The children were so excited to come to nursery wearing their Christmas jumpers today. It was lovely to see every child take part and they excitedly showed their jumpers to their friends at carpet time. 

We engaged in lots of fun learning activities throughout the session. As it was also 'Feel Good Friday'  we had a go at some ribbon dancing and we played some parachute games in the outdoor area. This was lots of fun but also provided lots of opportunities for teamwork and developing our listening skills as well as those gross motor skills. The children also enjoyed creating their own Christmas jumpers using collage materials and mark making and we made reindeer food as a focused activity. 
At snack time, we had Christmas cake! Some of the children loved it but some weren't so keen! Ask your child if they liked their Christmas cake. 

The children in nursery enjoyed creating their very own chocolate reindeer today. Lots of the children could remember previous learning and knew how to melt the chocolate so they could pour it. They then added different toppings to create their reindeer. They learnt the word 'antlers' as they discussed what parts they needed to include.

Over the last couple of weeks, the children in nursery have been getting very creative while having a go at lots of different Christmas crafts. Here are a few photos of them engaged in making a tree decoration. 
The children will be bringing all their creations home next week.

This week we have lots of different activities related to Christmas for the children to explore. Our Maths area has been changed into a Christmas decorations shop and they can take their purchases back to the home corner to decorate their house and Christmas tree. We also have Christmas present list and shopping list paper in our home corner. In the mark making area, our enhancements include Christmas shaped paper, designing and writing Christmas cards and different Christmas pictures to create. There is also an opportunity to make marks in fake snow, while practising their different pre-writing shapes. 
Our book of the week is 'The Polar Express' and so we have a tray set up with this theme. The train track in our small world area is providing lots of opportunities to share and take turns. We have white glittery dough with Christmas cutters and snowflakes to catch in the water tray. Our music area is full of different bells to explore and a challenge to play and sing Jingle Bells.  

For our food activity today, we decorated Christmas shaped biscuits. There was lots of Scientific learning for the children as they mixed the icing and talked about how it changed using words such as runny and dripping. This  activity was also great for developing both their fine motor skills and concentration. They really had to concentrate to pour and spread the icing onto their biscuit and then they used their pincer grip to pick up and sprinkle on some toppings. Look at the concentration on their faces as they worked hard!