Overview with Enquiry Question

All the Nursery staff are so proud and impressed at how confident and brave the children have been settling into Nursery. They have said goodbye to their families at the door, with a smile, kiss and a wave and straight away been ready to join in the day’s activities.

They have started to make friends and show their personalities to staff as well enjoying chatting to staff. Many are keen to show how independent they are with dressing and how kind they can be to each other. The children have been showing us what they can do and also what they need some help to do. We are busy gathering all this information together to create a baseline on each child, and find out the next steps, to support all children develop their knowledge and skills through a fun and meaningful topic of the Seasons. 

We will be talking about the children’s world – their home, family, friends, what they can see around them, the weather and especially the changing seasons. Autumn time is a very beautiful season with plenty of colour and changes happening within Nature. We will be discussing the beauty in Nature, just outside their doorstep and how we can help to keep our World healthy and clean.

As a Christian faith school, the children will also learn about the Christian faith including Harvest festival, and how it is celebrated. We will introduce the Value of Compassion to the children. They will learn to be kind and caring to each other, to animals and to the World.

Our enquiry question this term is:

What happens in Autumn?

Literacy, Language and Communication

▪ Listening and responding to Autumn stories (We’re going on a leaf hunt, The leaf thief, Leafman, Ouch, Hedgehogs, Oliver’s wood, Squirrel’s day out, The Little red hen, Soup day, I like fruit and many more..)

▪ Talking about the changing season in simple sentences and learning new vocabulary linked to Autumn

▪ Listening to other children and adults, waiting their turn to talk

▪ Mark making their name as well as lists, stories and instructions 

▪ Handling a range of pens, pencils, crayons to write

▪ Handlings book to read themselves

▪ Reading the book hedgehogs together

▪ Listening to and following simple instructions

▪ Introduce new Welsh phrases and instructions

▪ Answer a question in Welsh

Science and Technology

▪ Investigating the season, colours changing on the leaves, 

▪ Exploring Autumn treasure and describing it (conkers, pine cones, acorns, leaves)

▪ Mixing paint to create Autumn colours

▪ Features of a leaf, lifecycle of a tree

▪ Learning about animals – hedgehogs, squirrels

▪ Investigating light and dark

▪ Learning about Nocturnal and Diurnal animals

▪ Learning about where fruit and vegetables grow

▪ Become familiar and learn to use the technology in class – iPads, robotic toy, Chromebook

▪ Programme the robotic toy to move in a variety of way

▪ Discover properties of materials – sand, water, playdoh, clay, foam

Expressive Arts

▪ Use a wide range of media (pens, foam, paints, playdoh, clay, loose parts, construction kits and all types of paper) to create a range of pictures and models

▪ Learn to colour mix

▪ Use iPad apps to create pictures of Autumn trees and hedgehogs

▪ Learn to overlay – paint over their photographs using an app on iPads

▪ Handle the percussion instruments to accompany songs

▪ Join in with a range of Autumn songs

▪ Act out simple autumn stories using props (Owl babies, The little red hen)

▪ Act out bible stories – (The good Samaritan, The nativity)

▪ Perform songs and rhymes in front of others

▪ Create their own leafman using natural objects

▪ Clay hedgehogs

▪ Mud painting hedgehogs

Humanities

▪ Listen and respond to a range of bible stories

▪ Listen and respond to a range of stories about being compassionate and what compassion means

▪ Join in with Children in Need activities and raise money 

▪ Learn about and celebrate different religious festivals – Diwali, Hanukah, harvest, Christmas

▪ Begin to use time vocab – yesterday, today, tomorrow

▪ Discuss how their environment looks different and what changes have happened in Autumn

▪ Learn about their immediate environment – the Nursery, the wider school, the outside areas, the name of their town

▪ Learn about events that happened in the past – Remembrance Day

Mathematics

▪ Sorting Autumn treasure according to set criteria and their own 

▪ Counting collections of objects

▪ Counting in order to 10

▪ Counting backwards from 10

▪ Sorting according to size

▪ Learning to identify objects by their shape

▪ Naming shapes

▪ Learn new vocabulary for measure – full, empty, longer, shorter, taller, heavy, light

▪ Making patterns

▪ Recognising patterns in our environment

▪ Use time vocabulary – today, yesterday, tomorrow, weekdays and seasons

▪ Begin to use and understand directional vocabulary – forwards and backwards

Health and Wellbeing

▪ Become more independent – putting on and off own coat, manage own snack, use the bathroom independently

▪ Learn about healthy living –  eating fruits and vegetables, bedtime routines, brushing teeth

▪ Fruit and vegetable tasting 

▪ Develop gross motor control with movement activities, PE sessions and outdoor activities

▪ Discuss emotions with each other

▪ Learn each other’s names

▪ Learn to play in pairs and groups 

▪ Begin to share and turn take during activities 

▪ Learn about our bodies and name parts

▪ Learning to be a good friend and helping others

DCF

▪ Identify digital technology

▪ Learn to navigate apps within the ipads

▪ Learn to take photos using the ipad

▪ Begin to handle a keyboard and mouse 

▪ Learn to control the glow and go robot

▪ Begin to learn a sequence of events (routines in Nursery)

▪ Create digital art

▪ Learn about using the internet safely through stories