Spring 2025

Topic

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Topic in EYFS covers a range of subjects – writing, history, geography, music, science, art, and computing. Our topics are half termly and allow for lots of investigation. As well as the focuses listed below, we take our learning in any direction that the children are passionate about. During the spring term, we will spend one half of the term following the theme of ‘I wonder where they go’ with focuses on things with wheels, things that fly, things that float, and journeys. In computing, we will be using sound boards showing listening and digital experimenting skills. The other half of the term will focus on ‘I wonder if it ever happened’ where we will explore size, strength, fairness and teamwork through traditional tales. We enjoy lots of books during our time at school, but our key texts during the first half term are Naughty Bus, Cycle City, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Duck in a Truck and Handa’s Surprise. After the half term break, we will be readings Goldilocks and The Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Hen and The Enormous Turnip.

Maths

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Throughout the term, we will be completing maths activities linked to our topics. During ‘I wonder where they go’, our planned activities include using 2d shapes to create images of vehicles, parking our bikes and scooters in bays with matching numbers, sequencing key events in order, and sorting vehicles in different ways. During ‘I wonder if it ever happened’, our planned activities include using positional language when going on a vegetable hunt, exploring groups of three when retelling The Three Little Pigs, using sequencing words, and using size vocabulary to compare. In addition, we will be developing some core early mathematics skills. These include considering exploring position, direction and space, investigating the numbers one, two and three, matching and subitising.

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The key learning delivered through these are:

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• ​Using language to describe position e.g. in, out, under, over and behind.

• Using language to describe and compare e.g. sharp, pointy, round, curvy, flat.

• Moving to show counting steps.

• Counting objects within rhymes.

• Labelling amounts as 1, 2 and 3.

• Subitising 1, 2 and 3 using dots in different arrangements.

Literacy

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In Nursery, we have opportunities for development in Literacy in all areas of our learning. We have regular opportunities to explore sounds linked to reading as well as opportunities for writing, mark making, expanding our vocabulary, speaking and listening, and reading through continuous provision and reading escape time to share our love of high-quality stories. Some of the first half term’s literacy activities are linked to our topic. These include using pens attached to vehicles to write and mark make, drawing our own roads and tracks for vehicles to follow, writing speeding, bus and travel tickets, and showing pre-writing skills in sensory trays. During the second half of the spring term, we will have opportunities such as writing in a range of materials (e.g. soil or beans), exploring syllables and rhyming words, creating story maps to sequence key events, creating a name wall, and demonstrating how we take care of books.

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This term we will be focusing on:

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• Joining in with predictable noises when listening to a story.

• Turning the pages of a book accurately, showing care.

• Clapping and counting the syllables in words.

• Using mark making in a range of situations, expressing ideas.

• Developing towards a tripod pencil grip.

• Blending sounds to form words when an adult uses Fred talk.

• Using more complex sentences to explain what I have done.

• Writing the first letter of my name.

Physical Development

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​In Nursery, we have access to lots of opportunities for physical development. We have our garden with a range of physical development resources, weekly physical education lessons, and an intervention programme called ‘Healthy Movers’ which is accessible to all children who choose to participate. This term, our first physical education unit is dance which encompasses key skills such as dynamics, negotiating space, working safely, showing respect and independence, creative thinking, and providing feedback. Our second unit of learning is gymnastics which involves physical skills such as making shapes, balancing, jumping, rocking, rolling and travelling. It also involves turn taking, collaboration, as well as showing determination and confidence.  

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 Our key focuses for this term are:

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• ​I can balance to travel along apparatus.

• I can hop.

• I can follow an adult to perform simple dance moves.

• I show increased confidence when choosing my own resources.

• I show increased independence with putting on a coat, using the toilet, washing hands, and at snack time.

• I am becoming more accurate when using tools e.g., brushes, spreaders and scissors.

• I can match my developing physical skills to tasks in the setting e.g. choosing whether to crawl, run or walk across an obstacle.

Communication and Language

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Whilst we do not complete specific lessons based on this, communication and language filters into all aspects of life in Nursery. During their time in Nursery, children will be working towards developing an age-appropriate level of:

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• Showing an enjoyment of listening and remembering much of what happens when sharing stories with adults.

• Being able to switch attention when required e.g. from playing with a jigsaw to an instruction to pause.

• Showing an increasing use of vocabulary.

• Understanding and following a two-part instruction.

• Understanding why questions.

• Recalling and singing a range of songs and rhymes.

• Using full sentences, starting conversations, taking turns when talking, and using speech to organise play.

• Expressing thoughts and feelings using words and actions.

​Some of our planned communication and language enhancements for our ‘I wonder where they go’ topic include acting out stories linked to vehicles and different environments, playing memory games, listening to a range of vehicle sounds to recognise, imitate and compare, and consider our own favourite vehicles as well as any that we would like to go on. As well as these, during our ‘I wonder if it ever happened’ topic, children will have access to activities such as thinking of words to describe characters from stories, role playing growing and harvesting outside, and using positional language when retelling traditional tales.

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Personal, Social and Emotional Development

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​Personal, social and emotional development is another strand of learning which filters into all aspects of life in Nursery. During their time in Nursery, children will be working towards developing an age-appropriate level of:

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• Having a level of independence when washing hands and using the toilet.

• Having a sense of responsibility, understanding, remembering and following rules.

• Talking about their own feelings.

• Making healthy choices.

• Showing increasing confidence with safe, unfamiliar adults, playing with multiple children, and solving conflicts.

• Beginning to understand how other people might feel.

• Showing some ability to share and take turns.

• Developing appropriate ways of being assertive.

​During the first half of the spring term, we will be developing team work to create large tracks and roads, discussing the journeys we have been on with our families, revising road safety through singing and play, and considering the different places that vehicles can go and how going there might make us feel. During the second half of the spring term, planned activities include exploring the emotions of different characters, considering teamwork in The Enormous Turnip and taking on teamwork challenges themselves, as well as receiving a letter from the red hen to explain that they are sad – can the children find ways to help?

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Understanding the World

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​Understanding the World is the third strand of learning which filters into all aspects of life in Nursery. During their time in Nursery, children will be working towards developing an age-appropriate level of:

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• Exploring natural materials, discussing what is found.

• Beginning to understand their own life story.

• Understanding different occupations.

• Understanding the growth and care of plants.

• Exploring and talking about the forces they can feel.

• Talking about how materials are different including the changes that are observed.

• Knowing that there are different countries in the world, discussing their differences.

Throughout our ‘I wonder where they go’ topic, we have planned activities such as comparing vehicles from the past to those of today, looking at vehicles from around the world, creating our own small worlds consisting of a range of vehicles, and matching drivers to their vehicles and considering the purpose of each. During our ‘I wonder if it ever happened’ topic, we will be thinking about job roles linked to traditional tales, exploring life cycles, considering where vegetables come from, and investigating materials using magnifying glasses.

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Expressive Art and Design

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Expressive Art and Design is the final strand of learning that filters into all aspects of life in Nursery. During their time in Nursery, children will be working towards developing an age-appropriate level of:

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• Taking part in simple pretend play, developing more complex stories using small world objects.

• Exploring different manipulatives and resources, developing ideas about how to use them.

• Joining different materials.

• When creating artwork, creating shapes using continuous lines, adding increasing details to images, using drawing to represent ideas, and show emotions in artwork.

• Exploring what happens when mixing colours.

• Remembering and singing whole songs, matching the pitch and melody of a song, and creating their own songs.

• Playing instruments with increasing control.  

During the first half of the spring term, we will be exploring the colours of traffic lights, using resources to build large scale places such as airports or train stations, linking instruments to the sounds of vehicles, and considering the different materials and textures of the features of vehicles. During the second half of the spring term, planned activities will include exploring colour mixing using a range of resources e.g. soil, paint and water, making puppets, using large scale movements to create a mural, and junk modelling.

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