Beeston 1/ Nursery Class- Summer Term 2024

Welcome back!

We hope you’ve had a wonderful Easter and are ready for a fun filled Summer term! We are looking forward to sharing new experiences together and developing our learning further.

Overview

Our overarching themes for this term are ‘I wonder where they live?’ and ‘I wonder what will happen next?’. We will be reading and exploring the stories: How to Look After Your Dinosaur, Busy Spring, Pip and Egg, Tad, Jack and the Beanstalk, Sweet Summer, Michael Recycle and My Class is My Family. We will also be exploring other texts and some key celebrations, including Father’s Day, Healthy Eating Week, D-Day, Earth Day as well as taking part in our annual Sports Day event. We will be exploring these exciting stories through all areas of learning and will develop the children’s knowledge through thrilling activities. However, these books and topics may change as we adapt our planning to the current needs and interests of the children.

Communication, Language and Literacy

During this term, we will be exploring a range of books based on our main themes ‘I wonder where they live?’ and ‘I wonder what will happen next?’. The children will be given many opportunities for group discussions alongside one-to-one adult interactions that will support articulation, introduce new vocabulary, develop listening skills, and build their confidence to answer questions and contribute.

We will continue to participate in daily phonics sessions to build the foundations for early reading. Our focus will be on alliteration and voice sounds which we will explore through fun games and activities. We will be listening hard and tuning in to initial sounds. We will revisit and recap on elements of previous aspects of the phase 1 phonics scheme to practise retrieval skills. The children will also continue or begin to write their names, with some having a go at their second names. 

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

We will continue to focus on sharing and turn taking paying particular attention to waiting patiently for our turn. We will be having some new children starting our nursery class this term, so we will be supporting all the children to get to know their new friends, by helping them to initiate conversations and form good relationships with their new and familiar peers. The children will continue to develop their independence by selecting and using activities and resources through play as well as making their own snack choices. The older children will be encouraged to support the younger children when selecting classroom resources and making their choices at snack time. We will continue our daily discussions about healthy eating and making the correct choices during snack times. As always, we will be focusing on looking after our resources and working as a great team at tidy up time.

Physical Development

This term the children will continue to focus on putting their coats on independently and pulling up a zip after initially started by an adult. We will support the children to use a comfortable grip when mark making ensuring they focus on using their dominant hand. We will introduce a snack once a week that the children can enjoy whilst using a knife and fork and we will encourage the children to peel their fruit independently. Our finger gym station will allow the children to develop their fine motor skills during their play. During outside play we will focus on accurately kicking a large ball, balancing on one leg and using the outdoor equipment accurately and safely.

Mathematical Development

This term in Maths, the children be continuing to strengthen their understanding of numbers to 5, knowing the composition of each number in depth and its importance. We will continue to work on subitising (being able to recognise several objects without counting) and build upon our knowledge of more and less by exploring one more and one less. We will use our existing knowledge of shape to recognise shapes within our environment. As well as this, we will be focusing on beginning to understand the concept of time as we look at the differences between night and day. The children will compare morning vs evening routines and distinguish between when certain activties take place. We will also use our water and sand area to explore capacity, with a particular focus on full and empty. Mathematical development will be embedded into all the areas of provision through resources and quality adult conversation. We will also be counting daily through song and nursery rhymes.

Understanding of the World

At the beginning of this term, we will notice and explore the outdoors for changes that occur during Spring and develop our understanding of the term season.We will be using our wonderful outside area to explore minibeasts and their habitats and use our chosen texts to learn about a variety of different habitats. We will also be reading the wonderful story ‘Tad’ that will support our learning about the life cycle of a frog.There will be a focus on the process of planting and looking closely at how we then care for our plants and the environment around us. This will lead us nicely into our theme of ‘I wonder what will happen next?’ where we will learn about how to care for our environment and understand more about recycling.

Expressive Arts and Design

This term, our wonderful indoor role play area will be transformed into an exciting home corner that will be regularly enhanced to support and encourage the children’s imagination and language. The children will help to create exciting new role play themes in our outdoor house that link closely to our book themes, such as a bird watching hut or planting shed for Spring. The children will continue to attend singing workshops with Mrs Shakespeare every Wednesday morning. They will learn lots of new songs and actions and play lots of different musical instruments (in response to music). The children will be encouraged to explore musical instruments in the provision to make their own music, create their own songs and to represent parts of stories using the musical instruments such as crashing thunder or tip toeing footsteps.The children will be given lots of opportunities to explore different media through drawing, painting, and creating using a variety of materials. We will be encouraging the children to independently put on their painting aprons too. We will also be encouraging the children to use a spatula and glue or sticky tape to join the junk modelling resources and using our healthy food knowledge and cutting skills to create a healthy fruit salad.

Wow moments

We would love to hear about any significant events your child takes part in at home or when they do something amazing. If you have any pictures of significate events or have amazing moments you would like to share with us, please post these on your child’s 2Evidence me account. Your child will have an opportunity to share their experiences or amazing moments with their friends in class.

General class Reminders

• BOOK BAG and READING BOOK need to be brought into school every day.
• Share a book every day at home with your child to encourage their love for reading.
• Support them in writing their name using the letter formation rhymes (that will be provided).
• Don’t forget to sign up and share photos and WOW moments of your child using your child’s Evidence Me account. 
• Sign up for our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages to be kept up to date with what’s going on!

Twitter - @CastleView_PS   

Facebook – Search Castle View Primary School and join our group.   

Instagram- @castle_viewps

If you have any concerns or issues, please do not hesitate to speak to me or Mrs Richards after school.

Miss Robinson