Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children’s personal experiences increases their knowledge and sense of the world around them – from visiting parks, libraries and museums to meeting important members of society such as police officers, nurses and firefighters. In addition, listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems will foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. As well as building important knowledge, this extends their familiarity with words that support understanding across domains. Enriching and widening children’s vocabulary will support later reading comprehension.

ELG: Past and Present

• Talk about the lives of the people around them and their roles in society.
• Know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.
• Understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling.

ELG: People, Culture and Communities

• Describe their immediate environment using knowledge from observation, discussion, stories, non-fiction texts and maps.
• Know some similarities and differences between different religious and cultural communities in this country, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.
• Explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries, drawing on knowledge from stories, non-fiction texts and (when appropriate) maps.

ELG: The Natural World

• Explore the natural world around them, making observations and drawing pictures of animals and plants.
• Know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.
• Understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons and changing states of matter.

Nursery 3-4 Years Old

• Re-reading familiar books to begin to predict what comes next in the story.
• Who is in our family and what do we celebrate?
• Exploring the local area and talking about where we live.
• Exploring outdoors, what can we find in the environment?
• Joining construction toys together.
• Answering questions, what do you think will happen if…?
• Exploring nature in Forest school.

Reception 4-5 Years Old

• Learning about different festivals from across the world.
• Tasting and cooking food from different countries across the world.
• Look at globes, aerial photographs and maps from the local area and further afield.
• Talk about where we live, where other family members live and where we have been on holiday.
• Discussing the weather where we live and comparing to other places.
• Exploring nature in Forest school and discussing what we can do to look after the environment.
• Joining small construction with moving parts, such as marble runs and Lego express.
• Growing plants and herbs, what do they need to survive? How do we look after them?
• Performing experiments by being scientists, what will happen if I do this? Why do you think that will happen?

Birth to Three Years Old - babies, toddlers and young children will be learning to:

• Repeat actions that have an effect.
• Explore materials with different properties.
• Explore natural materials, indoors and outside.
• Explore and respond to different natural phenomena in their setting and on trips.
• Make connections between the features of their family and other families.
• Notice differences between people.

3 and 4-year-olds will be learning to:

• 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.

Children in reception will be learning to:

• 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 from the one in which they live.
• Understand the effect of changing seasons on the natural world around them.