Welcome back to Blackberry House Day Nursery Newsletter! In our monthly issues we will be letting you know of the achievements and beautiful learning opportunities that children engaged in that month from across our four settings. We will also be providing you with two articles that will keep you informed within the sector and might even provide some helpful information! In this month’s issue we have produced a few fun activities for you to do with your little ones at home over the Christmas break 😊
Thank you for your continued support and enjoy reading!
Summary
This month has certainly been a very exciting one for all the children and all staff, as we got into our festive spirits and celebrations! The children participated in loads of Christmas activities and celebrations across the entire group. Our teams and our little ones participated in Christmas dinners and enjoyed wearing their Christmas jumpers for nearly the entire month! Our parents participated in our Winter Wonderland events and spent time with their children making beautiful Christmas crafts and enjoying some hot chocolates! Our children participated in trying out different out different and new foods as we all sat down together to have a Christmas dinner as a whole room/setting.
Our parents participated in our Winter Wonderland events and spent time with their children making beautiful Christmas crafts and enjoying some hot chocolates! Our children participated in trying out different out different and new foods as we all sat down together to have a Christmas dinner as a whole room/setting.
Under 3's
Our under 3’s have been super busy continuing to explore their environments and learning opportunities presented by their practitioners. Our biggest focus was Celebrations as the children created beautiful Christmas pictures and creations. They continued to develop their senses as they worked on their sense of smell and touching various textures. The weather allowed us to spend much more time outside this month, which was lovely as we continued to explore the forest and our gardens. The children took amazing walks to explore the local area and worked on their self-expression as they made gorgeous paintings. All children also participated in making gifts for their loved ones, which made everybody super happy!
Over 3's
Our older children also explored our various celebrations and activities that were linked to Christmas. The children loved creating their crafts to take home and gift to their loved ones. The children participated in creating our very own gingerbread biscuits and playdough, as they carefully worked on measuring the ingredients. We put our Little Chefs’ hats on as we helped our chefs prepare the biscuits for us to decorate. We also loved having hot chocolate as we worked on measuring the water and the hot chocolate powder. The children worked very hard on their maths as they engaged in plenty of opportunities to count our elves, count the snowman’s buttons or count the noses on the reindeers.
Links to Development Matters
Christmas Wishes
As a group we would like to thank all of our families for their continued support this year. It has been an incredible year full of achievements and successes across all of our settings. We are very grateful for the love and trust we are receiving from our families and for the opportunities to support your children through their first steps in their education.
We are also very grateful for the hard work and amazing practice our teams and individual staff are bringing to our settings each day.
We have achieved so much across the group, and have had some amazing moments and memories that we will cherish as the years go on.
We would like to wish all of our families, our teams and their loved ones a very Merry Christmas and a beautiful New Year. We hope that your Christmas is spent with your loved ones and that you make beautiful memories. We hope that the new year brings us all further success and love, and that we continue to build beautiful relationships and make amazing memories together.
We couldn’t have done it with you!
Thank you for your continued support.
Have a magical Christmas and an exciting New Year!
Love, The Blackberry House Day Nursery and Forest School group.
December 2024
Activities To Do At Home
Please see below a range of activities for you to do during your time at home throughout the Christmas Break. Feel free to send in any pictures when you are carrying out the activities. If you do any other activities, please also send these through too so we can see what you have been up too.
Paper plate Christmas Tree
Cut a paper plate into three.
Line them up on top of each other but enough to create a layer to decorate
Find anything sparkly or colourful to decorate your tree to make your own version of a Christmas tree
Time for a picnic!
Choose anywhere you like in your home or your garden
Gather all your favourite foods and have a picnic with your household
For your picnic why not make some melting snowmen biscuits or Rice Krispie Christmas puddings!
Time for a Winter Scavenger Hunt
What can you find in your garden or on a walk around your local environment?
What marks do they make if dip them into water?
Where do the animals live?
Water Play
Have a splash around with some colourful water play, find a large container to create green or red water and add some pom poms, glitter or baubles?
How many items can you catch in the water?
Can you wash your favourite toys using a sponge and some soap?
Make a boat using bottle tops, straws & paper.
Out in the Garden
Can you draw your favourite thing to do in the garden in winter?
What can you hear in the garden?
Can you make marks in the frost in your garden?
Let’s get messy!
Did you know that if you mixed water and cornflour together you can make gloop!
Why not make playdough – add any colour or flavour scent you like such as lemon juice, vanilla extract or even spices.
Have an experiment with colours by mixing a range of coloured paints together to see what you can make.
Reading your favourite story
Find a cosy area in your home, get some cushions and blankets.
Find your favourite book and read it with someone in your home.
After why not try and draw your favourite character from that book, we would love to see a picture of it!
