In the Foundation Stage at Mulgrave School we aim to provide our children with the best start in life. Working alongside other agencies, we support children by engaging with their parents, carers, extended family and the wider community. Through play, in a safe, caring environment, all our children are encouraged to become creative, confident, independent, lifelong learners.
In the Nursery and Reception classes we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum (EYFS), which is especially suited to the needs of young children. There are seven areas of learning and development, which are all inter-connected. The following three prime areas are particularly important for children’s capacity to learn and helping them build good relationships with others.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Communication and Laguage
Understanding the World
Expressive Arts and Design
Summer Term 2
Our topic this term is ‘On the Farm.’ We will learn about livestock and vegetables farming. We will also be discussing some of the environmental issues related to farming and thinking about how we can help reduce such problems during Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics week.
In understanding the world, we will be investigating what living things need to grow. We will also continue to take care of our vegetables garden.
In mathematics we will be consolidation our knowledge of numbers throughout the provision. For example, in the farmer’s market set up, we will be counting, matching vegetables to quantity and comparing quantities.
In literacy, we will be reading Oliver’s vegetable, Rosie’s walk and Farmer duck. In writing we will continue to develop our mark making and writing skills.
In practical activities, children will develop their turn taking skills as they engage in small group activities.
In communication and language, children will develop their listening and attention skills through listening to stories, talking about the characters and sequencing the events in a story.
Our topic this half term continues being ‘A term amongst the animals’ and we will be learning about new habitats and what animals live in each of them (ocean, farm and jungle). Children will extend their vocabulary further by using descriptive language when depicting animals and finding out facts about their lives. They will also continue developing their writing skills by building up sentences which will contain connectors as they are describing their favourite animal.
We will carry out interesting activities to develop skills in predicting, discussing and asking questions about our learning.
We will be reading a wide range of new stories, basing our work around the texts, characters and settings, such as Monkey Puzzle, Superworm and various non-fiction texts.
Reception children will continue developing their mathematical skills through group sessions and focus group work. They will enjoy a range of stimulating and practical activities that will allow them to reinforce their knowledge in counting, calculation and shape, space and measure. Children will be developing their skills in halving and doubling numbers by explaining the processes they need to go through. They will also learn about comparing, measuring and ordering different objects by length and weight, as well as solving problems involving two single digit numbers.
The children will spend time exploring their environment by using their senses to investigate the world around them.
Moreover, our learning will be supported by visits, visitors and trips out such as Forest School and the London Zoo.