What your child is doing this autumn

There is a sheet on the wall by the door with our plan for this term on it. It is written for us and for Ofsted, in the language early years people use with each other, so most parents glance at it and move on. This is the same plan in ordinary words, because what it actually says is quite interesting.

A word on what a term plan is and is not. It is not a timetable, and it is not a promise that your child will do all of it. It is the set of things we have put within reach this term, so that when a child goes looking, this is what is there.

Autumn itself is most of the plan

The season is doing a lot of the teaching. This term the children will be looking closely at leaves, conkers, acorns, pumpkins and gourds, and making collections of natural things to use for other purposes. They will be watching the change from summer to autumn happen rather than being told about it.

They will also be planting bulbs, in readiness for spring. We like this one. A three year old plants something in October and nothing happens for four months. It is one of the few things a nursery can offer that is genuinely about patience, and it is worth mentioning at home in February when the shoots appear.

Spiders, woodland animals and owls are the creatures of the term.

What the Montessori materials are for

This is the column parents most often ask about, so here it is plainly.

• Number. Counting, shape and number are explored through the materials rather than through worksheets. A child handles quantity before they are asked to write it down.
• The sensorial materials. The graded blocks, cylinders and tablets are problem solving in a physical form. A child working out that only one cylinder fits one hole is reasoning, even though it looks like play.
• Practical life. Pouring, sweeping, buttoning, carrying. These are life skills, and they are also the foundation for everything that needs a steady hand later.
• Letters and sounds. Phonemes and graphemes, which is to say the sounds letters make and the shapes they are written as, introduced through practical activities rather than drilling.

Feelings have a vocabulary this term

We are using The Colour Monster and props alongside it to introduce what early years people call zones of regulation. In plain terms: giving children words and colours for what they are feeling, so that a child who is overwhelmed has something to point at instead of only something to do.

If your child starts talking about being yellow or blue, this is where it came from, and joining in at home makes it work faster.

Settling, and belonging

The first item on the whole sheet is supporting successful transitions into the setting, which is the autumn term's real job. New children arrive in September, and the rest of the plan matters less than whether a child feels they belong here. That runs alongside building relationships with every child, supporting social skills, and promoting independence, which is the one that shows up at home first.

There is more on that in what the first few weeks really look like.

Bodies, and building

Large blocks, tyres and planks, and enough space to move properly, for the big movements. Real tools and utensils for the small ones. The sheet uses the phrase "prioritise hands on active learning", and in practice that means a child is usually holding something.

Stories, music and making

Autumnal core stories read often enough to be known by heart, props to go with songs and rhymes, and a wide range of mark making tools, which is the stage before writing and looks like scribbling to everyone except the child doing it.

Music is deliberately not one genre, and there are instruments for rhythm rather than only listening. Festivals are marked when they mean something to the children here, tied to what a child has actually experienced rather than to a calendar.

Come and see whether we manage it

A plan on a wall is a plan on a wall. The sheet is by the door, and you are welcome to read it yourself and then watch the room and see how much of it is happening. Ask for a visit, mid-morning, when there is most to see.