The Elephant Group
The Elephant group is our ‘middle’ group and welcomes children who have had turned three and have happily settled into life at nursery. Our focus is to continue to support and motivate the children as they grow and learn, by providing a fun and stimulating environment which meets their individual needs. We like the children to think creatively and share their ideas with the group, to get involved and have a go, exploring ideas and learning new skills through free play and more structured teacher led activities, which take place for 20mins during the morning and afternoon sessions.
We plan activities for our children which follow the principals set out in the statutory EYFS framework, with a strong focus on the three prime areas of learning - personal, social and emotional, communication and language and physical development. The Elephants enjoy playing games, singing and storytelling, group discussions and ‘show and tell’, art and craft activities, simple phonics sessions, cooking, indoor and outdoor play and more structured P.E sessions as part of their time at preschool. We support children to be independent, changing in and out of wellies, coats and P.E kits in preparation for life at school.
Like the Tigers and Bear groups our topic this term will be Recycling and Healthy eating, which affords a lot of fun opportunities for activities across all areas of learning. We will also think about as the spring as seasons begin to change. In addition to this, I am planning some short sessions following the 'Letters and Sounds' programme, where the first phase concentrates on developing children's speaking and listening skills. As always though, there will be plenty of time for 'free' play with old friends and new, both indoors and out - hopefully with some early spring sunshine!