Nursery and Preschool

Welcome to Nursery and Preschool

Please find below the knowledge and language organiser for the Summer Term. Please talk about this with your child to support their learning.

Summer Term

Welcome to the Nursery and Preschool class page!

Welcome to the nursery and preschool class page. Here you will find information about the classroom, curriculum learning and key dates. Please check back regularly for updates.

Dear Parents,

We are pleased to welcome you all back after the Easter holiday. We hope you had a restful break with your children and family. It is hard to believe that the year has gone so quickly and the pre school children are ready to continue their journey into Reception.

We have a very busy term and have exciting things to look forward to such as Eid, Father's Day and the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

We are always vigilant at home time to make sure children leave safely and with a known adult. With new children and staff joining us it can take time to get to know all the members of new families. Please make sure if somebody we have not met before is collecting your child they know the password as without this we cannot let the children leave with an adult we have not met. We understand this can be frustrating for both the adult and child but it is a measure we have in place for safety. If possible, we would also really appreciate it if you could let us know to expect somebody different. Please make sure the adult who collects the child holds onto their hand all the way home.

The Nursery gates are opened at the beginning of the session 8.30-8.45 and 12.15-12.30. Please be on time to ensure your child does not miss out on valuable learning time. At the end of the session the Nursery gates are open between 11.15-11.30 and 3.00-3.15. Please be on time to collect your child as some children can become upset when they see other children going home.

The weather is very variable at the moment so please make sure your child is wearing a suitable clothing/ footwear and if it is sunny put sun screen on before your child comes to nursery. So that your child is becoming more independent please encourage them to put on/ take off jumpers and coats by themselves at home. Please ensure your child's name in their coat and jumper.

We are very pleased to welcome Mrs Ahmed and Mrs Patel to our Nursery Team. As always, if you have any questions or queries please do come and speak to us.

Miss Hesford, Mrs Ubaid, Miss Iqbal, Mrs Patel and Mrs Ahmed

Curriculum and Learning

If you would like more detailed information about the early years curriculum at Brookhouse for the 2 year old, 3 year old and 4 year old children please visit the Early Years section on the curriculum page.

This half term our topic is 'Marvellous Minibeasts'.

Please see the knowledge organiser to see the stories, songs and rhymes we will be using to support our learning.

Personal Social and Emotional Development

All the Nursery Staff remain consistent with the rules, boundaries and expectations. The adults praise and encourage children who are able to follow the rules and play cooperatively together. The children will be encouraged to talk about their feelings using words like "happy", "sad", "angry" or "worried" and begin to understand how their friends are feeling.

Communication and Language

Our curriculum is language rich and based around books and rhymes. Please see the knowledge organiser for the stories, songs and rhymes we will be using this half term. We want the children to be able to listen to and talk about longer stories and to remember a lot about what happens in the story. We will provide lots of opportunities, both indoors and outdoors to retell familiar stories using masks, story props and puppets. Please spend time at home sharing the stories we are doing in school. This could be in English or in your child's home language. Adults will  encourage the children to speak clearly and to take turns when having a conversation.

Physical Development

Children will have daily opportunities to develop their gross motor skills using the bikes, large outdoor equipment and large mark making equipment. This will help children to develop core strength and strong bodies. The children will be playing games such as musical statues where they will be learning how to freeze and hold a pose. They will be learning to move confidently in a variety of ways such as hopping, skipping and jumping. We will be encouraging the children to work together in teams and group activities to develop their gross motor skills. This term we will be having lots of fun moving to different music, remembering sequences and patterns of movement. 

Their will be a big focus, with the preschool children, on holding a pencil correctly using a comfortable grip and demonstrating good control, in preparation for Reception.

We will be encouraging the children to put on their own coats, cardigans and jumpers. 

Literacy

Early Literacy skills are very closely linked to Communication and Language skills. Children need to communicate effectively if they are going to read and write. Stories are shared daily and left for children to access independently. The children will have a daily phase 1 phonics session where they will be encouraged to spot rhyming words in stories and rhymes. This term we will start teaching the pre school children the letter names and sounds, using the Read, Write, Inc scheme. The children will be learning how to form the letters correctly, using rhymes to help them, and to write their name. Our role play area is a home corner where we will provide opportunities to write pretend shopping lists. They will be encouraged to recognise words with the same initial sound such as lazy and ladybird. 

Maths

We will support children to access maths in lots of exciting and practical ways. We will continue counting to to 5 and providing opportunities to use their understanding of number to solve number problems e.g I think I have more pears than you. How can we find out? The children have been fantastic at making repeating patterns such as red,blue,red,blue. Now they will be encouraged to spot when they have made a mistake in their pattern and correct it.

We will be learning how to describe a sequence of events using the language-"first, then....."e.g. "First he was a caterpillar. Then he turned into a beautiful butterfly." They will have lots of fun exploring capacity, using the words "full" and "empty".

Preschool children will have a daily maths session where they will be taught a range of mathematical concepts, with opportunities to apply this learning within provision. The nursery children will have a daily session where they sing a variety of number rhymes.

Understanding the World

We have really enjoyed learning about Spring and looking for signs of Spring-this will continue in the first half term. The children will be encouraged to talk about what they see and any changes they notice, using a wide range of vocabulary. We will be learning that there are different countries in the world and there will be opportunities to talk about different countries they may have visited and look at photographs. 

Expressive Art and Design

In the nursery there are of exciting opportunities to draw and paint, both indoors and outdoors. The children will also continue to build imaginative models using a range of resources and talk about their work. We will be learning lots of new songs which the children will be expected to remember and sing the whole song. Whilst singing these songs we will be encouraging the children to use the correct pitch and will also provide lots of opportunities to play instruments to accompany these songs.