Foundation Stage
Nursery Routine
There are two nursery sessions each day at Chalfont St Giles Nursery. Your child will either be allocated a morning session or an afternoon session. The morning session runs from 9.00am to 11.30am and the afternoon session runs from 12.40 to 3.10pm. We follow the same routine in both sessions.
The session begins with a member of nursery staff welcoming each child and parent at the entrance. At this point parents may leave any necessary messages with that member of staff. The children find their name card with support from their parent/carer and then enter the nursery classroom. The children can then proceed to choose an activity. There is a balance of adult-focused, adult-initiated and child-initiated activities. On Monday the children are welcomed on the carpet area, when we introduce the letter sound we are learning about for the week. Every other day begins with the children making a choice about where they would like to play.
Once all the children have arrived and the register has been marked, then the door to the outside area is opened and the children may choose to access learning indoors or outdoors. The indoor/outdoor time lasts for approximately one hour. This is an opportunity for the children to really extend their learning through play.
At approximately 10.20am/2.00pm music is put on, this signals to the children that it is tidy-up time. We encourage the children to take responsibility for the equipment and help to tidy everything away inside and out. Then the children sit in their red and blue groups and choose a book to look at. At "book time" they may choose to look at a book independently, share a book with a friend or an adult or the adult may read a story to the group. This is a time where we teach book handling skills and foster a love of books.
After "book time" the children go to the bathroom in their groups with an adult and use the toilet if they need to and everyone washes their hands in preparation for snack time. During snack time there are lots of personal and social development opportunities for example sharing, taking turns to pass the fruit and remembering to say please and thank you. We also focus on mathematical development opportunities through counting how many boys/girls/slices of apple/banana etc. We also have show and tell opportunities during snack time, when children can talk about their news and show items of special interest.
We then have a small group, adult-focused activity time which usually focuses on the skills of music, physical development or circle time games.
Our session ends with songs, rhymes and a story before home time.