Nursery 2025 - 2026

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Spring Term 2 – Dinosaur Roar!

Welcome parents and carers,

I am delighted to welcome you and your children back for Spring Term 2. We are very excited about our new topic: Dinosaur Roar! – a lively, imaginative theme that will help us explore all areas of learning through stories, play and hands‑on experiences.                                                                               

We are also fortunate to have a wonderful team supporting our class this term:

• Mrs Oakes – Teaching Assistant (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday AM)
• Miss Shelley – Teaching Assistant (Wednesday PM, Thursday and Friday)

We are all looking forward to another fantastic half term of fun, learning and discovery.

Personal and Social Development                   

This half term, we will be learning to:

• Talk with others to solve conflicts: How could the dinosaurs make friends?                                                                                                                What could T-Rex do to show he is sorry?
• Identify and talk about feelings using words such as happy, sad, angry: How were the dinosaurs in the café feeling?
• Follow rules with less adult support and recognise why rules are important.
• Make healthy choices about food, drink, activity and toothbrushing:
  What foods should the dinosaurs eat in the café? Why should they eat more fruit and vegetables?
• Understand how others might be feeling:
  Why might the dinosaurs in the café be scared, worried or frightened

Physical Development                                                                                                                                                                                                  Children will be working on:

• Managing personal hygiene independently e.g. brushing teeth, washing hands.
• Using a knife and fork and practising careful cutting.
• Beginning to manage zips and put on coats independently.
• Using one-handed tools such as scissors to make snips in paper.

Understanding the World                                                                                                                                                                                                        we will:

• Care for our environment and plant seeds for the dinosaurs to eat in the café.
• Learn about the life cycles of plants and animals.
• Explore natural materials using all our senses – digging for dino bones and comparing sizes.
• Begin to learn that there are different countries in the world and explore where different dinosaurs once lived

Religious Education – Desert to Garden                                                                                                                                                                                Our RE learning will include:

• Understanding that Lent is a time to care for others.
• Learning that Jesus died on the cross (a sad time) and that God gave Him new life.
• Celebrating that Jesus rose and is still with us.
• Learning the Great Commandment: Love God and love everyone.
• Exploring Holy Week at a simplified level, especially Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
• Recognising Lent symbols (purple, ashes, seeds, growing) and Easter symbols (white, new life, Easter Garden).

Expressive Arts and Design                                                                                                                                                                                            Children will:

• Draw with increasing detail—such as painting their favourite dinosaur or a plant.
• Use different materials to create models of dinosaurs or dinosaur dens.
• Sing simple songs, exploring pitch and melody.
• Play musical instruments with greater control—creating loud and quiet dinosaur sounds or tapping the syllables of dinosaur names.
• Create imaginative small-world dinosaur habitats and stories

Communication, Language & Phonics                                                                                                                                                                                  We will focus on:

• Responding appropriately when spoken to and taking turns to listen.
• Using new vocabulary (scientific and story words), including dinosaur names.
• Developing pronunciation (with normal early difficulties such as r, j, th, ch, sh).
• Building sentences to explain what we’ve learned about dinosaurs.
• Expressing opinions using short sentences: Which dinosaur is your favourite and why?
• Answering a growing range of questions and beginning to explore "why" questions

Literacy                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Reading:

• Spotting and matching rhymes.
• Clapping syllables in words.
• Identifying words with the same initial sound.
• Using vocabulary from books in play, e.g., retelling stories with small-world dinosaurs.    

Writing:

• Using print and letter knowledge to write lists, dinosaur names or café menus.
• Writing some or all of our name, forming letters correctly.
• Developing fine motor skills through tools like scissors and threading.

Mathematics                                                                                                                                                                                                                        This term we will be learning to:

• Say one number for each object counted (1–5) and understand the cardinal principle.
• Solve real-world problems with numbers up to 5.
• Recite numbers beyond 5.
• Link numerals and amounts up to 5.
• Compare objects by size, length, weight and capacity.

We’re Looking Forward to a Roaring Good Half Term!

If you have any questions or would like to know more about our learning, please feel free to speak to me or a member of the team.

Here’s to an exciting, fun-filled Spring 2 with Dinosaur Roar!