Day poppies and sparkly rockets for our November display board.

Practising handwriting is an important part of our pre-schoolers’ development. Alongside working on forming letters to write their names, the children have been practising typing words on the nursery computer.  

There has been a flurry of excitement around our role play area, which currently holds a pretend post-office. The children have loved playing postmaster stamping envelopes and sticking parcels. Just in time for Christmas!

With lots of energy to burn it was great to see Coach Abid’s Multi-sports sessions return to the nursery. The children had a lovely time outside taking part in races and hula hooping in the sunshine.    

 Our Pumpkin Patch open for business

Reuben practising his keyboard skills

Our fantastically fiery November display

Sports in the sunshine with Coach Abid

What’s in the package? Our popular post office  

Younger babies venture out!

Our little bundles have been wrapping up warm and playing outside with the mega blocks, balls and other colourful toys this month. This has been great for their hand-eye coordination and their identification of all the different colours of the rainbow.

Exploring our garden has also been a big hit as they try to spot new signs of life, collect leaves and chase each other around to keep even warmer! The frosty mornings have created some fascinating patterns on the playground to observe.

To wind down the children have loved singing their favourite nursery rhymes and listening to stories. Not forgetting lots of lovely messy hand painting and some indoor action on the rainbow climber. 

Older Babies free-play all day

From playing with toys to exploring the room and taking part in all the free play options, our older babies are making the most of their new dedicated space. The older babies have especially enjoyed sensory play this month. Sand play making sandcastles and shapes seems to be the most talked about. Messy painting and slime play were also a high point!

We have ensured that developmental exercises have featured regularly, such as encouraging pulling to standing and stepping around furniture. The children have also been enjoying role-playing in ‘home corner’. Activities include pretending to sweep up, looking after the baby dolls and organising the house – we hope you have noticed the difference at home!  

Arts and crafts activities have involved using paints with sponges and rollers – great for encouraging hand-eye coordination – exploring different textures and making pigs for the nursery display. Circle time is always key to our day and as ever we have chosen some wonderful stories to share and songs to sing. 

Toddlers keep on going!

The Toddler room has been a hive of activity with the children learning about different animals and shapes in the environment. To complement this in arts and crafts we have been painting, exploring colours and examining textures. 

The children have also been practising new skills, from simple tasks such as rolling a ball around, to progressing to pass it to each other – which has proved slightly trickier!

Learning to count from one to five is a fantastic achievement that will put the toddlers in a good position for their pre-school activities. Whilst playing in the garden with lots of jumping in muddy puddles (of which there have been plenty just recently) releases lots of energy and never fails to raise a smile.

Pre-Schoolers go from strength to strength

What a month for these intrepid nursery residents it’s been. They’ve been stacking stickle bricks, playing in the home and construction corners – using toy hammers and tools – making jigsaws, and colouring and painting pictures of themselves and family members. We hope you’ve seen some of these at home.

The children have also been practising writing the letters of their names, an incredible development and one of which they must be very proud – I know we are. They have also been learning about the emergency services and what different people do in their roles. This has featured Policemen and women, fire crews and ambulance crews to name but a few. 

Our pre-schoolers have also been identifying numbers from 10 to 20 that are odd and even and selecting objects from a group when asked. All core skills to help them prepare for starting primary school. They’ve also enjoyed making movements and actions to music, jumping in puddles and watering the Spring bulbs we planted. Oh, they also squeezed in making yummy sausage rolls! Phew, what a month!

Pre-schoolers mark Halloween, Diwali and Remembrance Day

The children particularly enjoyed Halloween, dressing up and making tasty spooky biscuits. To top it off we carved pumpkins and decorated the nursery with handmade bats and witches.

Pumpkin painting – a new art form!

As a mark of respect, the pre-schoolers made poppies for Remembrance Day and honoured the two-minute silence. They were very quiet and well behaved. Well done children you made us feel very proud.

Perfect Poppies

We also celebrated Diwali, the festival of light, by creating lots of colourful pictures of fireworks exploding across the night sky.

We are now in full swing getting ready for Christmas. As well as making Christmas crafts the children are practising their songs for the concert (they’re top secret though, so you’ll have to wait and see, well hear!).

Daily activities continue to include working on our letter sounds and formation, as well as sharing objects for the ‘show and tell’ sound of the week.

Toddlers celebrate Halloween and go on park visits

Creativity has been the word of the month for our toddlers. As well as getting involved with spooky crafts, pumpkin carving for Halloween and colour painting for Diwali, the toddlers have enjoyed visiting the park to collect leaves and pine cones for our sensory trays.

‘Spooky’ Sensory Time 

The children also enjoyed dressing up for Children in Need, although wearing pyjamas and onesies did see a little more snoozing than usual! 

Yell-ow! Our colourful Children in Need supporters

Older Babies and Younger Babies get excited about Christmas

Our clever babies have definitely picked up on that it’s an exciting time of year! Festive themed sensory play and colourful Christmas finger painting is creating a buzz of happy babbling in the baby room.

Our Frosty the Snowman

The older babies’ sparkly spider web art

We continue to practise mark-making, an important first step towards writing letters and numbers. The babies have also been enjoying regular music and movement sessions, where we group together and sing nursery rhymes along with actions. In our storytelling circle, we have started to focus on colourful Christmas books.