The Early Years Curriculum 

Communication and Language 

• Understand a question or instruction that has two parts, such as: “Get your coat and wait at the door”.
• Understand ‘why’ questions, like: “Why do you think the caterpillar got so fat?”
• Sing a large repertoire of songs.
• Know many rhymes, be able to talk about familiar books, and be able to tell a long story.
• Develop their communication but may continue to have problems with irregular tenses and plurals, such as ‘runned’ for ‘ran’, ‘swimmed’ for ‘swam’. Develop their pronunciation but may have problems saying: • some sounds: r, j, th, ch, and sh
• • multi-syllabic words such as ‘pterodactyl’, ‘planetarium’ or ‘hippopotamus’.
• Use longer sentences of four to six words.
• Use a wider range of vocabulary.
• Start a conversation with an adult or a friend and continue it for many turns.
• Be able to express a point of view and to debate when they disagree with an adult or a friend, using words as well as actions.
• Use talk to organise themselves and their play: “Let’s go on a bus... you sit there... I’ll be the driver.”

Personal, Social and Emotional Development 

• Select and use activities and resources, with help when needed. This helps them to achieve a goal they have chosen, or one which is suggested to them.
• Develop their sense of responsibility and membership of a community.
• Become more outgoing with unfamiliar people, in the safe context of their setting.
• Show more confidence in new social situations.
• Play with one or more other children, extending and elaborating play ideas.
• Find solutions to conflicts and rivalries. For example, accepting that not everyone can be Spider-Man in the game, and suggesting other ideas.
• Develop appropriate ways of being assertive. Talk with others to solve conflicts.
• Talk about their feelings using words like ‘happy’, ‘sad’, ‘angry’ or ‘worried’.
• Understand gradually how others might be feeling.
• See themselves as a valuable individual.
• Build constructive and respectful relationships.
• Express their feelings and consider the feelings of others

Physical Development

• Start taking part in some group activities which they make up for themselves, or in teams.
•  Increasingly be able to use and remember sequences and patterns of movements which are related to music and rhythm.
• Match their developing physical skills to tasks and activities in the setting. For example, they decide whether to crawl, walk or run across a plank, depending on its length and width.
• Choose the right resources to carry out their own plan. For example, choosing a spade to enlarge a small hole they dug with a trowel.
• Collaborate with others to manage large items, such as moving a long plank safely, carrying large hollow blocks.
• Use one-handed tools and equipment, for example, making snips in paper with scissors.
• Use a comfortable grip with good control when holding pens and pencils.
• Show a preference for a dominant hand.
• Be increasingly independent as they get dressed and undressed, for example, putting coats on and doing up zips

Maths 

• Develop fast recognition of up to 3 objects, without having to count them individually (‘subitising’).
• Say one number for each item in order:1,2,3,4,5.
• Know that the last number reached when counting a small set of objects tells you how many there are in total (‘cardinal principle’).
• Show ‘finger numbers’ up to 5.
• Solve real world mathematical problems with numbers up to 5..
• Link numerals and amounts: for example, showing the right number of objects to match the numeral, up to 5
• Compare quantities using language: ‘more than’, ‘fewer than’.
• Talk about and explore 2D and 3D shapes (for example, circles, rectangles, triangles and cuboids) using informal and mathematical language: ‘sides’, ‘corners’; ‘straight’, ‘flat’, ‘round’.
• Understand position through words alone – for example, “The bag is under the table,” – with no pointing Discuss routes and locations, using words like ‘in front of’ and ‘behind’.
• Make comparisons between objects relating to size, length, weight and capacity.
• Select shapes appropriately: flat surfaces for building, a triangular prism for a roof, etc.  Combine shapes to make new ones – an arch, a bigger triangle, etc

Literacy

• Understand the five key concepts about print:

 • print has meaning

 • print can have different purposes

• we read English text from left to right and from top to bottom

• the names of the different parts of a book

 • page sequencing

• Engage in extended conversations about stories, learning new vocabulary.
• Develop their phonological awareness, so that they can:
• • spot and suggest rhymes
•  • count or clap syllables in a word
• • recognise words with the same initial sound, such as money and mother
• Enjoy drawing freely
• Use some of their print and letter knowledge in their early writing. For example: writing a pretend shopping list that starts at the top of the page; writing ‘m’ for mummy. 
• Write some or all of their name.
• Write some letters accurately.
• Read individual letters by saying the sounds for them
• Blend sounds into words, so that they can read short words made up of known letter– sound correspondences

Understanding the World 

• Use all their senses in hands-on exploration of natural materials.
• Explore collections of materials with similar and/or different properties.
• Talk about what they see, using a wide vocabulary
• Explore how things work.
• Begin to make sense of their own life-story and family’s history.
• Continue to develop positive attitudes about differences between people.
• Show interest in different occupations.

Expressive Art and Design 

• Take part in simple pretend play, using an object to represent something else even though they are not similar.
•  Begin to develop complex stories using small world equipment like animal sets, dolls and dolls houses, etc.
• Make imaginative and complex ‘small worlds’ with blocks and construction kits, such as a city with different buildings and a park.
• Listen with increased attention to sounds.
• Respond to what they have heard, expressing their thoughts and feelings.
• Remember and sing entire songs.
• Sing the pitch of a tone sung by another person (‘pitch match’).
• Sing the melodic shape (moving melody, such as up and down, down and up) of familiar songs.
• Create their own songs or improvise a song around one they know
• Play instruments with increasing control to express their feelings and ideas.