The "People Who Help Us" topic supported the children’s language and attention skills. We’ve been busy exploring the roles of the people who support us at home, at school, and in the wider community. The children took on the roles of doctors, dentists, vets, policemen, firefighters or builders all engaging in different role play scenarios. But the excitement didn’t stop there! We also took the opportunity to find the "hidden heroes" right here at school. The children loved visiting the kitchen to meet Lisa the school chef; stopping by the reception to see the office staff and say hello to our librarian Ms Fuller. It has been a joy to watch them connect with the people who work behind the scenes to help us learn and grow every single day.

We celebrated World Book Day in style! Families helped the children design and wear t-shirts that represented their favourite books, authors, or characters. Every t-shirt was fantastic, and we struggled to choose a winner because the designs were so creative. Thank you to everyone for making the day so special!

Finally, A huge thank you to all the families who helped create such fantastic carnival costumes! We are getting ready to celebrate International Family Week. The children have been busy exploring different countries, looking at colours in flags, listening to music around the world and saying “hello” in different languages.

The children are beginning to use lovely words like please, thank you, sorry, my turn, your turn, and Can I play with you?… to help them play and talk together. It’s been wonderful watching new friendships grow, with children remembering each other’s names and even taking photos of their new friends. They love showing us their play and proudly sharing what they’ve made.

We’re excited to see how they continue to grow and thrive in Autumn 2

A special part of our topic was sharing baby photos sent in by families. The children were delighted to see how much they’ve grown and loved talking about their own changes. These conversations were full of joy, wonder, and pride.

Each child also planted a bean and took it home to care for, giving them a chance to see something grow with time and love—just like them.

Most wonderfully, we’ve seen the children grow in confidence and communication. They’re finding their voices, making friends, and expressing themselves more clearly every day. We couldn’t be prouder!

Through our stories, the children have been developing their sequencing skills by identifying what happens next and discussing what they can see. They are also learning to recognize characters and settings within the stories. Story time is a much-loved part of our daily routine, and the children particularly enjoy using actions and nursery rhymes that link to the stories.

We also had some special visitors recently—chicks! The children were fascinated to learn all about them and explore the life cycle of a chicken, deepening their understanding through hands-on experiences.

We have introduced the children to our Number of the Week and used nursery rhymes to support their understanding of numbers. The children are beginning to use number names and recite them in order, and it’s been wonderful to see them sharing their learning with parents through their homework.

It has been an exciting term, with each child thriving in their development. We ended the term on a high note with a fun-filled outing to West Ham Park, joined by all our friends from Nursery. It was such a joyful experience for everyone!

The children have learnt about the world around them and a range of jobs in the environment. Who
help us at home? Who helps you at school? Who help us in the community? Children engaged with
others in their play, showing an interest in different occupations and people who help them every
day. They explored doctors, dentists and vets. We read stories about different occupations and
enjoyed acting these out using the resources in Nursery. The children visited new environments
around school learning about people who work there; such as the chef in the kitchen, office staff in
the reception and the librarian in the library.

We celebrated World Book Day; children created their own Story Spuds. They use their imagination
to dress up a potato as their favourite character. Adults really struggled to choose a winner. All
spuds were fantastic!

Children are getting ready to celebrate Curwen International Family Week. Learn about different
countries around the world. Children are able to identify the colours of different flags, beginning to
learn about different habitats across the world. We said hello in different languages and made our
costumes with our families ready for carnival. During P.E , we have been practising our dance moves
ready for our big carnival. A very special applause to all children’s families who support children
helping to create our fantastic carnival costumes!!!

The children have built their curiosity of the world around them, listening and acting out a range of jobs in the environment. They were able to engage with others in their play and showing an interest in different occupations and people who help them every day. They explored different occupations through stories and enjoyed acting these out using the resources in Nursery. The children visited places around the school learning about people who work there. Such as the chef in the kitchen, office staff in the reception and the librarian in the library.

The children have learnt about medical professionals, firefighters, and police officers. They have been identifying objects which different jobs need to help them such us a stethoscope for doctors, a hose for the fire fighter or tools for builders. We have been supporting the children to understand their needs and wants. Recognising when they need the toilet, how to wash their hands, to drink water, have a healthy snack and modelled brushing teeth. They are beginning to be aware of others needs and wants.

Families were invited to visit the Plaistow library, where an engaging interactive story telling session was performed by the staff at the library. We worked with the library to issue the children their library cards so they were able to take a book home and encourage parents to visit again. The children enjoyed walking from Nursery, pointing out where they live and what they could see. It was fantastic to involve the parents and promote the importance of reading with your child.

International Family week was a week to remember, learning all about different countries around the world. The children were able to identify the colours in different flags, beginning to learn about different habitats across the world. We said hello in different languages and made our costumes with our families ready for carnival. The children loved learning the dance moves in PE for their carnival dance and especially getting to make their costume with their parents. The week was finished off with the outstanding carnival, which the children were phenomenal!

Understanding the World

The children are all familiar with the world around them in Nursery. They can now confidently explore the environment and will try new activities. They are able to identify their family and engage with their friends. We have introduced the children different life cycles, animals and their habitats.  We have learnt new vocabulary: explore, animals, dead/alive, habitats, seasons, sea, land, planet earth. We have been answering questions to support their understanding: Where do I go to school? Where do I live? Where do the animals live? Where do you go with your family? What is the weather?

The children and families visited London Aquarium, their travelling by coach and were able to spot lots of different London landmarks. 

We had a visit from Arc Farm. There were lots of animals which we got to observe and touch. There was a friendly dog wondering around the playground. Children are beginning to understand the need to respect and care for the natural environment and all living things.

Children have explored different areas in the school using pictorial maps. They understand that maps hold information. We followed the dots and pictures and discovered the big school and the amazing Curwen red bus. Children were in awe of pretending to drive and sit behind the wheel!

 Nursery Sports Day

Nursery had a fantastic day throwing, catching, jumping, running and balancing in our Sports Day in the big playground. A big thank you to all the families who came to support us and cheer us on!

Maths

Families sent in their bean stalk photos and children loved looking at them, showing how tall they have grown and how they have changed from seed to a big bean stalk; showing curiosity about numbers, developing counting skills to find how many leaves the plants have. Children are beginning to remember and talk about significant events in their own experiences and recognise special times in their lives.

Communication Language and Literacy

We are going on a bear hunt has encourage children to continue talking about feelings. Children are beginning to sequence the main events in a familiar story, looking at the settings and characters.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar story has encouraged children to explore colour and colour mixing in order to paint their own caterpillars, cocoons and butteries. Children have discovered how the caterpillar changed and grew up just like themselves.

We have had a great year in Nursery and very excited about going to Reception or staying another year in Nursery.

Have a fantastic summer break!!

Through our stories the children have been learning to sequence what happens next. They were able to order the characters pulling out the turnip as well as ordering what the caterpillar ate throughout the day. The children enjoyed listening to Jack and the Beanstalk using Now, Press, Play. This supports their understanding of language and being able to follow simple instructions to act out the story.

The children have been learning new nursery rhymes to encourage their number understanding. We have introduced number of the week, learning about a new number each week in different ways. They are beginning to use some number names and recite in order. In their play they can recognise some numerals in the environment. The children are working well as a team to act out the story and count the characters. It has been a very eventful term for the children and they have too been thriving in their own development.

The children continued to be curious of the world around them, engaging with others in their play and showing an interest in different occupations and people who help them every day. They explored different occupations through stories and enjoyed acting these out using the resources in Nursery.

The children have learnt about medical professionals, firefighters, police officers and people who help us in the community.  They have been identifying objects which different jobs need to help them such us a stethoscope for doctors, a hose for the fire fighter or tools for builders. It is important we help the children understand how to look after themselves and others, whilst acting out being a doctor or practicing to brush the teeth. They are beginning to be aware of others needs and wants.

Families were invited to visit the Plaistow library, we worked with the library to issue children their library cards so they were able to take a book home and encourage parents to visit again. The children enjoyed walking from Nursery altogether, pointing out where they live and what they could see. Whilst at the library they listened to a story and joined in with songs. It was great to access the local community together as a team.

We had a fantastic time during International Family week, learning all about different countries around the world. The children were able to identify the colours in different flags, beginning to learn about different habitats across the world. We even said hello in different languages and made our costumes with our families ready for carnival. The children have loved learning the dance moves for their carnival dance and especially getting to design their costume with their parents.

It has been a fun filled term for the Nursery children and we cannot wait to see what the summer term will bring.

The Spring 1 term has flown by with lots of new stories for the children to listen to and learn. This term our theme is “Stories for us.” We have been exploring our reading area and have enjoyed visiting Curwen library. Next term we will be visiting Plaistow Library with our parents.  The children have discovered new stories and rhymes; they have been identifying the pictures and the writing in a range of reading materials.  We have been introducing and modelling new vocabulary for the children and transferring this into their play when acting out the stories or visiting our Gingerbread café outside.

The children have enjoyed sharing their favourite story book during Show and Tell and have learnt new words and phrases, such as front cover, back cover, pages, author and title. Children have been very busy using their imagination and role-playing pretending to be their favourite characters particularly the Big Bad Wolf. The children have work individually and together to build houses and settings for the characters using different media and materials.

Nursery showed our Parents/Carers all that we had learned about Guru Nanak and the Sikh religion. Our parents were asked to come and watch a small assembly where we discussed Guru Nanak, The 5 K's and also learnt about our different teachers religions. Most importantly we learnt to respect others.

After a mixture of maths, singing and showing our understanding of the world. Our parents could stay and play with us, here we had fun making birthday cakes with shaving foam, we created candles out of play dough, we coloured various pictures of places of worship. Our Parents could stay and join in and share with the fun, learning experience we have at Nursery.

Parent feedback from the assembly:

“So impressed with the Guru Nanak class assembly. The children did an amazing job, as did the teachers!”

“It was a very nice show. The teachers worked really hard! Well done.”

“Excellent-very informative. Well teachers and kids.”

“Good to see that children learn very well and you guys are very cooperative and helpful.”