Topic Summary
‘Start With A Story’ is our very first topic in school! This is the start of an exciting reading journey through Regent Farm. We begin with Traditional tales providing the children with motivating, hands-on experiences. The children are immersed in an imaginary world through role play, and interaction with themed resources. We build on initial story-telling techniques such as: verbalising and making story-maps to show our understanding. We also take time to settle the children into their new routine and help them familiarise with their new surroundings.
In this topic we will be thinking about the following big questions:
- Was Goldilocks right to go into the three bear’s house?
- Why did Red Riding Hood go off the path?
- How did the three pigs feel at the beginning of the story and the end of the story?
- Who could Red Riding Hood have asked for help?
Key Vocabulary
- Once Upon a Time
- Wolf
- Goose
- Golden
- Beanstalk
- End
- Beginning
Week 1
We begin our learning journey together with a very special week where we welcome our new families into the Nursery. This week we will focus on getting the children used to their new surroundings by showing them where everything is. We will make new friends by playing in the provision together and talk about the things we like. We will share a story at the end of each session and practise finding our name cards too.
Week 2
Get ready to ‘run, run as fast as you can…’ This is our first week focusing on traditional tales! All of our provision will be linked to the story of the gingerbread man; and the Nursery will be filled with the delicious scent of ginger. We will spend lots of time playing together and getting to know each other a little better. We will encourage the children to learn key parts of the story through lots of talking and introduce them to key characters from the story.
Week 3
This week is often a favourite with the children as we find out all about a very cheeky wolf and his habit for dressing up! We make dens, and traps to try and trick the wolf and have lots of fun howling at the moon! Red is the theme for our activities and colour sorting too. We will make pictures using different shades of red, act out the story using costumes and the tree house will be transformed into grandma’s house too.
Week 4
The story of The Three Little Pigs helps us to explore construction and gets our brains fired up for exploring materials and investigating their properties. Did I mention Mr Wolf is back too? The children will discover letters from our new friend Mr Wolf and we will problem solve ways of helping him to be kind. The children will learn about forgiveness and how to build friendships as well as houses.
Week 5
The story of Jack and the Beanstalk is filled with magic and adventure! This week we will hunt for magic beans hidden in the garden, we will learn how to plant them and be amazed when a giant beanstalk grows inside our very own nursery! I wonder if it will be as tall as us? We will explore measurement using cubes and height charts comparing ourselves to the beanstalk. We will also learn all about where our milk comes from and even have a go at milking daisy the cow!
Week 6
Goldilocks is a little girl who is all about trying new things and this week we will do the same. We will make porridge for breakfast and heat on our very own fire-pit in the forest. We will try different toppings on our porridge and decide which one we like the best. We will encourage lots of language around big, medium and small by using the blocks and construction to build the perfect sized beds for the teddy bears!
Week 7
This week we will have a focus on the number 3! We will hunt for threes all over nursery and outside too! We will discover what trolls like to eat and make some yummy treats for the troll to eat so that he doesn’t gobble up the goats. Trolls love slime and this week our provision will provide lots of sensory play in all things gooey! We will also build experiment with building bridges to help them get to safety.
Week 8
We finish our first half term with a spooky story about Hansel and Gretel. Our tree house will become a witch’s house all decorated with sweets! We will experiment with potion making by mixing, stirring, and combing different liquids. We will make up our own spells to cast in a special, spell writing book. We will celebrate all things Halloween to this week, with a spooky disco to celebrate.
The following section gives you some more details about the different areas of learning your child will cover this half term. These show you what we are working towards your child being able to do, with confidence.
If you would like to know anything else about the nursery curriculum this half term please speak to a member of staff.