‘Believing is the only magic that makes the utterly impossible completely possible, and the undoubtedly undoable undeniably doable! And, of all the different kinds of beliefs there are,the belief of a child is by far the most unbelievably unstoppable.’ The Christmasaurus – by Tom Fletcher

Saplings:

This week in Saplings, we began our countdown to Christmas.

We started off by making a fabulously festive handprint wreath which has been displayed for all to see on our wall.

The Saplings had so much fun creating minibeasts from modelling clay, cheekily telling the practitioners that spiders were hiding inside the Play-Doh.

One of this week’s mark-making activities saw the youngsters dip sticks into red and green paint as an alternative to conventional paintbrushes . River was able to vocalise her excitement as she used the stick creatively.

The Saplings thoroughly enjoyed Eric Hill’s book Spot’s Harvest, with the children demonstrating excellent listening skills as it was read out.

Stars Of The Week:

All of our Saplings – For embracing their creativity.

Seedlings and Acorns:

This week in Acorns and Seedlings, we’ve focused on all things festive.

On Monday, our Broughton Cottage elf bought presents for the children. The Acorns and Seedlings unwrapped them to discover different sized tins with various things inside. The tins were great for the children’s fine and gross motor skills.

We then made sensory bags with cotton wool, water, oil and sprinkles with the outline of a snowman on the front. We then challenged the children to move the cotton wool balls to build the snowman.

Later in the week, we had lots of fun making snow dough using baby lotion and cornflour. Nellie concentrated very hard on rolling it in her hands to make a ball, and Millie cleverly placed one ball upon another.

For our baking activity this week, the children adored making gingerbread men. The Seedlings and Acorns showed great control as they waited their turn to mix the ingredients together. Annabel loved pushing the cookie cutter into the dough and waw very proud of her efforts.

To end the week, we tasked the little ones with posting different coloured tissue paper into Father Christmas’ post box and provided them with different sized circle sponges to replicate baubles.

Finally, we set up a gloop Tuff Tray full of baubles. Freddie particularly enjoyed the texture of the mixture as it slips between his fingers.

Stars Of The Week:

Freddie – For using new words.

Seedlings – Arlo for using his Makaton without being prompted.

Oaks 1:

Advent began in Oaks 1 on Monday!

We made our own advent house and all thought of exciting activities to put behind each door. The children came up with the brilliant idea of a dinosaur-themed pass the parcel, Christmas dance competition and festive cake baking session. To expand our learning about the Christmas story, we also crafted Christingles, talking about God’s love for each and every one as we got to work.

The children have been busy scribing their letters for Father Christmas too, and have made beautiful cards to send to the residents at Nesbitt House. We’ve also been putting together a dry foods collection for local charity Loaves and Fishes. We think it’s so important to teach the children about caring for others in the community.

We were so excited to perform for you on Saturday, the children sang their little hearts out and we were delighted you enjoyed our show.

Stars Of the Week:

All our performers for such a lovely presentation.

Oaks 2:

This week, the Lower Oaks have loved all the Christmas activities that have been on offer.

The children worked collaboratively to make an amazing Christmas tree. Edward and Jasper held their brushes really well and demonstrated some great brush work as they helped to paint it a vivid shade of green. The practitioner showed Jasper the decorations that were to be hung on the tree and he was able to tell us he could see Santa, a reindeer, a star and an angel.

Oaks 2 also drew on wooden baubles with acrylic pens, and the designs were awesome. The children were very excited about making a snow globe with lots of Christmas objects inside.

Our week came to a close with an energetic animal sound guessing game. Theo absolutely excelled at this and was able to state the answer for every single sound.

Star of the Week:

Theo – For getting all the animal sounds right in our sound game.

Forest School:

This week at Forest School, we expanded the children’s knowledge of Father Christmas.

We discussed some of the places he would be visiting, such as Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom (countries where the children say their relatives live.) During this discussion, Alba confidently said she had been to Wales. Well done for sharing this with us, Alba. The children showed great empathy for others as they declared they would like all the children of the world who have very little, to receive presents ahead of them.

We then took to building a sleigh for Santa. The children were able to work effectively as a team as they scoured our woodland area for any sticks, twigs and logs that could be used for the project. If the log was long and heavy they enlisted their friend’s help and carried it together. As we got stuck into the task, we talked about Santa flying through the sky with his reindeer, delivering all the presents to the children.

Finally, we created a wonderful map showing Santa’s journey from the North Pole. It was amazing to see the children using their creative skills and imaginations in this way.