Feeling festive
DAISIES
Last week in Daisies, the babies have had lots of fun getting messy with the Christmas craft, making lots of exciting things for Mummy’s and Daddy's! They made lots of reindeer food with edible glitter and have also had lots fun emptying and filling with pasta and rice. The children enjoy doing this so messy play features weekly!
Daisies have also been very interested in the balloons this week. Some of the children like pushing them around and hitting them in the air. They have also enjoyed making marks with the chalk as well as tasting it. The grown-ups have been teaching the children not to eat it!
The children have had some exciting new toys delivered too! Daisies have had great fun with the new toys and have loved exploring them.
Daises finished off the week dancing to Christmas songs and wearing their Christmas jumpers.
Hope you all had a great weekend!
DRAGONFLIES
Dragonflies have had a lovely, busy week this week!
Dragonflies started off the week with a visit to the big garden. The children loved exploring the different toys and resources, especially the water trays and the balance bikes!
They also went over to explore the sensory room over in the Munchkins building this week! Dragonflies had lots of fun playing with the different sensory equipment, and having some nice quiet time looking at the different fairy lights.
Dragonflies have been very messy and creative as always. The children have been doing fun Christmas crafts, group paintings, chalk drawings and exploring shaving foam, sand and gloop!
Hope you all had a lovely weekend!
INCY WINCY SPIDERS
Last week, Incy Wincy Spiders have been becoming more aware of their friend, and building friendships. The children have enjoyed spending lots of time together and getting involved in different activities with each other, such as, chasing each other in garden, giving cuddles one to another, rocking to go sleep and holding hands and even more!
Incy Wincys have been exploring the musical instruments and the different sounds they make. The children played with musical instruments using word "share" when they want to play the same instruments. They were creative and used different instruments to create lots of beautiful music.
The children have also been getting creative making some frozen snowflakes! They used the paint to colour their snowflakes, making both long and short lines and squiggles. Incy Wincys loved sprinkling the glitter over their creations with either their fingers or using the shaker – “sprinkle, sprinkle!”
Hope everyone had a lovely weekend.
BUSY BEES
Last week in Busy Bees was very creative.
The children really enjoyed making biscuits! They began by mixing the ingredients. This meant taking time to look at a recipe and learn the different ingredients that we needed. Each child had their own ingredient. Each of the children took turns to measure and add an ingredient. This really taught the children not only to take turns and understand that sometimes they may need to wait but also to understand different measurements and quantities. When the mixture was all mixed together and formed a dough it was time to cut out our biscuits. To begin with the children wanted to do Christmas baubles so we used a circular cup to cut them out, after a little while one of the little girls suggested that we make biscuit bowls instead. "Then I can have my ice cream in it!" This was amazing not only were we taking time to look at shapes while cutting the biscuits out but also what a wonderful use of their imagination and taking the initiative to suggest something different.
Baking is a favourite activity of mine to do with children so I would always suggest doing this at home. It is a wonderful way to not only show your child how things change but it also gives them a chance to create their own things and also is an early age way of teaching about safety. “Hot oven, cutting the butter safely." Please feel free to ask if you want any of my recipes I'll be happy to share!
Throughout the week the children also were very excited by new toys introduced including lots of big floor puzzles. Puzzles are a great way of having calm down quiet time and floor puzzles are a great way of making the children more aware of the space around then.
With lots of fun activities like drawing and painting and lots of Christmas craft, it was a fun week in Busy Bees!
LADYBIRDS
As Christmas gets closer, Ladybirds have been talking more and more about the big day - "I see Father Christmas, he give me toy!"
Ladybirds have continued on with their Christmas craft to promote this and some of the children even joined Busy Bees in making Christmas biscuits. The children worked together to roll out the dough, mix it and cut out the shapes. Of course the best part of this was when thy got to eat the biscuits at tea!
The children have been giving each other lots of affection this week and playing together wonderfully. Some of the children worked together to complete a colour puzzle book, giving directions such as, "that bit goes there". Ladybirds have also had lots of cuddles going on and a few new friendships starting to blossom.
Hope you had a wonderful weekend.
PRESCHOOL
Preschool have had a great week with A LOT of Christmas prep. The children have completed making their fireplace, painted it and decorated it and its up ready for father Christmas next to Preschool’s tree. The children worked with Betony to stick lots of boxes together, papermache over the top and then painted it. Some great shows of working together and taking turns - both an important part of the children Personal Social and Emotional development. This also helps with their creativity. The children came up with what they thought a fireplace looked like and used the computer to compare their thoughts to what they really look like. Looking at ideas on the computer combines their ideas with technology, part of the children's Understanding the World.
The children have been passionate about jumping last week! Preschool have brought the big wooden unit blocks inside and they have been constantly testing their abilities by making taller and taller block towers to jump from. The children have talked lots about being risky and safe, testing their predictions and teaching them about the appropriate way to land. This is great for the children's core strength and balance, part of their Physical development.
Hope everyone had a great weekend!
Last week the children have been getting into the festive spirit by continuing their Christmas crafts and enjoying baking and messy play.
