Duckling - Nursery
Hello, I'm Miss Eastwood. I teach our Nursery class and I am also the Early Years Team Leader.
I am a qualified teacher with experience in Key Stage 1 and Early Years. I am passionate about learning through play and love creating an inspiring environment that children love to explore. You can often find me recycling and upcycling to create interesting ‘treasures’ for our classroom.
When I am not at school, I am a busy mum of two who enjoys family days out, beach combing, and walking through our spectacular local woods. I am particularly excited to notice seasonal changes with your children and explore why this might happen through stories and play, ultimately allowing the children to follow their interests.
A day in Ducklings might include:
Bucket time: Stage 1 engages children's attention with a high-energy, exciting activity in which the teacher pulls objects from a bucket. Stage 2 elongates children's attention to a different adult-led activity. Stage 3 develops turn-taking skills and re-engages them by allowing some children to participate in an enjoyable activity.
Sensology: Learning through all our senses; children will taste, smell, hear, see and touch their learning. For example, in week 1, term 1, we are learning about colours, specifically red. We taste strawberries, smell a red flower, hear red beads dropped on a drum, and see a red lava lamp.
Dough Disco: Building our finger muscles to music using play-dough. This is an upbeat session where children enjoy developing their fine motor skills.
Calm Time: Usually, after lunch, children lie down, listen to quiet music, and watch real bubbles float all around them. We discuss how to relax each part of their body and listen carefully to different parts of the music.
Music: Nursery rhyme time! We are learning traditional songs and actions. We will enjoy a variety of genres and live and recorded music, and explore a range of instruments while learning to maintain a beat.
Discovery Time: A time for children to direct their learning, enabling them to enact and cement their newly learnt knowledge, develop social skills, acquire new knowledge from others and develop their creativity and confidence.
Story Time: This might be a well-known book with practised actions, a story bag with objects to enhance the storytelling or a book selected by the children.
Squiggle Whilst you Wiggle: It's as good as it sounds! We develop our fine motor skills by incorporating dance, music and large movements to help children develop the fine motor control they need for writing. They will learn a new gross motor movement to a piece of music while holding 'flappers' (bits of fabric). The children then transfer these movements to floor level and swap their flippers for writing tools (crayons/pens, etc) to make marks. This could be in foam, on paper, in sand, etc.
Maths: We explore colours, numbers, patterns, and shapes, using songs and everyday objects to bring the concepts to life! Along with the rest of the school, we follow the 'Master the Curriculum,' which allows for a consistent approach.
Phonics: Beginning the year with Phase 1, including distinguishing between everyday sounds, then continuing with Phase 2 in terms 5 and 6, including recognising the graphemes and producing the phonemes.
Supervised Toothbrushing: Following advice from Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, funded by Kent County Council, we participate in supervised toothbrushing.
Forest School: Using our school field, it's a time for children to develop newly acquired skills and knowledge learnt in the classroom in a 'new' environment. It supports play, exploration and risk-taking. It develops confidence and self-esteem through learner-inspired, hands-on experiences in a natural setting.
Little Link: Little Link is a 12-week programme, designed by speech and language therapists, to help us boost the language skills of your 3–5-year-olds. Little Link is based on 6 stories about Ben and Teddy. Your children will be enjoying play-based activities linked to these stories as part of their day.
Here is a link on how to support your child at home:
https://family.speechandlanguage.support/nursery
Timings of the day:
Group 1
Monday - 8:30 - 15:00
Tuesday - 8:30 - 15:00
Wednesday - 8:30 - 11.30
Group 2
Wednesday - 12:00 - 15:00
Thursday - 8:30 - 15:00
Friday - 8:30 - 15:00
Things to remember for your child to have at the nursery every day:
- Baby wipes
- Nappies
- Nappy rash cream
- A shoebox with special items that can be kept at the nursery
- Change of clothing
- Coat
- Lunch box (if not paying for school lunch)
- Water bottle
Note: Please label all the children's belongings clearly with their names.
Term 5 – Little Explorers
We are excited to welcome you back for another busy and exciting term! This term, our theme is Little Explorers, where children will investigate the world around them through play, discovery, and hands-on experiences. We will explore maps, journeys, growing and life cycles, while encouraging curiosity and independence.
Literacy
Our focus texts are:
- Shapes in Nature by Philip Giordano
- Counting in Green – 10 Little Ways to Help Our Big Planet by Kimble W. Kurman
Children will:
- Retell familiar stories and talk about key events
- Explore early phonics sounds (m, a, s, d, t, i, n, p, g, o)
- Begin mark-making for a purpose (e.g. treasure maps, lists, and labels)
- Practise name writing and develop pencil control
We will also enjoy a range of nursery rhymes and songs such as Row, Row, Row Your Boat and Hey Diddle Diddle.
Maths
We will:
- Count confidently and recognise numbers beyond 5
- Subitise (recognise small groups without counting) up to 3
- Compare groups using language such as “more than” and “fewer than”
- Explore 2D and 3D shapes through practical activities
- Learn positional language (e.g. under, behind, next to)
Activities will include shape treasure hunts and sorting objects into groups.
Understanding the World
We will:
- Explore our environment using our senses
- Learn about maps, journeys, and where we live
- Create and follow simple treasure maps
- Talk about our local area, including homes, parks, and routes
- Learn about people who help us in school
We will also begin to use simple technology such as cameras and programmable toys.
Physical Development
Children will:
- Develop coordination, balance, and movement skills
- Practise travelling in different ways (running, crawling, balancing)
- Build fine motor strength through activities like Dough Disco and mark-making
- Practise independence skills such as putting on shoes
We will also learn about healthy lifestyles, including the importance of sleep and bedtime routines.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
We will:
- Build positive relationships and learn to play cooperatively
- Take on small responsibilities (e.g. tidy-up helper, lunch monitor)
- Develop confidence in communicating with others
- Begin to solve problems and manage feelings with support
- Learn about keeping healthy and looking after ourselves
Expressive Arts and Design
Children will:
- Explore drawing, painting, and model-making
- Experiment with sounds, music, and rhythm
- Use materials creatively to express ideas
- Take part in singing and action songs daily
Additional Experiences
- Daily conversations during snack time to develop language skills
- Exploration of music and cultures from around the world
- Opportunities to role-play, build, and create through continuous provision
As always, learning will follow the children’s interests and may adapt throughout the term.
Learning through pictures, so far:
