The den:

We have had a very festive, fun filled week in The Den with lots of activities. The children created beautiful Christmas cards with festive stampers, explored a Christmas tuff tray and ate their Christmas dinner! 

Characteristics of effective learning: 

The children enjoyed making their Christmas cards this week with a range  of festive stampers. The children carefully selected which stamper they would like and we spoke to them about what they had chose. We used red and white paint and the children enjoyed stamping their stamper in the paint, then onto the picture. Some children love messy play so this was a lovely experience to sensorily explore paint and get messy! 

We also created a Christmas themed tuff tray for the children which included tinsel, baubles and stars. They were really keen to come over and have a look! The differences in textures was a great way to add some new words to their vocabulary and look at some new concepts. For example, some of the baubles were soft whereas others were rough. Some bounced when they dropped and others didn’t. So we talked lots about the differences in movements, shape, size and feel. We asked questions like “can you squeeze it?”, “what does it feel like?”, “can you roll/ bounce it?” 

The children are always curious when we are having snack so we have been asking them to choose what snack they would like. On this particular day, one of the children chose banana and orange, so that’s what we had. Instead of peeling it myself, I asked if the children could help me. They were really excited to have a go and be independent. I was really happy to observe some amazing focus as the children worked so hard to peel the oranges/ bananas. They showed amazing fine motor skills as they peeled off small pieces of skin. 

Parents as partners: 

🎄Our Christmas party is on Tuesday 16th December, children can come into nursery in party clothing or Christmas clothing is they wish.🎄

Children who don’t normally attend a Tuesday session, you are more than welcome to drop them off for 9:30-10:30

The children can also wear any Christmas attire during the week, for our last week of term.

We hope you have a lovely weekend!