Nursery World - A parent's guide to knowledge and understanding of the world

As a parent you may have already encountered the seemingly endless 'why' questions. While sometimes these questions are a way of grabbing our attention, they are more often a sign that a child is thinking and noticing what is happening around him. Your child's curiosity about the immediate world is recognised in the Foundation Stage curriculum in a section entitled 'Knowledge and understanding of the world'. This area of learning is quite wide. Your child will be encouraged to observe and investigate, design and make things to learn about their immediate world. The skills, knowledge and understanding that they gain from this area of learning will form the basis for later work in school in science, geography, history, ICT and design and technology. What type of activities will my child be doing?

What type of activities will my child be doing?

The way in which nurseries and schools plan this curriculum area varies, but your child's nursery or school will be organising activities that encourage children to be active. Learning by touching, doing and observing is thought to help young children process information more easily and remember information, and so children are encouraged to think about and find out about their immediate world. This means that your child may go for a short walk to look at leaves during autumn or make a boat for the water tray to find out more about how things float and sink, as well as about materials that absorb water.

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