Welcome to 2 Year Nursery
Our 2 Year Nursery pupils enjoy learning more about the world around them. The 2 Year Nursery curriculum covers a range of topics including Autumn and Wild Animals, Celebrations, Winter, Positional Language, Spring and Animals, Summer and Colour. Our learning is driven by a range of high-quality texts, such as Dear Zoo and Where’s Spot? by key children’s authors such as Rod Campbell and Eric Hill. Learning is reflected through a well-planned purposeful environment, that provides enriching learning opportunities for children to embed the skills they have been taught.
Main Text
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
Topic: Autumn
During the settling period in 2 Year Nursery, we immerse children into the text ‘Dear Zoo’ , by Rod Campbell, where we introduce wild animals. We have a collection of Usborne books that encourage early language development for children to explore which focus on different wild animals, as well as an engaging environment where children can take part in role play, music and songs, creative and small world to embed their learning.
Children will be introduced to the school woodlands once they are settled into nursery. They will have a weekly woodland visit where they get to explore the natural environment around them.
Main Text
My Presents by Rod Campbell
Topic: Celebrations
In the Celebrations topic we focus on the main texts ‘My Presents’ and ‘Dear Santa’. We focus on the celebration of a birthday before moving onto other celebrations such as Bonfire night, Hanukkah and Christmas. We teach these celebrations through play, music, and song, sharing different foods and creating artwork to represent these celebrations.
During the weekly Woodland visits, we will be looking at seasonal changes, exploring and searching for signs of Autumn.
Main Text
The Snowy Day by Pip and Posy by Camilla Reid
Topic: Winter
Throughout the Winter topic we focus on the changes in the weather and appropriate clothing and footwear that is needed to keep us warm. Our main text is The Snowy Day from the Pip and Posy Collection. We look at these familiar characters to explore the change in
weather, look and talk about the clothes they are wearing and how they may feel when they get cold. We have access to big hats, scarves, gloves, boots to encourage roleplaying and embedding what we know about the cold weather. We prepare and cook warm food such as vegetable soup, rice and pasta and share these during snack time.
When we visit the woodlands, we look at environment and how it has changed over Autumn to Winter. We talk about the trees having no leaves, remembering past woodland walks in Autumn when leaves fell from the trees, looking for woodland animals and talking about hibernation at this time of the year.
Main Text
Where’s Spot by Eric Hill
Topic: Positional Language
In our positional language topic, we focus on the text ‘Where’s Spot?’. We encourage positional language such as behind, inside and under through engaging activities such as hide and seek and find the object. To embed language and understanding further we encourage children to take part in physical activities in the outdoor area or during hall time where children can access indoor and outdoor climbing and balancing equipment.
On our weekly woodland walk we begin to looking for early signs of spring. We look for snowdrops, daffodils, bluebells, and buds beginning to grow.
Main Text
Oh Dear! by Rod Campbell
Topic: Spring and Animals
This half term we learn about farm animals and growth. We focus on the story ‘Oh Dear’ by the famous children’s author Rod Campbell. We learn different animal names and where different animals live on the farm. We learn how to sing and sign ‘Old Mac Donald had a farm’. We also explore growth and plant sunflower seeds. We water them daily and talk about the changes we can see happening in front of us.
On our weekly walks we will look for more signs of spring, more leaves on trees, birds and nests, more flowers and plants growing around the woodlands.
Main Text
Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood
Topic: Summer and Colour
In our final half term of the year, we focus on the season of Summer and all the colours that brings with it. Our main story is ‘Wow! Said the Owl’, through this text we learn different names of colours and what natural colours we can find in the environment around us. We
deepen our understanding of colour by sharing other books such as ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear’, ‘Stripy horse: just for you’. For some children it will be time to transition into 3 Year Nursery. All parents will be invited into school for a stay and celebrate session where they can engage in activities with their child in nursery.
During the final half term woodland walks children will be encouraged to look and talk about the colours they can see in the woodland around them.