What is 'Understanding the World?'

• Children are able to start to make sense of the world by understanding their own personal experiences. Sharing these experiences with you helps with this understanding.
• Personal experiences contribute to children’s emerging sense of place and time.
• Children build their vocabulary to describe their personal experiences and the world around them.
• Through active participation in opportunities to explore, investigate and discover, children develop their knowledge of the natural and made world.
• Children learn more about places, what has happened over time and science by talking and sharing information with a supporting adult.

Next steps

• Consider how the children are reflecting on their personal experiences. Can they tell you about local places they have visited? Can they recall when they visited? Can they sequence events? Are there prompts in the setting to support children’s talk when re-telling events?
• Note when children can talk about their journey to the setting and to other places they visit often.
• Check that children are using talk to show their knowledge of the world, including about the local area and the wider world. Listen to the vocabulary they use to describe, inform, predict and recall.
• Help children to develop their knowledge and sense of the world by talking with them about what they have seen and what interests them, such as buildings, television programmes, vehicles or food. Also, family events and celebrations, the weather, seasons and what it means to grow up from being a baby. Provide non-fiction and story books to expand and enrich children’s understanding of the world, for example books about places to visit, professions and families.