🌿 Three & Four-Year-Olds
Prime + Specific areas · word-for-word from Development Matters
Communication & Language
- Enjoy listening to longer stories and can remember much of what happens.
- Pay attention to more than one thing at a time, which can be difficult.
- Use a wider range of vocabulary.
- 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; multisyllabic words such as 'pterodactyl', 'planetarium' or 'hippopotamus'.
- Use longer sentences of four to six words.
- 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.
- Start a conversation with an adult or a friend and continue it for many turns.
- Use talk to organise themselves and their play: “Let's go on a bus… you sit there… I'll be the driver.”
Personal, Social & 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.
- Increasingly follow rules, understanding why they are important.
- Remember rules without needing an adult to remind them.
- 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.
- Be increasingly independent in meeting their own care needs, e.g. brushing teeth, using the toilet, washing and drying their hands thoroughly.
- Make healthy choices about food, drink, activity and toothbrushing.
Physical Development
- Continue to develop their movement, balancing, riding (scooters, trikes and bikes) and ball skills.
- Go up steps and stairs, or climb up apparatus, using alternate feet.
- Skip, hop, stand on one leg and hold a pose for a game like musical statues.
- Use large-muscle movements to wave flags and streamers, paint and make marks.
- 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, or 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.
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.
- 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.
- Engage in extended conversations about stories, learning new vocabulary.
- 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.
Mathematics
- Develop fast recognition of up to 3 objects, without having to count them individually ('subitising').
- Recite numbers past 5.
- 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.
- Link numerals and amounts: for example, showing the right number of objects to match the numeral, up to 5.
- Experiment with their own symbols and marks as well as numerals.
- Solve real world mathematical problems with numbers 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.
- Describe a familiar route.
- 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.
- Talk about and identifies the patterns around them. For example: stripes on clothes, designs on rugs and wallpaper. Use informal language like 'pointy', 'spotty', 'blobs' etc.
- Extend and create ABAB patterns — stick, leaf, stick, leaf.
- Notice and correct an error in a repeating pattern.
- Begin to describe a sequence of events, real or fictional, using words such as 'first', 'then…'
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.
- Begin to make sense of their own life-story and family's history.
- Show interest in different occupations.
- Explore how things work.
- Plant seeds and care for growing plants.
- Understand the key features of the life cycle of a plant and an animal.
- Begin to understand the need to respect and care for the natural environment and all living things.
- Explore and talk about different forces they can feel.
- Talk about the differences between materials and changes they notice.
- Continue developing positive attitudes about the differences between people.
- Know that there are different countries in the world and talk about the differences they have experienced or seen in photos.
Expressive Arts & 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.
- Explore different materials freely, to develop their ideas about how to use them and what to make.
- Develop their own ideas and then decide which materials to use to express them.
- Join different materials and explore different textures.
- Create closed shapes with continuous lines, and begin to use these shapes to represent objects.
- Draw with increasing complexity and detail, such as representing a face with a circle and including details.
- Use drawing to represent ideas like movement or loud noises.
- Show different emotions in their drawings and paintings, like happiness, sadness, fear etc.
- Explore colour and colour-mixing.
- 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.
🌳 Children in Reception
Prime + Specific areas · word-for-word from Development Matters
Communication & Language
- Understand how to listen carefully and why listening is important.
- Learn new vocabulary.
- Use new vocabulary through the day.
- Ask questions to find out more and to check they understand what has been said to them.
- Articulate their ideas and thoughts in well-formed sentences.
- Connect one idea or action to another using a range of connectives.
- Describe events in some detail.
- Use talk to help work out problems and organise thinking and activities, and to explain how things work and why they might happen.
- Develop social phrases.
- Engage in story times.
- Listen to and talk about stories to build familiarity and understanding.
- Retell the story, once they have developed a deep familiarity with the text, some as exact repetition and some in their own words.
- Use new vocabulary in different contexts.
- Listen carefully to rhymes and songs, paying attention to how they sound.
- Learn rhymes, poems and songs.
- Engage in non-fiction books.
- Listen to and talk about selected non-fiction to develop a deep familiarity with new knowledge and vocabulary.
Personal, Social & Emotional Development
- See themselves as a valuable individual.
- Build constructive and respectful relationships.
- Express their feelings and consider the feelings of others.
- Show resilience and perseverance in the face of challenge.
- Identify and moderate their own feelings socially and emotionally.
- Think about the perspectives of others.
- Manage their own needs: personal hygiene.
- Know and talk about the different factors that support their overall health and wellbeing: regular physical activity; healthy eating; toothbrushing; sensible amounts of 'screen time'; having a good sleep routine; being a safe pedestrian.
Physical Development
- Revise and refine the fundamental movement skills they have already acquired: rolling; crawling; walking; jumping; running; hopping; skipping; climbing.
- Progress towards a more fluent style of moving, with developing control and grace.
- Develop the overall body strength, co-ordination, balance and agility needed to engage successfully with future physical education sessions and other physical disciplines including dance, gymnastics, sport and swimming.
- Develop their small motor skills so that they can use a range of tools competently, safely and confidently. Suggested tools: pencils for drawing and writing, paintbrushes, scissors, knives, forks and spoons.
- Use their core muscle strength to achieve a good posture when sitting at a table or sitting on the floor.
- Combine different movements with ease and fluency.
- Confidently and safely use a range of large and small apparatus indoors and outside, alone and in a group.
- Develop overall body-strength, balance, co-ordination and agility.
- Further develop and refine a range of ball skills including: throwing, catching, kicking, passing, batting, and aiming.
- Develop confidence, competence, precision and accuracy when engaging in activities that involve a ball.
- Develop the foundations of a handwriting style which is fast, accurate and efficient.
- Further develop the skills they need to manage the school day successfully: lining up and queuing; mealtimes.
Literacy
- 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.
- Read some letter groups that each represent one sound and say sounds for them.
- Read a few common exception words matched to the school's phonic programme.
- Read simple phrases and sentences made up of words with known letter-sound correspondences and, where necessary, a few exception words.
- Re-read these books to build up their confidence in word reading, their fluency and their understanding and enjoyment.
- Form lower-case and capital letters correctly.
- Spell words by identifying the sounds and then writing the sound with letter/s.
- Write short sentences with words with known letter-sound correspondences using a capital letter and full stop.
- Re-read what they have written to check that it makes sense.
Mathematics
- Count objects, actions and sounds.
- Subitise.
- Link the number symbol (numeral) with its cardinal number value.
- Count beyond ten.
- Compare numbers.
- Understand the 'one more than/one less than' relationship between consecutive numbers.
- Explore the composition of numbers to 10.
- Automatically recall number bonds for numbers 0-5 and some to 10.
- Select, rotate and manipulate shapes to develop spatial reasoning skills.
- Compose and decompose shapes so that children recognise a shape can have other shapes within it, just as numbers can.
- Continue, copy and create repeating patterns.
- Compare length, weight and capacity.
Understanding the World
- Talk about members of their immediate family and community.
- Name and describe people who are familiar to them.
- Comment on images of familiar situations in the past.
- Compare and contrast characters from stories, including figures from the past.
- Draw information from a simple map.
- Understand that some places are special to members of their community.
- Recognise that people have different beliefs and celebrate special times in different ways.
- Recognise some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries.
- Explore the natural world around them.
- Describe what they see, hear and feel whilst outside.
- Recognise some environments that are different to the one in which they live.
- Understand the effect of changing seasons on the natural world around them.
Expressive Arts & Design
- Explore, use and refine a variety of artistic effects to express their ideas and feelings.
- Return to and build on their previous learning, refining ideas and developing their ability to represent them.
- Create collaboratively, sharing ideas, resources and skills.
- Listen attentively, move to and talk about music, expressing their feelings and responses.
- Watch and talk about dance and performance art, expressing their feelings and responses.
- Sing in a group or on their own, increasingly matching the pitch and following the melody.
- Develop storylines in their pretend play.
- Explore and engage in music making and dance, performing solo or in groups.