Nursery

Hello and welcome to Nursery

Spring 2026

Our overarching topic this term is ‘Our World’ which involves looking at different countries, their habitats and animals. The children made postcards by drawing a habitat from around the world. Soon we will be going ‘Around the World’ for a week and visiting Japan, Hawaii, Macedonia and Madagascar.

In Literacy, the children are enjoying the Talk for Writing Text We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and have made sensory story maps to help retell the story, along with actions. Nursery enjoyed retelling the story in PE with Mr Drake going under, over and through the apparatus. We are now busy innovating the story making our own version – We’re Going on a Dinosaur Hunt.

In order to prepare the children for writing, the children have engaged in many finger strengthening activities which include opportunities to thread, work with playdough, fasten buttons, paint with different tools such as cotton buds or fingers and squeeze tweezers to move objects.

In Maths we have been learning to subitise, create patterns and find totals.

Creative and thinking critically is promoted in our setting with tasks such as creating a strong bridge using cups of different sizes and lolly sticks. The children worked in pairs to make their bridges and tested the strength of it using plastic teddy bears.

A science investigation took place to find out how penguins stay warm and dry in Antarctica. This involved covering a penguin’s body with white wax crayon and spraying a mix of water and blue dye on top. The penguin had droplets of water running off it as it was protected by the wax, just like a penguins’ waxy feathers keep them warm and dry.

During child initiated learning the children like to role play and we have had an area set up as a home corner, a shop and a bear cave. This is when the children’s learning and interests come to life as they interact, play and explore together.

Autumn 2025

The Nursery children have settled in beautifully to their new surroundings and have been busy playing and exploring both inside and out, as well as learning and making new friends.

They have met the first one of the Beech Hyde positive mind animals – Independent Rhino. All the children have a self-care target and are working towards them, to become more independent.

The children have enjoyed their Talk for Writing text – Rosie’s Walk. They have been learning about routes and positional language and have recreated the story in PE with Mr Drake. One lesson involved going over, under, through and around the apparatus. They enjoyed making the windmill from the story, by following a set of instructions, using a cup, tissue paper and lolly sticks. They also made their own story map to retell the story.

Our overarching topic for Autumn is All About Me. One activity included looking at what makes them unique, such as the different patterns on their fingertips. All the children looked at theirs using a magnifying glass, then printed their own in various ways.

Nursery met Jigsaw Jenie, a character linked to our PSHE learning, who has been teaching them about gentle hands and how to be kind.

On European Languages Day Nursery learned to say ‘hello’ in lots of different languages including Italian, Spanish, Danish and German.

This half term ended with Superhero week. They made cuffs, a ‘shape’ themed cape, stick puppets, completed an obstacle course and learned a superhero song. They also did lots of Maths superhero challenges as well as a shape mission to find four sided shapes. Their learning was shared in their very first whole school sharing assembly.

Summer 2025

Nursery planted French beans, potatoes and sunflowers and learned about plant life cycles.

During Shakespeare week the children listened to A Midsummer Nights Dream then designed and named their own fairies.

We had a workshop in which the children got to handle, stroke or observe lots of animals such as a tarantula, a gecko, a gerbil, a frog, a millipede and a snake. They learned many interesting facts about the animals and their life cycles.

The children read the story of The Hungry Caterpillar then made paper plate life cycles. On Languages Day the children read La Chenille Affaimee (The Hungry Caterpillar in French) and practised their numbers, colours and days of the week which they had been learning in French.

Exploring forces involved pushing pulling and rolling balls of different sizes along different surfaces and twisting, pressing, rolling, pushing play dough and making oobleck – a mix of cornflour and water.