Programme of Work

The programme will include some or all of the following activities:

Shape:

• Free play with a wide variety of natural objects - shells, leaves, stones, etc with language input from the teacher where appropriate.
• Free play with manmade objects e.g. bricks, logic blocks.
• Model making using boxes and junk materials.
• Describing and identifying shapes - first by sight and later by touch - words such as fat, thin, long, short, spiky, sharp, smooth, etc can be introduced.
• Simple movement themes - long shapes/snakes, short shapes/a tiny seed, etc.
• Play with jigsaws.
• 2D patterns - printing, painting, paper cutting etc.
• Collage.
• Drawing around shapes.
• Shapes in the environment - traffic signs, vehicles, food, etc.
• Collapsing cardboard containers - looking at shapes when flat, then rebuilding.
• Symmetry can be experienced on a simple level by folding paper and painting on one side only, and then reprinting by folding over the other side.

Sorting:

• Free sorting according to the child’s own choice.
• Sorting by one attribute e.g. ‘ let’s find all the red ones’.
• Sorting by two or more attributes from a simple collection of objects e.g. ‘find the blue cars’ from an assorted collection of vehicles.
• Sorting more than one type by one or more attributes from a mixed collection ‘find the big red beads and the shiny black buttons’.
• Cooking - sorting ingredients and equipment, things which melt, things which do not, foods we have to chew, liquids or solids, hot or cold, etc.
• Art - making pictures by selecting one colour from a mixed box of collage materials, making sets of objects with a variety of materials, dividing paper into sections and sorting handprints by colour into each section.
• Sand - sorting objects which have holes, handles, are large or small, etc.
• Water - sorting objects which float or sink, sorting objects which hold water and those that do not, sorting the equipment by shape, size or colour.
• Construction toys - sorting by colour, shape, size, texture, etc.
• Stories/rhymes - choosing all the stories with pigs in them, or all the songs with frogs etc.
• Imaginative play - sorting all the teaspoons from a collection of spoons, all the cups, finding clothes according to colour/size, sorting all the fruit/vegetables into colours, families, etc.
  

Matching:

• Teacher finds one object, child finds the match.
• Matching sequences - red bead, blue bead, red bead, etc.
• Matching one cup to one saucer, knife and fork to place, spoon to dish, etc.
• Matching apron to activity - art apron, water apron, cooking apron.
• Buttoning coats - one button to one hole.
• Making patterns and copying them; both on paper and non-permanently with a variety of objects.
• Matching by size, shape, texture, taste, etc.
• Putting toys back in appropriate places.

Pattern:

• Looking for patterns in the environment e.g. brickwork, floor tiles, animal markings, leaves and flowers.
• Making patterns in painting, printing and collage activities.
• Making 3D patterns with bricks and beads.
• Copying and continuing patterns on paper and in 3D.
• Using computer programs to create and manipulate patterns.

Ordering:

• Looking at and talking about pictures which contain varying amounts of objects.
• Playing with grading blocks, number pegs, grading jigsaws, beadstairs, stacking cups, etc.

Learning to Count:

• Teacher finds one object, child finds the match.
• Matching sequences - red bead, blue bead, red bead, etc.
• Matching one cup to one saucer, knife and fork to place, spoon to dish, et
• Matching apron to activity - art apron, water apron, cooking apron.
• Buttoning coats - one button to one hole.
• Matching by size, shape, texture, taste, etc.
• Putting toys back in appropriate places.
• Reciting number rhymes.
• Reading counting books.

Numerals:

• The children can participate in counting exercises (e.g. children who are staying for lunch) and watch the numerals being written down.
• Prices can be looked at when out shopping.
• House numbers can be talked about and written down.
• Telephone digits can be observed.
• Drawing the corresponding number symbol next to a group of objects.

Conservation:

• Activities of a simple and an incidental, questioning nature - e.g. ‘I wonder whose bottle holds the most water?’

Money:

• Play with fake money, ‘buying’ items from a role play shop.
• Children can accompany staff to the local shops to purchase items for use in the nursery and observe the exchange of money for goods.

Time:

• Discussion about how the children’s day is divided into ‘times’ - playtime, story time, drinks time, dinner time, home time, etc.
• Discussion about how adults use clocks and watches to help them know what time it is and therefore at what time, according to the clock, we have drinks or go outside, etc.
• Free play with watches, clocks, timers etc to help the child to recognise the role of number in telling the time and partitioning the day into times for doing certain activities.
• Discussion about days of the week, yesterday, tomorrow, last week, next week, etc.
• Discussion about the seasons can all help to develop a sense of awareness about time and the passage of time.