The children are very excited about Christmas Time. They are learning lots of new vocabulary about the Nativity and also learning about a festival celebrated in Sweden – Sankta Lucia. It falls on the 13th December and we will be celebrating with Honor in our afternoon session on this date. We will be having a procession and special food, and we will be developing respect for others and their beliefs, festivals and customs.
The children have been enjoying the sparkly play dough with numbered Christmas play dough mats. They have to add 3 buttons to the snowmen, 2 antlers to each reindeer, 1 bobble to Santa’s hat etc. They are enjoying manipulating the dough to make these, and they are also using their senses to smell the dough now ginger and cinnamon spices have been added.
At the sand and water area the children are matching baubles by size, colour and pattern and then hanging them onto a small wooden tree. There have been several art and craft activities on offer. The children have made Christmas Crackers – estimating and cutting paper to size. They enjoyed the cellophane paper as the bright colours were transparent and they discovered what happened when they looked through it. We have Christmas puzzles and games, which are very popular. On the Maths table the children are matching patterned presents to matching tags and also talking about the 3D gift shapes. The children will soon be putting into the correct order, smallest to largest, groups of Christmas objects. They are also weighing baubles on scales to see if they can get them to balance.
On the computer and whiteboard they are enjoying Christmas games, whilst learning to take turns and share. “Cbeebies” decorate the Christmas tree with the Tweenies, has been particularly popular.
The singing practise for the concert is well underway with some fantastic singing being heard right through the Nursery – some louder than others and some shouting rather than singing all adds to the fantastic fun we are all having. They will shortly experience the energy and excitement of performing for an audience.
At circle time this week we will be consulting with the children and find out what they already know about Christmas and what they would like to find out over the next couple of weeks. The comments will be on display in the entrance so please take time to look at them.
