Nursery – Curriculum News 

 Summer 2021 Topic – The Beach

Welcome 

Welcome back and welcome to our new Nursery children and also a big welcome to Mrs Ralph who has joined the Nursery team. The topic for the Summer term is 'All about me'.  We will be learning all about the Beach, we will be looking at all aspects of the Beach from sea creatures to Staycations.

In line with the Foundation Phase Policy all seven areas of learning will be covered. These areas are:

• Mathematical Development
• Language, Literacy and Communication
• Knowledge and Understanding of the World
• Creative Development
• Physical Development
• Welsh Language Development
• Personal and Social Development, Well-being and Cultural Diversity

As a Church in Wales School your child will take part in daily prayers and learn about stories from the Bible..

This term your children will participate in a variety of learning styles that will include outdoor learning and learning through play; this will be in compliance with both National Curriculum and Outcomes for 3 to 7-year-olds in Wales in the Foundation Phase.

Personal & Social Development, Well Being and Cultural Diversity.

We start off each, term with a reminder and for the new children learning 'The Five Finger Rules.  

Our role play area will be an area for social skill development with a  Beach Cafe and as the term progresses an icecream van and outdoor sand pit beach area.

Religious Education - Your children will be discovering the world of Christianity through daily prayers, learning hymns and through bible stories.  We learning about People of God - Noah and the Ark.  

Language, Literacy, and Communication skills

We will be starting Read, Write inc in the morning for the children starting Reception in September 2021.  

We will be focussing on language skills by encouraging the children to join in with class discussions, tell news and bring in topic related items to to talk about in front of the class.  Please  feel free to send your child into Nursery with any beach related items on a daily basis.  There will be a ‘Show and Tell’ on a half termly basis, this will take place on the last Friday of every half term. Your child’s artefact for ‘Show and Tell’ should be carefully chosen to reflect your child’s interests or the current topic.

We will be looking at a variety of different stories reflecting the beach topic including 'The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister@,  'The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and 'Tiddler' by Julisa Donaldson to mention a few.

The children will be encouraged to start to recognise their names and begin to write their name. They will have the use the writing table in our class through free choice and directed activities, this will have a range of resources and mark making tools on it so the children can experiment and develop their writing skills.  Each week your child will focus on a topic based story and participate in Literacy activities based on this text.     

Mathematical Development – Numeracy skills will be taught through practical activities and play.  In Nursery we will be learning to recognise, write and count numbers 1-20, counting up to 10 and down from 10.

We will be looking at 2D shapes and learning how to recognise them in the environment.

We will continue to learn and recognise numbers through songs and rhymes.  

Welsh Language Development –

The children will continue to learn about the days of the week and weather though daily songs and rhymes.  

We will learn number and colours.

Through our topic 'Ar yr traeth' we will learn different words relating to the beach.

Knowledge and Understanding of the World – The children will learn all about where they live and the beaches in Wales as well as other beaches in the Uk.  They will look at maps and learn to do maps of the local area.  They will learn about objects that float and sink.  They will also have the opportunity to garden and grow plants and vegetables from seed.

Physical Development – Nursery will be taking part outdoor physical activities using the bikes, scooters and outdoor playground to play games.  We will focus on the importance of exercise, how it makes us feel 

We will have 1 PE session a week with Mr Nurton, Friday am for the two different  groups and PE on Thursday afternoons for the afternoon group will be with Mrs Rogers (sometimes with Mr Nurton if he is available).  The children will not need a PE kit but are welcome to wear joggers and trainers to school on their PE day to make them more comfortable.

Creative Development –

The children will make Rainbow fish, seascape drawings, paintings and a huge variety of other crafts connected to the Beach topic.

The children will have opportunities to act out songs, rhymes and stories using masks and dressing up clothes.   Every day the children will have the opportunity to take part in a creative activity, whether it is drawing, painting, making, colouring or singing. 

During the second half of the Summer term, we will focus on Beach sports and staycations.  We will also have a trip to the Beach.

The morning children will have a familiarisation week for Reception and an in house sport's day, all these dates to be advised. 

I hope that from this brief summary you gain a feel for the teaching and learning styles we offer in our Nursery class. As a staff we are extremely excited about this topic and we know that our new children are going to relish each and every one of the experiences they meet.

Best Wishes

Mrs Rogers, Ms Hughes, Mrs Knight and Mrs Ralph

Further ways to help your child:

• Please ensure your children have appropriate weather proof clothing which is clearly marked with their names as they will be engaging in the outdoors every day.
• Please could your child have a pair of wellies they can leave in school for exploring the grounds, walks and wet play.
• Please ensure all of your children’s uniform is clearly marked with their names, this is extremely important.
• If clothing is borrowed for any reason we would appreciate it if you could wash it and return it to school.
• Please ensure your child has a healthy snack for morning play time if you are not taking advantage of our provision of fruit termly @ £15 per child.  As we are a healthy school, we do not allow chocolate, crisps or biscuits for snack time, and we don’t allow chocolate bars or sweets to be part of a packed lunch. We encourage the children to drink throughout the day but this should be water, not squash or sugary drinks. Drink bottles and snack boxes should be clearly labelled.
• Please check your children have their red bag with them every day and check its contents on a daily basis for correspondence from school.
• The children in Nursery will be provided with a drink of semi-skimmed milk every afternoon and will only be offered water as an alternative if requested by yourselves; so if your child does not like milk please inform us as soon as possible.
• If your children are away from school at any time, please inform the school as soon as possible and also provide a letter stating the reason.  If we do not receive a letter we will have to mark your children with an unauthorised absence.  Holidays within term time are unauthorised absences and a holiday request form should be completed prior to the children’s absence.  These can be obtained from Mrs Money’s Office.
• If your child is part of the ‘Wrap around care’ scheme please can you make sure you have filled in the appropriate forms (on parent pay) so we know which day your child needs to be walked over to playgroup or is attending ‘After school club’.
• To enhance your children’s learning at home please visit our website to keep yourself updated. 

A reminder for your fridge: NURSERY