The Nursery Day
Our aim is to make every day a unique and enriching experience. Although no two days are ever exactly the same, we do follow a similar routine, because it helps the children to develop a sense of belonging and self-confidence.
08:40am Before and after school club finishes. Nursery children help us to get the nursery ready for their friends.
9:00am Nursery opens - children come in, put their things on their pegs and come into the nursery room. The children self register and choose their lunches.
*Through out the day children are reminded to go to the toilet and drink water - particularly around transition times such as leaving the carpet, going to lunch, playing outside etc.
The children can 'choose’ in the areas of provision and explore some enhancements to the environment when they first come into nursery, whilst everyone arrives.
09:30am We then have a mini carpet time. We sing our morning song to welcome everyone to the nursery that day and will complete a game or story linked to building skills in communication & language or personal, social & emotional development. We also put our visual timetable cards on the wall, so each child know the activities and routine for the day until lunchtime (at lunchtime we repeat this for the afternoon).
We then go back into the areas of provision and have snack. This is also when any adult led activities start such as cooking, craft, games, reading etc.
10:00am Once snack is finished the children are offered free flow play. This means children can choose whether to play in outdoor provision or inside.
10:45am It’s tidy up time and another short carpet input. This input focuses on gross and fine motor skills and linked to music e.g. playing musical instruments, Dough disco, Squiggle whilst you wriggle etc.
11:15 - 12:00 It’s lunchtime in the school hall. This creates a great routine for the children moving up to school.
12:00pm We go back into areas of provision and adult led activities continue.
12:30pm Another short carpet time focusing on learning together and shared sustained thinking. It is always linked to our theme of the week and our larger topic question for the half term. The children choose to stay and continue the activity or go back into provision.
1:15pm Quick tidy, ready for everyone to head outside. It is important that all children get outside and we take regular trips into the school grounds to go on the trim trail, in the forrest school area, playing on the big playground or walking around our daily mile track. After they have done this the children can choose to head back inside or play in the outdoor area.
2:15pm Snack time and we all sit together to share information about ourselves and our day.
2:35pm Dance party and singing, this is then followed by a story - any last trips to the toilet or getting art work ready to take home. We always sing our good bye song to help the children understand it is the end of the nursery day and develop that routine.
3:00pm - Goodbyes or Before and After School Club starts.
Music is an essential part of every day in nursery as it supports the children's development in all 7 areas of development - Communication & Language, Personal, Social & Emotional Development (PSED), Physical Development, Literacy, Numeracy, Understanding the World, Expressive Art & Design so a lot of the curriculum and day is spent listening to music, making music, singing or dancing. We also spend a lot of time outside, as we have large grounds and make use of the space whatever the weather.
Throughout the day, Mrs Bradbury, Miss Taylor and Miss Buckley are continually interacting with the children in provision, offering encouragement, praise, listening to the children and valuing their contributions, knowledge and understanding. Listening to what they love and don't like. This part of provision is is essential to our day and what we love.