Pandas - Nursery | John T Rice Infant and Nursery School

Pandas - Nursery

Our class teachers

Our lovely nursery

Welcome to Panda class! We have two groups of children in Panda class, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and some children who stay all day.

In Panda class we learn through play, both indoors in our lovely Nursery, and outside in our amazing outdoor environment. As we play we make new friends, learn to take turns and share, listen to instructions, talk about our experiences, explore new things, have a go at new challenges, and most of all, we have fun!

In our Nursery we are exploring the Curiosity Approach to learning, which aims to bring curiosity, awe and wonder into the early years curriculum. In a world of technological equipment and plastic toys, we are introducing the children to 'real' and natural objects, which engages the children's interest and creativity.

This term our theme is 'Celebrations'

In Panda class we focus on 10 special books throughout the year. They are called our Key Texts. The children will listen to these stories being read to them at story time this term.

The special stories we will focus on this term are 'The Gingerbread Man’, 'Stickman' and 'The First Christmas'.

We enjoy singing Nursery Rhymes, with lots of fun signs and actions. These form part of our phonics teaching and are brilliant at helping children to look and listen, developing their speech and language, and preparing them for reading.

Supersonic Phonics groups begin this term, and the children will be involved in listening to and making many different sounds.

We introduce the children to 'Squiggle while you Wiggle', where children move to music, learning movements which will help them develop their writing skills.

There are always have lots of opportunities for children to look at books and to have a go at mark-making throughout the Nursery session.

Maths is part of our daily routine in Panda class. We use every opportunity to count and look for familiar numbers. We always count the number of children and look at the number on the calendar and we have lots of interactive counting songs to join in with. This term we will focus on a number each week so that the children gain a good understanding and knowledge of each number. We will be counting, recognising, forming and beginning to order these numbers.

There are lots of different maths resources for the children to explore in our maths area and begin to use their developing mathematical knowledge.

Understanding the World

As a part of the Curiosity Approach, the children will have the opportunity to explore 'real' objects and natural materials. These may be in the form of Treasure Baskets or Loose Parts. The children may choose to build or create pictures with the materials; they may make small worlds for dolls and play people. The opportunities are endless.

The children will learn about how people celebrate Divali and Christmas, and talk about times that are special to them e.g. birthdays. As the season changes, the children will begin to learn about winter.

Expressive Arts & Design

In our creative area there are lots of resources available to the children to explore painting, drawing, collaging, fixing and joining materials.

In our malleable area, the children have the opportunity to handle and explore playdough, using their hands and different tools to mould and shape the dough.

There are also musical instruments in the investigation area, which the children play as they sing familiar songs.

In the home corner and small world and construction area the children use their imagination and make up stories as they play together.

This term the children will be exploring paint, using different techniques to make firework pictures and Rangoli patterns.

They will also learn about fixing and joining materials as they have a go building a bridge for the Gingerbread man and making their own Stickman.

The 'Jigsaw' theme (our focus for Personal, Social and Emotional development) is ‘Celebrating difference’, and we will talk about what we are good at, our families, our houses and homes, and our friends.