‘I heard a bird sing in the dark of December. A magical thing. And sweet to remember. We are nearer to spring than we were in September. I heard a bird sing in the dark of December.’ Oliver Herford

Saplings:

This week, the Saplings have continued their festivities firstly by helping to paint our cardboard Christmas tree. Once dry, they decorated it with different shapes. Nellie showed very precise fine motor skills when using a paintbrush. As we got creative, we chatted about our own decorations at home.

The Saplings also enjoyed using cookie cutters to decorate the envelopes that will house their fantastic artwork. Leo correctly identified all of the cutters and said he liked Santa Claus.

The children loved exploring the sensory toys too this week. Annabel particularly liked the button sensory squares.

We have started to read a Christmas story called Aliens Love Panta Claus by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort. A favourite part of the plot was when the aliens visit Santa in Lapland and Santa jumps into the flying saucer to deliver presents. Harvey proudly told practitioners that he went to Lapland with his nanny and Father Christmas gave him a gift!

Stars Of the Week:

Annabel and Nellie – For being very brave during their visits to Saplings.

Oaks 1:

Oaks 1 have been extending their festive learning by looking at warming spices.

We baked gingerbread and had fun grinding spices with our pestle and mortar. Cinnamon, cloves, star anise and ginger have been of particular interest. Next week we are making apple and cinnamon swirls.

As we baked, we spoke about the many health benefits of cinnamon such as the fact it’s packed full of antioxidants.

In other news, we have written our letters to Nesbitt House and decorated cards to brighten the residents’ festive period. We are still gathering up dry store items for the Loaves and Fishes food bank and any donations from yourselves would be greatly appreciated.

We’d like to say a huge thank you for all your support with our nativity. What a wonderfully comical morning it was and magical to have so many families join us.

Star Of the Week:

Amalie – for keeping us all in check.

Forest school:

We voted on our next move and overwhelmingly the children decided to down tools and walk the golfers’ path which brought us to beautiful rolling fields, a fabulous lake and many yellow markers leading the way to ?????????. Lyra and Alaire were particularly eagle eyed and spotted them along our route ensuring we kept strictly to the path, noting which way they indicated, straight on, to the left, to the right. We had to negotiate several gates, a tunnel and a stream which the children navigated with skill and dexterity, risk assessing each for themselves. Back at basecamp the children decorated the table with gorgeous wreath making materials, combining rosemary, bay, conifer, pine, and ivy and achieved a lovely Christmas backdrop for our lunch, all fantastically prepared by the children.

Oaks 2:

This week in Oaks 2, we have been continuing our Christmas theme.

The children have been preparing their hats for the party next week which is on Wednesday 17 December from 2.30pm to 4.30pm. If your child doesn’t attend nursery on this day, we would love them to join us, please drop them to nursery 10 minutes before we are due to start.

We’ve also embraced the warmer, sunnier weather and have managed to spend most days outdoor, enjoying eating al fresco too. The children boosted their gross motor skills with lots of balancing, running and lifting.

We also worked on honing our hide and seek skills. Playing this game at home can help you strengthen your child’s communication skills as well.

Star Of the Week:

River – For her ability to transition into her new class with ease. We’re all very proud of her.

Acorns and Seedlings:

This week in Acorns and Seedlings, we have focussed on Christmas activities.

We placed our Christmas cards inside plastic sleeves so our Acorns could combine sensory play with creativity by using their fingers and hands to move paint around the card. The children loved manipulating the colours by pushing and patting the paint.

We used our imaginations to colour cardboard cookies with paint sticks and posted them through our North Pole post-box to help develop our fine motor skills. Further crafting activities saw us have fun creating snowman paintings using recycled cardboard tubes. We made bold and bright handprint baubles too which will soon adorn your trees.

In the spirit of Christmas, we made some reindeer food using oats, raisins and sprinkles. The youngsters helped mix the ingredients before scooping it into cones ready to take home in time for Father Christmas’ arrival!

Seedlings Star of The Week:

Nellie – For all her help with tidying up and demonstrating impressive independence when carrying out daily tasks.

Acorns Star of The Week:

Georgia – For being so polite at mealtimes and always saying please and thank you.