Tadpoles 2025 - 2026
2025-2026Tadpoles staff:
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Welcome to Tadpoles!
In Tadpoles, we believe that young children learn best through play, exploration, and joyful experiences. Our days are filled with fun activities, lots of songs, and plenty of opportunities to try our best and grow together.
“Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold.”
— Joseph Chilton Pearce
Summer 2 Overview
🌼 This Half Term in Nursery
This half term our theme is Journeys and Holidays, and we’ll be exploring the world through stories, play and lots of hands‑on fun.
📚 Our Story Adventures
Each week we will share a new story linked to journeys, travel or holidays. The children will explore the characters, settings and adventures through play, role‑play, small world toys, art and outdoor learning.
This half term we will be enjoying:
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Handa’s Surprise – travelling through a Kenyan village and exploring fruits and animals
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The Train Ride – looking out of the window and spotting things on a journey
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Mr Gumpy’s Outing – finding out what happens when everyone climbs into the boat
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We’re Going on a Bear Hunt – swishy‑swashy, splash‑splosh, squelch!
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What the Ladybird Heard at the Seaside – exploring seaside animals.
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Hello Summer – celebrating sunshine, nature and the start of the summer season
These stories help the children build language, imagination and confidence through repetition, actions and sensory play.
🌊 Understanding the World
Through our stories and play, the children will explore:
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Different places people go on holiday
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Transport we use to travel
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Seaside animals and habitats
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Seasonal changes as summer begins
🔢 Maths in Nursery
Our maths learning will be playful and practical. This half term we will be exploring:
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3D shapes – rolling, stacking and building with cones, cylinders, cubes and spheres
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Floating and sinking – testing objects in water and talking about what happens
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Sequencing events – using words like first, then, next
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Describing routes – using language such as in front, behind, next to
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Recapping numbers to 10 – counting, matching, ordering and recognising numbers
These activities will link to our journey theme — building trains with shapes, making boats to test, and creating simple maps and routes.
🌟 Communication & Language
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We will play lots of listening games and go on listening walks to help develop the children’s phonological awareness.
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Nursery rhymes will be a big part of our week — singing together helps build confidence and early literacy skills.
🌟 Fine Motor Skills – Funky Fingers!
To help strengthen our little hands and improve fine motor control, we will take part in a range of funky finger activities, including:
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Squishing, rolling, and shaping playdough to music
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Using tweezers to pick up pom-poms, beads, and other small objects
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Posting, threading, and other activities that support hand–eye coordination
These fun tasks help prepare children for early mark-making and future writing skills.
🌟 Physical Development
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P.E. will take place on Monday afternoons.
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Yoga sessions will be on Friday mornings.
🌟 Creative Opportunities
Throughout the term, the children will have plenty of chances to get creative through a variety of craft and art activities, encouraging imagination, expression, and fine motor development.
This half term the children will enjoy:
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Making maps and drawing simple routes
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Creating seaside pictures
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Building boats and testing them in water trays
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Acting out stories with props and costumes
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Exploring summer colours, textures and natural materials