The Nest
Welcome to The Nest Suite. Here we would like to explain a bit about The Nest, the room staff, our themes and some of the activities and experiences that you can look forward to.
The Nest Suite is a learning base which is run very similar to The Woodland Suite but on a smaller, more intimate scale.
Consistency is very important to help children settle and feel safe, because of this we follow the same routine every day. Each morning, children will enter The Nest and then sit for 'Funky Fingers' together on the carpet. Once all of the children have arrived and the register has been taken, it is then time for Group Time. During Group Time, we cover a range of activities including: exploring our core stories, singing nursery rhymes and songs, practicing our counting and mark making. Then the children enter continuous provision where they are allowed to freely explore inside and outside alongside our trained staff. During sessions, we provide a varied, highly nutritious snack in which we cater for all dietary requirements and needs. At the end of session, children have another short, high quality teaching session before coming together to sing 'Goodbye'.
Our learning each term is based on a topic. Then each week we have a core story to focus on. These are adapted to fit the interests and needs of our children.
Autumn 1
This is the time of year when lots of new children may start at Nursery or move to The Nest from The Meadow. The theme for Autumn 1 is “Amazing Me” and our core stories are, ‘Goat Goes to Playgroup’, ‘Owl Babies’ and ‘My World, Your World’.
In Autumn 1 we spend a lot of time helping children to settle into Nursery and learn the routines. We focus on learning about ourselves, we look at our likes and dislikes and do lots of activities to help your child build relationships with staff and other children in the room.
Autumn 2
During Autumn 2 our theme is ‘Transport’. Lots of children enjoy playing with cars and other small world vehicles and so we feel exploring this interest helps to encourage our children to engage within group times. During Autumn 2 we look at lots of different vehicles and ways our body can travel. Our core stories are, ‘Travelling By’, ‘Naughty Bus’, ‘Handa’s Surprise’ and then just before Christmas we explore ‘Dear Santa’.
In Autumn 2 our children are now more aware of the routine and expectations at Nursery. This term we spend a lot of time encouraging independence and nurturing confidence. We also have many exciting events. Autumn 2 starts with a bang with our very own Bonfire Night, we invite all parents to bring their children to watch our firework display and provide food and drink. At the end of term we have a special visit from Santa!
Spring 1
Our main theme for Spring 1 is ‘Nursery Rhymes’ we encourage all children to sing and sign along to well known songs and rhymes. The rhymes we focus on are, ‘Humpty Dumpty’, ‘1,2,3,4,5, Once I Caught a Fish Alive’, ‘Incy Wincy Spider’, ‘Twinkle, Twinkle’ and ‘The Wheels on the Bus’.
During Spring 1 we also start to look at living things and life cycles. We are very lucky to watch, in person, the process of eggs hatching into chicks. This is a great occasion for children to learn how and why we care for other living things. The children find this fascinating, and it creates lots of opportunities for discussion, observational drawing and counting. This is a very memorable experience for both the children and staff.
Spring 2
Following on from Spring 1 we dive deeper into looking at living things. Our main theme for this term is ‘Minibeasts’. Our main texts for this half term include, ‘Tip Tap Went the Crab’, ‘Driving my Tractor’, ‘Dear Zoo’, ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’.
Children thoroughly enjoy exploring ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. To further help children to understand life-cycles each suite has their very own caterpillars to watch the process from caterpillar to chrysalis to beautiful butterfly. We then allow the children to set our butterflies free!
Summer 1 and 2
As summer arrives, we start to focus on ‘Traditional Tales’. We embed the structure of a traditional tale through group times using key actions and signs as suggested by the ‘Talk for Writing’ scheme. This helps children to be confident in knowing the structure of any traditional tale and builds their belief to be able to eventually tell or sign a traditional tale themselves! The key stories we focus on include, ‘The Three Little Pigs’, ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’, ‘Goldilocks’ and ‘The Gingerbread Man’.
At Canterbury we like to offer our children extraordinary experiences. During Summer 1 we immerse ourselves with farm animals as the farm comes to visit us for a day! Children can meet and touch various farm animals, we talk about how the animals are similar and different, what they look like and what their needs are. This is a fantastic day which sparks lots of questions and discussions.
Throughout Summer 2 we start to prepare our children who will be leaving us for ‘Big School’ or moving over to the Woodland. During this time children may be invited on transitional visits and their new teachers may come see them play.
What to Expect When
