At Bloxwich Academy, we recognise the fundamental role a child’s early years has in shaping the person and learner they become. Our nursery curriculum is designed to lay strong foundations so that the children develop the characteristics of an effective learner as well as having the knowledge and skills to be ready for their school journey in reception. We provide pupils with a safe and stimulating environment that will allow them to thrive. We aim to develop curiosity and nurture children into becoming independent and resilient learners.

In Autumn, we will be investing our new learning environment in our first topic of ‘Let’s Explore.’ We will be exploring the indoor and outdoor area. We will be recognising colours of the rainbow whilst celebrating our colour of week each Thursday. Our focus story this term will be ‘Where’s Spot?’ and ‘That’s not my Hedgehog.’ Our second topic will be focused on natural materials and investigating ‘Why leaves go Crispy.’ We’ll visit a woodland to hunt for autumnal treasures. Back in the classroom, we’ll watch what happens when frozen objects melt. Getting creative, we’ll press leaves into clay to make beautiful impressions, and we’ll trace the patterns on leaves. Things could get messy in our mud kitchen when we use different tools to dig, mix and pour. We’ll also enjoy making marks in the mud. At the end of the project, we’ll make a colourful and tasty fruity dessert and read a book about autumn that will encourage us to reflect on our learning.

In the spring term, we will wrap up warm and head outside for a winter walk to spot frosty windows, icy puddles, icy grass and steamy breath.  Back in the classroom, we’ll warm up with a hot chocolate and dress dolls and teddies in outfits that will keep them warm. We’ll explore the best materials for this and describe them. Observing melting ice, we’ll discover how it turns into water. Can we speed up the melting process to free the tiny dinosaurs inside? In our literacy lessons, we’ll look at a range of winter-themed books. Using our mathematical skills, we’ll count snowflakes and stick the correct amount of buttons onto numbered snowmen. Getting creative, we’ll create winter-themed art, make flavoured ice lollies and build a sugar cube igloo! We’ll also share snowy day experiences with each other and compare the temperatures of different areas of the school, inside and out.

In our next topic, we will find out more about the things that happen in the world around us during spring. We’ll head outside for a spring walk to see and explore a range of plants and animals.  Looking at eggs closely, we’ll learn about incubation and hatching. Back outside, we’ll set up a weather station to measure rain, temperature, wind speed and direction. We’ll plant, care for and observe a range of seeds. What do they need to grow? Before we draw and paint them, we’ll smell and gently touch spring flowers, using hand lenses to identify petals, stems and leaves. In our literacy lessons, we’ll listen to and find out about the Easter story, and we’ll sing and play along to spring-themed nursery rhymes. Using our maths skills, we’ll count ducks. What happens to the total number when a duck goes missing? Not forgetting Easter, we’ll go on an Easter egg hunt!

At the end of the project, we’ll invite you to come and make spring bonnets with us. We’ll also take photographs of the plants we have grown to upload, print and display.

During the summer term, we’ll have a special breakfast, carefully spreading toppings on our toast and cutting it. In the classroom, we’ll choose foods from a shopping list and start to read words and labels. In our role play sweet shop, we’ll have fun buying and selling sweets. It could get messy when we explore foods with interesting textures! Getting creative, we’ll use a variety of foods for printing and mark making. We’ll enjoy joining in with food-related poems and spot rhyming words. We’d better put our chef’s hats on, as we’ll be making simple snacks and meals. Using our mathematical skills, we’ll weigh different foods and practise ordering numbers.

In our final topic, we’ll visit and discover the wonders of the seashore, collecting interesting items, bouncing beach balls and building sandcastles. Back in the classroom, we’ll explore which natural and man-made seashore objects float, and which sink, and we’ll learn about the features of crabs, fish, seabirds and starfish. In our literacy lessons, we’ll look at a range of seaside-themed books, songs and poems, and practise writing in the sand. Using our mathematical skills, we’ll catch and count plastic fish. We’ll also learn to move like a crab, make salt dough shell mosaics, set up an ice cream shop and use our imaginations to put beach pebbles to good use. What will we create?

At the end of the project, we’ll use percussion instruments to play along to our seashore-themed version of The Wheels on the Bus. We’ll also recall the different objects we found on the beach and guess which ones are inside the mystery boxes!