Communication and Language
EYFS Statutory Educational Programme:
The development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development.
Children’s back-and-forth interactions from an early age form the foundations for language and cognitive development.
The number and quality of the conversations they have with adults and peers throughout the day in a language-rich environment is crucial.
By commenting on what children are interested in or doing, and echoing back what they say with new vocabulary added, practitioners will build children’s language effectively.
Personal Social and Emotional Development
EYFS Statutory Educational Programme:
Children’s personal, social and emotional development (PSED) is crucial for children to lead healthy and happy lives, and is fundamental to their cognitive development.
Underpinning their personal development are the important attachments that shape their social world.
Strong, warm and supportive relationships with adults enable children to learn how to understand their own feelings and those of others.
Physical Development
EYFS Statutory Educational Programme:
Physical activity is vital in children’s all-round development, enabling them to pursue happy, healthy and active lives.
Gross and fine motor experiences develop incrementally throughout early childhood, starting with sensory explorations and the development of a child’s strength, co-ordination and positional awareness through tummy time, crawling and play movement with both objects and adults.
Literacy
Children in 0-3 stages access a Literacy rich curriculum which enables them to:-
Enjoy songs and rhymes, tuning in and paying attention.
Join in with songs and rhymes, copying sounds, rhythms, tunes and tempo.
Say some of the words in songs and rhymes.
Copy finger movements and other gestures.
Sing songs and say rhymes independently, for example, singing whilst playing.
Enjoy sharing books with an adult.
Pay attention and respond to the pictures or the words.
Have favourite books and seek them out, to share with an adult, with another child, or to look at alone.
Repeat words and phrases from familiar stories.
Ask questions about the book.
Make comments and shares their own ideas.
Develop play around favourite stories using props.
Enjoy drawing freely.
Add some marks to their drawings, which they give meaning to. For example: “That says mummy.”
Make marks on their picture to stand for their name.
Mathematics
In the 0-3 stages children access a Mathematics rich curriculum which enables them to:-
Combine objects like stacking blocks and cups.
Put objects inside others and take them out again.
Take part in finger rhymes with numbers.
React to changes of amount in a group of up to three items.
Compare amounts, saying ‘lots’, ‘more’ or ‘same’.
Develop counting-like behaviour, such as making sounds, pointing or saying some numbers in sequence.
Count in everyday contexts, sometimes skipping numbers – ‘1-2-3-5’.
Climb and squeeze themselves into different types of spaces.
Build with a range of resources.
Complete inset puzzles.
Compare sizes, weights etc. using gesture and language - ‘bigger/little/smaller’, ‘high/low’, ‘tall’, ‘heavy’.
Notice patterns and arrange things in patterns.
Understanding the World
In the 0-3 stage children in our nursery enjoy a wide range of sensory and play based activities which enable them to explore the environment and features around them, to make sense of what they see and to link this to what they already know they may:-
Repeat actions that have an effect.
Explore materials with different properties.
Explore natural materials, indoors and outside.
Explore and respond to different natural phenomena in their setting and on trips.
Make connections between the features of their family and other families.
Creative and Expressive Arts and Design
Children in 0-3 stages in our nursery explore their own ideas, choices and decisions through accessing varied and stimulating materials and resources.
They learn to create for themselves and may:-
Show attention to sounds and music.
Respond emotionally and physically to music when it changes.
Move and dance to music.
Anticipate phrases and actions in rhymes and songs, like ‘Peepo’.
Explore their voices and enjoy making sounds.
Join in with songs and rhymes, making some sounds.
Make rhythmical and repetitive sounds.
Explore a range of soundmakers and instruments and play them in different ways.
Notice patterns with strong contrasts and be attracted by patterns resembling the human face.
Start to make marks intentionally.
Explore paint, using fingers and other parts of their bodies as well as brushes and other tools.
Express ideas and feelings through making marks, and sometimes give a meaning to the marks they make.
Enjoy and take part in action songs, such as ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’.
Start to develop pretend play, pretending that one object represents another. For example, a child holds a wooden block to her ear and pretends it’s a phone.
Explore different materials, using all their senses to investigate them.
Manipulate and play with different materials.
Use their imagination as they consider what they can do with different materials.
Make simple models which express their ideas.
