Nursery
Spring term curriculum
WINTER TOPIC
Creative development
- Snowman paintings
- Dough snowmen
- Winter collage
- Making snowflakes
- Thumb and finger prints to make robins
- Making Chinese dragons
- Making sock puppets
- Wax resist paintings
- Creating our own clothes designs
- Acting out songs and rhymes
- Singing and playing musical instruments
Knowledge and understanding of the world
- Making/melting ice and exploring it.
- Investigating winter weather
- Using magnifying glasses
- Play with natural materials
- Making winter food eg soup, hot chocolate, porridge
- Investigating what materials make good winter clothes.
- Learn about the country China
- Play winter games on the computer.
- Watch Espresso videos on weather, food, Chinese New Year.
- Make bird feeders
Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy.
- Pattern matching games
- Sorting winter clothes/foods/animals
- Making pairs- gloves/socks etc
- Using shapes to make pictures eg circle snowmen.
- Measuring out cooking materials
- Making a bar chart
- Counting how many children in each day
- Counting clothes/animals/food
- Learning about addition and subtraction through songs and rhymes eg Five Little Snowmen.
Physical development
- Cutting to make snowflakes
- Modelling with play dough
- Using tools to draw, write, create
- Dragon dancing
- Riding bikes/physical exercise to keep warm
- Threading beads
- Constructing
Personal, social and emotional development
- Looking after ourselves
- Keeping warm-What clothes should we wear?
- Discussing likes and dislikes
- Taking turns
- Being kind
- Exploring different beliefs and cultures/ Chinese New Year
Communication, language and literacy
- Writing Thank-you letters to father Christmas
- Discussing weather
- Writing descriptive words on snowflakes
- Mark making in white paint
- Listening to stories
- Reading non-fiction books about weather/food/clothes
- Playing feely box game with foods
- Learn songs and rhymes
- Writing patterns
GROWTH AND LIFE CYCLES
Creative development
- Making and drawing different animals and minibeasts.
- Observational drawings of insects and animals.
- Painting animals/mini beasts
- Masking to create bean stalks
- Collage to create animal pictures
- Junk modelling to create animals.
- Snail trail pictures.
- Role- play garden centre.
- Songs and rhymes
- Frog puppets
- Clay animal models.
- Modelling with dough
Knowledge and understanding of the world
- Life cycles of frogs, hens & caterpillars
- Exploring the differences between animals, birds, amphibians & insects.
- Learning about different habitats.
- Finding out the names of different animals and their young.
- Discussing our pets.
- Going on a minibeast hunt.
- Learning about plants and what they need to grow.
- Using magnifiers to observe insects/nests etc
Mathematical Development
- Measuring ourselves and animals.
- Collecting data about different animals.
- Representing the data in different ways.
- Sorting different animals.
- Using money in the “Garden centre”
- Addition and subtraction through rhymes.
- Sequencing and ordering life cycle pictures/ visual aids.
- Weighing insects/ animals
- Comparing size/shape
- Exploring volume and capacity.
Physical Development
- Moving like different animals and insects.
- Discussing how we change, grow eat and move.
- Tactile activities: tapioca exploration, insects in soil, cooked spaghetti exploration.
- Cutting animal pictures from magazines.
Personal, social and emotional development
- Learning about the importance of caring for the environment and protecting animals.
- Caring for our pets and animals in the garden.
- Growing and nurturing plants and seeds
- Being responsible
Communication, language and literacy
- Describing the appearance of different animals.
- Discussing likes and dislikes of different animals.
- Drawing and talking about different animals.
- Jack and the beanstalk.
- Role- play area as garden centre.
- Writing shopping lists
- Making own booklets.
- Books: Ten Little Ladybirds; Twn Wriggly Caterpillars; The Very Hungry Caterpillar; Jasper’s Beanstalk; In Wibbly’s Garden; The Very Lazy Ladybird; Handa’s Surprise; The Duck’s Tale; Lifecycles, Growth, Insects.
