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Nursery · Balvatika 1 · ages 3–4

Nursery syllabus: what children learn, term by term

By March, a typical Nursery child recognises capital A–Z with their sounds and numbers 1–20, and traces both. Here is how most CBSE and English-medium schools get there, term by term, with a checklist and free ways to practise at home.

Check your child's Nursery skills (free, 5 min)Nursery worksheets

The Nursery year, term by term

The Indian school year runs April to March. Each term builds on the one before, with revision along the way.

  1. Term 1: Apr–Jun

    Pencil control
    Standing, sleeping and slanting lines
    Letters
    Capital A–G: recognise, say the sound, trace
    Numbers
    1–5: recognise, count, trace
    Comparing
    Big and small
    Shapes and colours
    Circle; red, yellow, blue
    Thinking
    Match the same, odd one out

  2. Term 2: Jul–Sep

    Pencil control
    Zig-zag and wavy lines, C and U curves
    Letters
    Capital H–N
    Numbers
    6–10
    Comparing
    Tall and short, long and short
    Shapes and colours
    Square, triangle; green, orange
    Thinking
    Sorting into groups

  3. Term 3: Oct–Dec

    Pencil control
    Curves and loops, mixed patterns
    Letters
    Capital O–Z
    Numbers
    11–15
    Comparing
    More and less, in and out, up and down
    Shapes and colours
    Rectangle; pink, purple, brown
    Thinking
    AB patterns

  4. Term 4: Jan–Mar

    Pencil control
    Tracing letters and numbers, mazes
    Letters
    A–Z revision: missing letter, letter to picture
    Numbers
    16–20, missing numbers
    Comparing
    Full and empty, thick and thin
    Shapes and colours
    Oval, semicircle, star, heart; black, white
    Thinking
    Small to big

End of Nursery checklist

What most children can do by the end of Nursery. It's fine to be still practising some: children grow at different speeds.

Pencil control and writing

  • Draws standing, sleeping and slanting lines
  • Draws curves, zig-zags and wavy lines
  • Traces capital letters A to Z
  • Traces numbers 1 to 10

Letters and sounds

  • Knows capital letters A to Z by name
  • Says and finishes nursery rhymes
  • Hears words that rhyme

Numbers

  • Counts up to 5 things
  • Counts up to 10 things
  • Matches numbers to amounts, up to 10
  • Counts on from 10 to 20, as ten and some more
  • Finds the numbers 11 to 20 and says what comes before and after

Shapes, colours and sizes

  • Knows opposites: up and down, hot and cold, wet and dry, fast and slow, thick and thin, near and far
  • Tells full from empty and more from less
  • Knows red, yellow and blue
  • Knows green, orange, pink, purple, brown, black and white
  • Knows circles, squares and triangles
  • Knows rectangles, ovals, semicircles, stars and hearts
  • Tells big from small, tall from short, long from short

Me and the world around me

  • Says where things are: in, on and under
  • Names feelings: happy, sad, angry and scared
  • Washes hands in order, shares, and says please, thank you and sorry
  • Knows animals and the sounds they make
  • Names the parts of the body
  • Knows the order of the day and simple good habits
  • Knows the five senses
  • Names family members
  • Knows where animals live and what they give us

Reading

  • Listens to a story and says what happened

Thinking and memory

  • Sorts things into groups
  • Finishes simple patterns
  • Remembers and matches pairs

Also taught in Nursery, best practised on paper: colouring inside the lines, writing numbers 1 to 20, odd one out and matching the same. The weekly Nursery worksheets cover these.

Practise at home

Free Nursery level check

About 5 minutes of spoken rounds. You see what your child can do and what to practise. No sign-up.

Weekly Nursery worksheets

A new set every Monday that follows this term, with your child's name on every page. One sheet free each week.

Games with Nursery levels

Questions parents ask

What is Nursery called now?

NCERT's curriculum for ages 3 to 8 (NCF-FS 2022) calls the three pre-school years Balvatika 1, 2 and 3. Nursery is Balvatika 1. Schools also call it Pre-KG.

What age is Nursery?

Most children are 3–4 years old in Nursery. The school year runs from April to March.

Does every school teach the same Nursery syllabus?

No. This is what most of the 28 school syllabi we read have in common, and schools put the topics in a different order. Some schools go further in Nursery: small letters matched to capitals, first sounds of words.

How can I tell if my child is on track for Nursery?

Try the free 5-minute level check: your child plays a few spoken rounds, and you see which Nursery skills they can already do and what to practise. No sign-up.

How we made this list

We read the published Nursery, LKG and UKG syllabi of 28 schools across India (DPS, Army Public Schools, Atomic Energy schools, DAV, Sunbeam and others, 2024 to 2027) and kept what most of them teach each term, on top of NCERT's foundational-stage guidance (NCF-FS 2022). The same list decides what our Nursery worksheets, games and report card cover.