December has flown by with all the excitement of Christmas being just around the corner and the added excited of being lucky enough to see some snow.
All plans were halted on the arrival of the snow, so the children could go out and enjoy and learn from the real experience, many of whom have not seen snow before. Children across all age groups enjoyed making snowballs and snowmen talking about how the snow was wet and sticky. As a class we discovered how it melted in our hands and we discussed why that was. Following our interest in footprints in forest school we also made footprints in the snow and looked at the marks left by our shoes, we compared these to the footprints left behind by the birds too.
EYFS link:
Understanding the World – Talks about why things happen and how things work – 30 – 50 months
FUN FACT: The largest snowflake recorded was 15 inches wide
Keeping warm inside, the children have been exploring all things Christmassy. We started the month by decorating the trees and putting all our wonderful Christmas decorations up. The children were fascinated by how the real trees felt prickly as we hung the baubles up. Throughout the start of December as a Nursery group we have been practicing our Christmas songs ready for our first ever Virtual Christmas Carol Concert.
Our favourite songs have been, When Santa Got Stuck Up the Chimney, Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer and Jingle Bells. We have explored these further, by using the construction area to build our own models of chimneys and look at examples of different types. We have used big carboard boxes to decorate and turn into a sleigh for the reindeer which we role played flying and delivery presents to our friends. As part of our ECAT the children have been practicing their listening and attention skills to develop rhythm and patterns using the bells to shake quietly, loudly, quickly and slowly whilst singing jingle bells.
EYFS link:
Communication and language – Enjoy rhymes and demonstrates listening by trying to join in with actions or vocalisations – 16 – 26 months
Expressive Arts and design- Joins in singing favourite songs – 22 – 36 months
FUN FACT: The song Jingle bells is over 150 years old
Not forgetting we also joined in with Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day, thank you for all the donations to this fantastic charity, it was lovely to see all the different jumpers, especially the singing/light up ones.
The children have enjoyed making their own Christmas jumpers across all three of our settings. The children used felt tip markers, glue and different textured collage materials, talking about the colours and how they feel. We also discussed different patterns that the children could make using the materials and extending this on to talk about our own Christmas jumpers that we have worn today.
The children have been busy making their own natural resources Christmas decoration as well as a delicious cake, which we hoped the children enjoyed taking home. Carrying out activities such as cooking is a great way to support children with learning mathematical language, talking about measuring and how much the ingredients weigh. It is also a great way to teach children about life experiences.
WE RAISED £300 – Thank you again to all those who donated.
FUN FACT: One in five Britain’s will wear a Christmas jumper on Christmas day
EYFS link:
CL – Builds up vocabulary that reflects the breadth of their experiences. (30-50Months)
UTW – Recognises and describes special times or events for family or friends. (30-50Months)
EAD – Experiments with blocks, colours and marks (22-36Months)
We have continued our Christmas themed activities looking at the different sensory aspects of the festive season with the Under 2’s enjoying sensory trays with artificial snow and arctic animals and this led them on to their interests of arctic artwork and making some lovely penguins where they practised making penguin sounds and walking like penguins.
EYFS link:
PD – Enjoys the sensory experience of making marks in damp sand, paste or paint (8-20 Months)
The children had a chance to participate in another Christmassy themed sensory tray looking at Christmas decorations and talking about the shapes of the objects that they have found and describing the textures. They talked about their Christmas Trees at home and the different decorations and colours that they have on their trees.
EYFS link:
UTW – Remembers and talks about significant events in their own experience. (30-50 Months)
M – Beginning to categorise objects according to properties such as shape or size (22-36 Months)
As a Blackberries Group all children have been busy creating Christmas artwork. They have used their fine motor skills to use pegs to paint snowball pictures. They have also made gingerbread men in cooking club and this then led them to create their own gingerbread people using jewels to glue and decorate the templates.
