Summer: Can nature inspire us?
Enquiry
This term, Nursery children will explore their environment, develop creative skills, and build an understanding of the world around them. Through hands-on learning, storytelling, and sensory play, they will discover colours, materials, minibeasts, and nature, all while building key early skills in art, science, and PSHE.
Creative Explorations: Learning Through Art
🐞 Minibeast Collage Inspired by Henri Matisse
Children will create insect artwork in the style of Henri Matisse’s ‘The Snail’, using:
🖍️ Tissue paper, paper, and card to explore textures
✂️ Scissor skills – learning to make small snips in paper
🎨 Colour recognition – naming red, yellow, blue, green, and orange
👨🎨 Who was Henri Matisse?
A French artist known for collage and bright colours
Children will understand that an artist is someone who paints, draws, or creates
This activity builds early fine motor skills while encouraging creative expression.
Science Explorations: Discovering Minibeasts and Nature
🐛 Meet the Minibeasts!
Children will explore living creatures in their immediate environment, learning about:
🔍 Worms, snails, slugs, spiders, and ants
🔎 How to use a magnifying glass to look closely at small creatures
🌱 How to observe plants and insects in nature
👨🔬 Scientist Spotlight: Andy Day
A familiar face from CBeebies, helping children connect science to their world
🦋 The Life Cycle of a Butterfly
Children will watch caterpillars grow and transform into butterflies, learning:
🐣 Egg → 🐛 Caterpillar → 🏕️ Chrysalis → 🦋 Butterfly
🌻 Planting and Growing Sunflowers
Children will:
🌱 Plant a sunflower seed and learn how to care for it
☀️ Observe its growth and talk about what plants need to survive
These activities encourage scientific thinking, care for the environment, and early observation skills.
Exploring the World Through Play and Discussion
🔧 Discovering Materials
Children will learn to name and explore different materials, including:
📜 Paper | 🧱 Brick | 🌾 Straw | 🪵 Wood | ♻️ Plastic
They will discuss how these materials feel and what they are used for, building early scientific vocabulary.
🌞 Day, Night, and Weather
Children will explore:
☀️ The difference between day and night
🌦️ Different types of weather – sunny, rainy, cloudy
These concepts help develop an understanding of the natural world.
PSHE: Learning About Responsibilities and Safety
Children will explore:
✅ How their actions have consequences
✅ The importance of taking care of their environment (classroom, outdoor spaces)
✅ What things are safe to touch and what should be avoided
✅ Why we wear a hat when it is sunny ☀️👒
These lessons help develop independence, responsibility, and self-awareness.
Authentic Outcome: A Celebration of Learning!
Children will create a fruit collage from The Very Hungry Caterpillar to decorate the school allotment and take part in a Farmers' Market with F1, F2, and Year 1, promoting healthy lifestyles. Families can join a parent bake-off, encouraging discussions on nutritious choices, while children sell their homegrown sunflowers. The term will conclude with the grand opening of the school allotment, celebrating their learning, sustainability efforts, and community involvement. 🌻✨
English
A high-quality text drives each of our enquiries and the texts are used to give knowledge and purpose to the enquiry. High quality texts can only be accessed through knowledge of vocabulary in different tiers. Explicit teaching of new vocabulary and using the classroom environment to showcase key vocabulary helps us to infuse rich and sophisticated vocabulary from EYFS to Year 6. The texts are used as a stimulus for both English and cross curricular writing, ensuring high expectations of our children. Reading is interwoven into all aspects of the enquiry to encourage reading and language development and promote reading for pleasure.
Key Texts
Phonics
At Leamington Primary School we follow the Little Wandle programme for phonics in EYFS and KS1. We understand the impact of teaching good phonics enables children to become fluent readers in KS1, so they are able to continue to access learning in KS2.
All phonics lessons throughout the school follow the same structure of 'revisit/review, teach, practice and apply'. Children are encouraged to use the correct vocabulary, please see the glossary below for the words that are used when teaching phonics.
In Foundation 1, children access Phase 1 phonics teaching through daily short guided groups and the continuous provision. During the short guided sessions the children access discrete phonics teaching. In the continuous provision the children can access musical instruments to help identify sounds. When appropriate, the initial phonemes from Phase 2 are introduced in Pre-Phase 2 sessions. The links below provide appropriate resources for Phase 1 phonics.
Maths
In maths we aim to build a deep understanding of maths concepts whilst supporting children's learning. Daily sessions are taught discreetly in small groups and they are designed to spark excitement. We follow a mastery approach which enables us to nurture confidence in maths.
This term we are covering the following:
Taking part in number rhymes
Comparing amounts using language such as ‘lots’ ‘more’ or ‘same’
Noticing patterns and change
Completing different shaped puzzles
Counting in everyday contexts - sometimes children may skip numbers (such as 1 2 3 5) then beginning to count and recite numbers
Recognition of groups of objects up to 3