Areas of Learning
- Personal Social And Emotional Development
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding The World
- Expressive Arts and Design
Personal Social And Emotional Development
| Making relationships | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
| I observe other children at play, before I join them. | Provide opportunities for me to meet and play alongside other children, e.g. play groups, nursery, when visiting the playground. |
| I approach others to share experiences. | Make dens from sheets and blankets for me, you and my friends to play in. |
| I show affection and concern towards the people who are special to me. | Make a photo album with pictures of people who are special to me, so we can look at it together. |
| I am beginning to make friends. | Ask me about the children I enjoy playing with, and arrange opportunities for us to meet. |
| Self-confidence and self-awareness | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
| I can say goodbye to you when someone I know is there to support me. | Explain to me what’s going to happen throughout my day, e.g. ‘’I will need to go to work now, you will stay with granny until tea time”. |
| I can show you my preferences and interests, e.g. what I want to play with, eat or wear. | Give me plenty of choices: snacks (e.g. pear or apple), activities to play with (e.g. train track or puzzle) or clothes to wear (e.g. a red or a blue top)... |
| Managing feelings and behaviour | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
| I will rely on you for support when I’m feeling sad, scared or worried. | Cuddle me and reassure me with a gentle voice when I am feeling sad or upset. |
| I can use actions, sounds or words to express feelings of sadness, happiness or anger. |
Read stories about feelings with me, so I can compare the feelings of the characters with my own feelings. |
| I am becoming aware of the feelings and wishes of others. |
Praise me for my efforts when I listen to/when I am gentle to others. |
| I know that some actions (e.g. pushing someone or snatching a toy) make others feel upset or cross. |
Act stories with puppets about actions that might make others' feel upset. |
| I will give my friends a hug when they are upset. |
Act stories with puppets about how we can help others' feel better when they are upset. |
| I can understand and follow some boundaries and routines. | Talk to me about the order I need to do things in, like brushing my teeth before getting ready for bed. |
| Sometimes, I can stop myself from doing something that I know I shouldn’t do. | Praise me for my efforts, when I stop myself from doing what I shouldn't do. |
| Sometimes, I choose to play with toys I like, to distract me from feeling upset. | When I am feeling upset, ask me if I would like to go to a cosy area and look at my favourite story. |
Communication and Language
| Listening and attention | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
| I enjoy listening to different noises or voice intonations, as you read stories to me. | Use finger puppets, toy people or toy animals when you’re sharing stories or songs with me. |
| I can recognise certain sounds and I can tell where they are coming from. | Play sound games with me, e.g. listening to environmental sounds and guessing what they are. |
| I join you when you sing songs and nursery rhymes to me. | Encourage me to join in singing and acting songs. Use instruments and props to capture my attention. |
| Even if I am paying attention to something, I will stop and look at you when you say my name. | If you want to talk to me and I am busy doing something, call my name and wait for me to stop the activity first, so I can give you my full attention. |
| Understanding | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
| When you ask questions like 'who's jumping', I can point to the correct picture, person or object. | Point at the characters in my favourite books and ask me who is ''jumping", ''running'' or ''eating''. |
| I am starting to understand longer sentences, such as instructions that involve two different actions. | When we’re making something together (e.g. a sandwich) tell me what you are doing so I know what to do. |
| I am beginning to understand questions beginning with the words ‘who’, ‘what’ or ‘where’. | Ask me questions about the characters in my favourite book or about my favourite toys, e.g. ''who is that?", "where does he live?" |
| My understanding of simple concepts is developing, e.g. big/small, full/empty. | Play guessing games: ask me to find one object, out of two objects with opposite characteristics (e.g. big/small, full/empty, dark/bright). |
| Speaking | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
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I can use simple sentences to tell you about what I am doing or how I am feeling. |
Ask me how I feel today and what I would like to do. |
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When I am talking to you, I like to tell you about lots of different things/subjects. |
Ask me questions about my daily routine, for example, which toys I have played with today. |
| I am learning new words every day and I use them often to communicate my ideas. | When we’re playing with things, use new words to describe what I’m doing or to tell me what they are called. |
| Sometimes I use gestures alongside words, to help me explain what I want to say. | Practice a few words in sign language with me (such as makaton). |
| I ask questions such as 'what', 'where' or 'who' when we play or read stories together. | Ask me questions beginning with ''who'', ''what'', ''where'', when we read stories, so I can learn how to ask questions too. |
| I use simple sentences when I speak, e.g. three word sentences such as 'mummy at work'. | Show me how to use words to make simple sentences, for example, when I say a 2 word sentence such as "brown bear'', repeat it back to me by adding another word, such as ''the brown bear roars". |
| I am beginning to use word endings, e.g. 'I am doing' instead of 'I do' and plurals, such as cat/cats. | When I say ''Mummy go work'' or '' two mouse'' repeat back to me "Mummy is going to work" or ''two mice''. |
Physical Development
| Moving and handling | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
| I can run without falling over or bumping into objects. | Play running races with me when we go to the park. |
| I can squat down and then get up without using my hands for support. | Show me how to be a ''leaping frog'', by squatting and then rising without using my hands. |
| I can climb up stairs, a ladder, a slide or a climbing frame. | Let me try climbing equipment with various levels of difficulty, as long as it's appropriate for my age. |
| I can kick a large ball. | Play ball games with me. |
| I sometimes turn several pages in one go, as I am looking at a book. | Let me hold the book and turn the pages when we read stories together. |
| I am beginning to hold pencils and crayons between my thumb and two fingers. | Show me how I can use thumb and two fingers to draw random lines on paper. |
| I can use a crayon to draw lines that go 'up and down', 'across' or 'round and round'. | Show me how to draw circles ''round and round" and lines that go "up and down" and "across". |
| When I use stairs, I hold the hand rail, move one foot at a time and place both feet on each step. | Supervise me as I walk a set of stairs up/down on my own whilst holding the rail. |
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I am beginning to show preference in using either my left or right hand to hold objects. |
Notice if I prefer to use one hand over the other (e.g. in activities like drawing, eating), so you can adjust accordingly. |
| Health and self-care | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
| I can feed myself with a spoon. | Let me feed myself with cutlery, such as fork and spoon. |
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I can drink from a cup with no lid without spilling the drink. |
Let me drink water from an open cup. |
| I am beginning to tell you when I need to go to the toilet or use the potty. | Ask me if I need to use the potty/toilet, and praise me for when I ask to use it myself. |
| In challenging activities, I know how far I can go before asking for your help, e.g. when climbing. | Talk to me about basic safety measures, when at home, playing in the park or crossing the road. |
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I can put on my hat, unzip the zipper on my jacket, and take off unfastened shoes or shirt. |
Helps with clothing, e.g. puts on hat, unzips zipper on jacket, takes off unbuttoned shirt. |
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I am beginning to wash my hands and use the toilet by myself, but I still need your support. |
Let me help get lunch ready by cutting the cheese or bananas. |
Literacy
| Reading | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
| I have a few favourite stories, nursery rhymes and songs. | Let me explore lots of books from the library with friends and on my own. |
| I can repeat words or phrases that appear often in my favourite stories. | Let me tell you stories that we’ve shared. |
| I can tell you the missing word or phrase in a rhyme I know well, such as 'Twinkle twinkle little...' | When you read me stories that I know really well, stop at different parts and let me tell you the missing word. |
| Writing | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
| I can talk about the different lines I make when I draw, e.g. 'this is red' or 'one, two lines'. | Draw and paint with me and tell me what you’re doing. Also, when you’re writing lists or filling in forms let me have my own paper so that I can make my own marks. |
Mathematics
| Numbers | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
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I can give you one or two objects when you ask 'please give me one/two'. |
Play counting games with me throughout the day, for example, ’’can you share two grapes with me?’’ when I eat snack. |
| I can say some number names in sequence, e.g. 'one, two, three, four, five...' | Sing counting rhymes with me like “Five Little Men in a Flying Saucer” or “1,2,3,4,5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive”. |
| I can draw lines that represent numbers and amounts, e.g. 'one line', 'two lines', or 'lots of lines'. | Make skittles with me from plastic bottles. Play games where we have to keep a score of how many skittles we’ve knocked down. |
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I can tell you which group has more objects, out of two or three groups of items. |
When we are playing, make piles with toys and ask me which one has more and which one has less. |
| I use words such as 'more' and 'a lot' to describe the quantity of objects I see. | Model language of quantities, such as ’more’, ’a lot’, ‘few’ to describe how many objects we can see. |
| I know that when you add items to a group I'll get more, but I will not have as much if you take it away. | Sing songs involving simple subtraction and addition, such as ‘’five currant buns’’ or ‘’five little docks’’, using props such as toys, real objects or finger puppets. |
| Shape, space and measure | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
| I enjoy looking at shapes and patterns in pictures or clothes. | When we look at books, ask me if I can spot shapes or patterns, such as all the spotty animals, or a square/triangle in a picture of a house. |
| I can group objects of similar size, colour or shape. | Let me sort the clothes so that I put all the ones with the same pattern or colour like red, spotty or stripy, together. |
| I am starting to use words such as 'big' and 'small' to describe the objects I see. | Ask me to find big and small objects, such as the ’big ball’ and the ‘small ball’. |
| I know in what order events happen during the day, e.g. I have my nap after lunch. | Tell me what’s going to happen throughout my day, e.g. ‘’now we are going to the shop, later we will go to the park’’. |
| I know it's time for lunch when I see that the table is set, or I know it's home time, after tea at the nursery. | Create a routine of activities at home, so I can start to predict what activities come next. |
Understanding The World
| People and Communities | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
| I recognize photos of my family and friends and I can tell you who they are. | Talk to me about the people in our family, for example, when we look at family videos or pictures together. |
| I use my toys to act out familiar experiences, such as cooking or taking care of a baby doll. | Create a pretend play area in my room, with play resources such as toy kitchen, dressing up, tool sets... |
| I am beginning to make my own friends. | Read books to me about friends and the meaning of friendship. |
| I can tell you things which make me similiar/different from others, e.g. what I like to wear, eat or play with. | Let me taste food from different countries and cultures. |
| The World | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
| I like to play with small world toys, such as a farm, a garage, or a train track. | Let me use toy cars, buses or trains to make up stories about going to the supermarket, going on holiday or going to nursery. |
| I can talk about what I see when I play outside, e.g. water puddles, bugs, fallen leaves. | Let me explore bubbles, windmills or streamers when it’s windy. |
| Technology | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
| I enjoy pressing buttons and switches in toys, e.g. a torch or a remote control toy. | Show me how I can switch on/off items such as a tablet, laptop, camera or music player. |
| I can make mechanical toys move, such as wind up toys or friction cars. | Let me press buttons on things like torches or remote control cars to see what happens. |
Expressive Arts and Design
| Exploring media and materials | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
| I join in with singing my favourite songs and nursery rhymes. | Sing and act my favourite nursery rhymes and encourage me to join in. |
| I explore the sounds of instruments and everyday objects by banging, shaking, tapping or blowing. | Let me explore the different sounds I can make with everyday things like spoons, pots and plastic bowls. |
| I enjoy listening to and exploring the sounds of musical instruments. | Assemble a basket with instruments ( e.g. shakers, bells, drums, rain sticks, xylophones, recorder...) and let me explore them. |
| I enjoy exploring what I can make with paint, pens, crayons, glue or scissors. | Assemble a box with tools for me to make pictures, e.g. paper, glue, scissors and crayons. |
| Being imaginative | |
| What can you expect me to do? | How can you support me? |
| I can tell you the meaning of the different drawings I make, e.g. 'This is me, mummy and daddy'. | Ask me about the meaning of my drawings. |
| I enjoy using my toys to pretend that I am cooking, taking care of my dolls, being a doctor, firefighter, etc. | Let me dress up using grown ups’ clothes, pieces of fabric, hats and bags so that I can pretend to be somebody else. |
