Tadpoles 2025 - 2026

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 1 Overview

🌼 This Half Term in Nursery

This half term we are exploring two exciting themes: the life cycle of a frog and dinosaurs. The children will be learning through stories, play, investigation and hands‑on experiences that spark curiosity and imagination.

📚 Our Key Texts

We will be sharing a range of engaging books to support our learning, including:

• The Perfect Ribbit

• Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs

• Hide-a-saurus

• Dinosaurs Love Underpants

• The Little Green Dinosaur

These stories will help us build vocabulary, develop early comprehension skills and inspire lots of creative play.

🐸 Understanding the World

Through our frog life cycle topic, children will learn about:

• How frogs grow and change

• The differences between eggs, tadpoles and adult frogs

• Caring for living things

• Observing changes over time

Our dinosaur learning will include:

• Exploring different types of dinosaurs

• Talking about similarities and differences

• Using imagination in small‑world play

• Learning new descriptive language

🔢 Maths Learning

In maths this half term, we will be focusing on:

• 2D shapes – naming, spotting and describing shapes in our environment

• Subitising to 3 – recognising small quantities without counting

• Comparing objects – exploring size, length, weight and capacity

• Counting with 1:1 correspondence – saying one number for each item

• Describing familiar routes – using positional and directional language

These skills will be developed through practical activities, outdoor learning, songs, games and everyday routines.

🌟 Communication & Language

• We will play lots of listening games and go on listening walks to help develop the children’s phonological awareness.

• 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:

• Squishing, rolling, and shaping playdough to music

• Using tweezers to pick up pom-poms, beads, and other small objects

• 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

• P.E. will take place on Monday afternoons.

• 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