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Nursery - St Francis
New Parents meeting powerpoint
Video showing how to clear plates at lunch
Staff
Class Teacher: Miss Mayhew
Support Staff: Mrs Reynolds
Curriculum Information
Early Years Curriculum Information 2024-25
Homework
Every half term, class teachers will create and send home a menu of activities to be completed over the course of the half term. These will be a range of tasks and will include 1 x Maths, 1 x English, 2 x Communication & Language, 2x Physical Development, 2x Personal, Social and Emotional, 1x Understanding of the World, 1x Expressive Art and Design.
If you have taken a photograph or would prefer to share something electronically, this can be sent through to the class teacher via email at nursery@stroses.herts.sch.uk. Nursery children can also bring in and share some of the tasks that they have completed at home.
Weekly Learning
WC: 02/03/2026
Maths
This week in Maths, we have been counting accurately up to 5 and describing the properties of 2D shapes. The children have been able to tell me about the sides, corners and qualities of squares, rectangles, circles and triangles. We have enjoyed using a variety of shapes to make arrangements.
Phonics
This week in phonics, we have been consolidating our main learning from last week on alliteration. Alongside names and objects, we have thought about animals that begin with our pure sounds /m/ and /s/.
RE
This week in RE, we have been learning about how Jesus came to Jerusalem on a donkey. We thought about how others felt when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem. We enjoyed reading a letter from the donkey who carried Jesus.
Other
We have enjoyed making our own fruit smoothies this week. We used our fine motor skills to chop up bananas, strawberries, blueberries and mangoes into smaller pieces. We then put these into a blender and took turns turning the dial. We anticipated the blender would make a loud sound… and we were right! We thought our smoothies tasted very yummy.
WC: 23/02/2026
Maths
This week in Maths we have explored cardinality to 4, recognising numerals to 4 and exploring 2D shapes. We have enjoyed many games and activities around these objectives including a pom pom hunt and shape sorting.
Phonics
This half term, we are focusing on alliteration in our Phase 1 phonics journey. We have explored the pure sounds: /s/, /m/ and /b/. We thought about names and objects beginning with these sounds and made some silly sentences. Molly’s monkey munches many mangoes!
RE
This half term, we are focusing on Branch 4 of our RE learning: From Desert to Garden. We explored how Lent is a time to care for others and know that we grow closer to Jesus in Lent. We made bread for St Rose’s staff and shared this with them. This helped us to understand generosity and sharing what we have with others.
Other
This half term, our topic is ‘Growing’. We have enjoyed a garden centre themed role play and our growing themed tuff spot.
WC: 09/02/2026
Maths
This week in maths, we have been focusing on cardinality to 5 and exploring AB patterns. We have enjoyed using 5s frames, feeding our teddies the correct amount and creating and copying patterns using coloured cubes.
Phonics
This week in phonics, we have been consolidating our learning on rhyme and rhythm. We have perfected our Silly Soup and enjoyed a wide variety of rhymes and rhythmic stories.
RE
This week in RE, we consolidated all of our learning from Branch 3 and explored how to be kind and caring just like Jesus.
WC: 02/02/2026
Maths
This week in maths, we have been securing our subitising skills and looking at what ‘thick’ and ‘thin’ means. We have been using playdough to make objects and animals that are thick or thin. Our best examples were: sausages, noodles and snakes.
Phonics
This week in phonics, we have been selecting rhyming items and creating our own simple rhymes. We have enjoyed selecting rhyming objects and grouping these together. We have also created our own rhyming trail.
RE
This week in RE, we have been focusing on how Jesus loves everyone and what people need to be happy and feel safe. We spoke about how we can be caring and kind to people who need extra help. We listened to the story of the Good Samaritan. We thought about and listed things we need and things we want and what the difference is. We then made our own class food bank.
Other
This week we have enjoyed exploring ‘people who help us’. We turned our home corner into a GP surgery and have enjoyed caring for each other. We have also been exploring how fire fighters look after us and keep us safe. Linking to our nursery rhyme theme, we made our own frog crafts.
WC: 26/01/2026
Maths
This week in maths, we have been focusing on cardinality to 4 and sorting by size. We matched shells to numerals, making a car park and parking the correct amount of cars and sorting objects by size. Our favourite song is currently: The Big Ship Sails on the Alley Alley Oh!
Phonics
This week in phonics, we have been listening to and recognising rhymes, joining in with rhythmic actions and chants and have begun anticipating and suggest rhyming words. We have enjoyed Silly Soup and rhyming bingo.
RE
This week in RE, we have been learning about how Jesus takes care of everyone. We listened to the story of ‘Jesus Feeds the 5,000’ and discussed how it feels to be hungry, need help, receive help and to share. We created our own fish pictures using a variety of materials and glue.
Other
This week we have enjoyed an oracy focus, using mirrors, puppets and story strips to support our language development. We are quite the storytellers. Check back with us during storytelling week to hear our stories!
WC: 19/01/2026
Maths
This week in maths, we have been focusing on subitising, 2D shapes and the prepositions under and over. We have enjoyed a range of activities and linked these to nursery rhymes such as London Bridge and The Bear Went Over The Mountain.
Phonics
This week in phonics, we have introduced Silly Soup. This has helped us to learn and recognise rhymes. We have been carefully thinking about which objects can and cannot go in our rhyming Silly Soup!
RE
This week in RE have we have been learning that Jesus blesses the children because he wants to show God’s love. We have also understood that Jesus wants to show love and welcome everyone. We drew a timeline of Jesus from baby to adult and thought about when Jesus welcomed the children. We thought how we can be more like Jesus. We have also been practising the Glory Be prayer.
Other
This week we participated in Around The World Day. Our class base was Peru and we know so much about Peru now! We particularly enjoyed the Paddington Bear link. The children were brilliant when the visited each class to learn about a new country.
WC: 12/01/26
Maths
This week in Maths, we have continued with our nursery rhyme theme by singing different rhymes relating to our current learning. We have been consolidating our cardinality skills, colour sorting and using positional language. We have used numeral cards to support our learning as well as sorting into sets using a range of manipulatives. We sorted by colour and discussed more/less and explored in/out by singing the hokey cokey and placing soft toys in and out of different contexts such as bags, baskets and more.
Phonics
This half term, we have begun focusing on aspect 4 of phase 1 phonics which is rhyme and rhythm. Over the week, we sang 4 different nursery rhymes with actions and explored pitch, volume and speed. On Friday, we got into small groups and performed to our peers. The children were fantastic and performed with such confidence. Alongside this, we have learnt more traditional ring games and have become very confident with these.
RE
This half term, we are focusing on Branch 3 of our RE learning: Galilee to Jerusalem. We have learnt that people came a long way to see Jesus and how people loved and believed Jesus. In our group learning, we have discussed how some Wise Men saw a bright star and this led them to the baby Jesus. We discussed the gifts that the Wise Men brought to Jesus and we made our own gifts for Jesus in the creative area.
Other
We have enjoyed a range of different opportunities this week such as making bridges, exploring numbers in our ‘car park’, colour mixing with paint and playdough and our humpty dumpty tuff tray.
WC: 05/01/26
Maths
This week in Maths, we have begun our nursery rhyme topic and incorporated this into our maths learning. Each day we have sang a different nursery rhyme to support us with our maths. We have practiced cardinality, 1:1 correspondence, one less and time sequencing through play and exploration in our group learning time.
Phonics
This half term, we have begun focusing on aspect 4 of phase 1 phonics which is rhyme and rhythm. This fits in nicely with our current theme: nursery rhymes. We have been exploring body percussion to count the syllables in our name, exploring and selecting rhyming words, and reading rhythmic stories.
RE
This half term, we are focusing on Branch 3 of our RE learning: Galilee to Jerusalem. We have understood that Jesus’ birth is celebrated at Christmas and that Jesus is special to Catholics. We have also explored how we can be kind like Jesus. In our group learning, we have practiced being gentle with baby dolls and have explored what birthdays look like for other people and what was so special about Jesus’ birthday.
Other
We have enjoyed a range of different opportunities this week such as building roofs and shelters, creating animal enclosures, caring for baby dolls and a wide range of nursery rhymes.
Key Information
Our morning nursery session runs from 8.30 -11.30. Our afternoon session runs until 15.10.
Library
Our Library day is Friday.
P.E.
Our P.E. day is Friday. Long hair needs to be tied back and earrings are not allowed to be worn in school at any time.
Forest School
Our Forest School day is Monday. Please bring in named Forest School kits to be kept in schools.
A Typical Day in St Francis Class
8.30 - Classroom doors open
8.30 - 8:45 - Funky Finger Activities
8.45 - 9.10 – Register, calendar and prayer.
9.10-9.20 - Group time learning
9.20 -10.20 – Active Learning
10.20 - 10.50 - Snack and story
10.50 - 11.00 - Group time learning
11.00 - 11.30 - Active learning
11.30 -11.40 – Singing, Prayer and Home Time (for 15 hour children)
11.40 - 12.40 - Lunch
12.40 - Register and dough disco
13.15 - Group time learning
13.30 - 14.50 - Active Learning
14.50 - 15.10 - Story, Singing, Prayer and Home Time