Our Christmas themed play has continued this week linking our real life experiences with our imaginations. Imaginary play helps foster our creativity and develops our ability to take on different perspectives and roles. We have been reindeers, elves, mums, dads and other family members and we have included Santie visits to the house, Santie’s helicopter visiting the ferry, parties and Christmas preparations in our play. By playing together in the home corner and using small world resources we develop our language and communication skills as we talk and listen to each other during our play. Playing together helps develop important self-regulation skills as we experience, and learn to manage, our emotions and co-operate with each other.
Santie, families and Christmas have also been topics of conversations in our mark making this week as we made Christmas cards and decorations and wrote letters to Santie. Other mark making has included painting, chalk drawing and “writing” TV programmes, shopping lists and instructions as well as decorating a “house” and “spaceship”. Mark making as part of our play allows us to represent our thoughts and ideas, express our feelings and, this week, has enabled us to create gifts for people we love. Being motivated to make marks, and feeling successful in our mark making, early in our lives helps us become confident and motivated writers of the future.
The Smartboard has been used to learn about shapes and number through games on Smartboard. Creating gingerbread men has stimulated discussion around 2D shape, decorating Christmas trees and giving Teddy presents have been great ways to develop our counting skills and links with our current interest around Christmas.
This week we also enjoyed a walk to see some nearby Christmas lights and celebrated Christmas jumper day and delicious Christmas lunch. Experiencing celebrations, such as Christmas, in our local environments develops our understanding of the world around us and helps us to link special events with seasons and months of the year.
The big blocks have been used as a stage a few times this week however our interests have moved on to creating new designs, including New York City and a home TV! During the construction phases we revealed a lot of our knowledge through our discussions with each other. “Dis is the statue of liberty, she is ower yunder, no near dis bit”, “I’m building the tallest skyscraper becis dir is peerie skyscrapers and really really tall ones”, “New York has lots of tall building”, “I’m going to New York when I am big”, “New York is very very far awa”. Miss Sandison put up some aerial views of New York on the Smartboard to further our interest and knowledge. When building the TV we discussed seating and the tv programmes we would watch which included a Christmas movie and a “funny film”. Other block play has included castles and boat engines.
It’s been rather wet outside this week which has meant a lot of our learning has naturally revolved around water play. We have explored how water seeps through cracks, is soaked up by sand and we have explored depth and size through puddle jumping and splashing. It is important for the adults around us to help us engender a joy of nature by allowing us to connect with nature in all weathers. When we play outdoors we form deeper connection and understanding of weather and nature and develop our understanding of the world through direct experience.
Indoors our interest in water has continued. Our water tray has been used for small world polar play which included a walrus. We learned that a walrus called Freya is visiting Shetland just now and that she has been swimming for a lots and lots of miles! We have also continued our families play through washing our babies in the tray, just as we did last week. This week we used a lot of bubbles and squeezy sponges and took turns washing babies. Squeezing and twisting sponges helps develop hand, finger and wrist strength for writing. Waiting for our turn and discussing the features of the babies as we washed them develops our emotional regulation and our knowledge of body parts.
Playdough has been as popular as ever this week too. We have created wraps, croissants, lollipops, pizzas and breads to name a few. We’ve “baked” our creations in the pretend oven and added features using loose parts such as cinnamon sticks, cloves and dried oranges. Our playdough play has helped us develop finger, hand, wrist and arm strength and has supported our talking and listening skills as we shared our ideas with each other as well as the playdough and loose parts. Our mathematics and numeracy skills were supported through our use of loose parts, exploration of shape, size, amount and quantity and use of measurement and time in our play. We learn so much when using playdough!
Other sensory play that has interested us this week is exploring kaleidoscopes. Kaleidoscopes are great for increasing curiosity, awareness of pattern, develops scientific understanding and help us become aware of our senses. Twisting the kaleidoscopes with our hands and fingers develops our fine motor control too. Miss Manson got some fabulous artistic photos of our exploration!
And finally books have played a big part in our week too. We have used them as part of family play, have relaxed with books and have shared stories together. Having books easily accessible around the setting which we can discuss with each other, “read” and listen to helps develop our love of reading which makes us motivated readers in the future. Playing with books, flipping pages from left to right, exploring words, pictures and sensory aspects of books develops understanding of books and our engagement in them.
So that’s our final blog of 2022! Next week we have the Christmas party on Monday and a streamed panto which children can watch if they want to on Tuesday. We hope you all have a lovely Christmas holiday and that Santie is good to you all.
