The child is introduced to various activities that link his home with the nursery and which will encourage independence, self-esteem, co-ordination, concentration, improvement of fine motor skills¸ and sorting and matching skills.  This area also covers the “Exercises for Social Graces and Courtesy” whereby the child learns a variety of important social skills including: when to say “please/thank you”, greeting visitors, apologising, interrupting a conversation politely, and using polite table manners.

The child is introduced to exercises that encourage a refinement of the senses, learning to grade, match and sort through the use of sight, sound, touch, smell and taste.  The Sensorial exercises encourage independence, self-esteem, co-ordination, concentration and refinement of the fine motor skills.  They introduce concepts of comparatives and superlatives and indirectly introduce the metric system as some of the materials are based on units of ten. 

The child uses Sandpaper Letters to “feel” the shape of each letter, so that the movement is absorbed and flows from the hand naturally when he begins to write letters in the sand and later with a pencil.  He is taught the phonetic sound of each letter before he learns its name.  The Large Moveable Alphabet encourages the child to build simple words until he is ready to move on to the early grammar section of the curriculum and work with cards and pictures.  Children under five years of age have learnt to read simple sentences following this method.  The Insets for Design help the child to learn pencil control and improve co-ordination and concentration.  The Book Corner offers a variety of multi-cultural books and stories.  The Circle Time activities (stories, songs, rhymes, discussions) help to improve the child’s listening skills, language ability, confidence and concentration and contribute to his overall social, emotional and intellectual development.

The child is introduced to Sandpaper Numerals so that he can “feel” the shape of each numeral, which makes the transition to writing on paper seem natural.  The early Maths exercises and games teach the child in concrete terms how to link the written numeral with the corresponding quantity of objects and eventually the child is ready to solve simple sums using the apparatus.  Weights and measures are also introduced in concrete terms and numbers are reinforced through counting songs, rhymes and movement activities.  As well as learning to count in English, the children are also taught to count in French, German and Spanish.

The child is gradually introduced to the world around him, starting with familiar concepts that link in with his home and his daily life.  He learns about his immediate environment, making 3D maps to show his journey to the nursery from home.  A tactile globe, colour-coded globe and puzzle map teach the child about the land and sea, the continents, and animals of the world.  Simple classification cards teach the child about the Solar System, the formation of a volcano, the parts of an animal or a tree, using correct terminology.  Continents and countries are looked at in terms that the child can understand; the concepts of time and history are also introduced at a concrete level.  Children learn first-hand the life cycle of a butterfly by observing caterpillars as they change into chrysalides and then butterflies.  Cultural activities also include scientific experiments, ie. how a volcano works, floating and sinking, weather experiments, magnetism, growing bulbs and planting seeds.  The child learns about the many cultures and traditions of the people that form our society through art, clothes, language, music and food, and is able to discover the world around him through problem-solving, challenging activities, questions and observation.

Music and Movement activities normally link with other areas of the curriculum and may follow project themes.  The repetition of songs and rhymes helps the child to improve his language ability, listening skills and concentration.  The children learn greetings songs in German, French and Spanish.  They use a variety of percussion instruments to explore sounds, learn how sounds can be changed and how to create rhythms.  They join in with ring games, action songs and dances and these activities, as well as the exercise of “Walking on the Line”, help to develop the child’s control of movement and co-ordination, and encourage listening skills, teamwork, confidence, creativity and self-esteem.  The “Silence Game” is intended to develop the child’s auditory sense and help him to become aware of his environment, as well as developing self-control, spiritual awareness and a feeling of unity amongst the group.  Yoga also helps the children to learn to control their bodies as they move to calming music and leaves them feeling relaxed and focused, ready for the morning ahead.

The child learns to develop self-expression and creativity through the use of various materials, exploring what he can make and do and discovering how things work.  These activities encourage movement and manipulation (eg. playdough, clay, painting, junk modelling), curiosity (eg. experiments with colour, mixing paints), discovery through the use of different textures (eg. for collages), co-ordination and concentration. 

Puzzles and games are available to the children to encourage sorting and matching skills, turn-taking, sharing, co-ordination and concentration.  Construction materials promote teamwork and sharing, water and sand play encourage curiosity and experimentation and cultural dressing up clothes encourage role play, allowing the child to improve his linguistic skills, self-expression and understanding of our world.  The “Playhouse” is also important for the child’s social and emotional development due to its versatility in a variety of role-play settings.

We encourage free flow between indoor and outdoor activities and whenever possible the children will work outside as well as indoors using the Montessori materials, thus supporting their holistic learning.  The outdoor area is used for gardening, construction, playing in the tent, sitting quietly in the sunshine or engaging in role play with peers. The children have the opportunity to practise their gross motor skills and control of movement using the tyres, climbing frame, slide, balance beams and tunnel and small equipment such as hoops, balls and bean bags.  The Parachute encourages unity, co-operation and confidence as part of a group.  The children might exercise their mathematical skills when they play hopscotch, dominoes, use the marker cones or count the skittles they knock down.  They have opportunities to practise riding a scooter or tricycle and can learn about ideal weather conditions for kite-flying or blowing bubbles.  As well as playing outdoor games, the children are given the opportunity to engage in elements of Forest School activities.  They explore and discover changes in the flora as the seasons change, collect materials for art activities, make bark rubbings and pick blackberries.  They enjoy nature walks, hunt for eggs, build a bonfire or have a picnic on the field and are lucky enough to spot muntjac and fallow deer, foxes, squirrels, parakeets and woodpeckers.  All of these activities encourage children to form friendships, take turns, share, experiment, gain self-esteem, work as a team, take risks in a safe environment and reinforce their mathematical and linguistic skills as well as ensure, of course, that they have fun.

Children use our Musical Globe to listen to music, greetings and numbers spoken in other languages around the world.  They help to use the keyboard when we show photos or tell stories on the laptop and can take photos of their peers on the nursery digital camera.  They use a torch to examine our rocks and minerals, a microscope to look at slides of pollen and seeds, and a miniature vacuum cleaner to hoover up any dust on the equipment trays.