Exploring the garden redevelopment. (Wk. beg. 10th January 2011)

Having spent the previous week watching the diggers, the children had great fun using the newly tarmacked area of the garden last week.

The first time they went out there was lots of excited running around.

Later they found out what a good surface it is for riding their bikes and other wheeled toys on and for practising their balancing.

Yet more fun with diggers!

Children learn best when involved in something that interests them.

Their fascination with the diggers in the garden enabled us to work on their fine motor skills as they made a collage from pictures of construction machinery, clothing and materials.

Some of the older children took great care cutting out a digger.

The younger children were able to do some

snipping with adult help and enjoyed sticking on their pictures

to make the collage now displayed in the nursery hallway.

On Friday they produced some lovely still life paintings of....you guessed it .... diggers!!

Again even the youngest children took part, experimenting while

mixing prime colours and exploring the texture of the paint.

More diggers!! January 2011

This week we have had more work going on in the garden. We are having an area tarmaced for the children to use in all weathers, particularly for their ride-on toys.

The children have been very interested in the diggers and other

machinery in the garden,

so at group-time we showed and explained to them the long term plans.

They later enjoyed using their toy diggers and tractors for their painting.

Christmas singing Friday 17th Dec

One of our favourite group activities is singing, our youngest children learning from their older friends and particularly enjoying action songs.

Two of our favourite Christmas songs are;

'Christmas Pudding'

ChristmasPudding

Christmas Pudding

Steaming hot

Steaming hot

Sprinkle on

some sugar

Sprinkle on some sugar

Eat the lot! Mmmmm!

Eat the lot! Mmmmm!

and a seasonal variation of a regular favourite, 'Twinkle,twinkle Christmas Star'

On Friday this week we did a final run through of our two Christmas favourites

before Overbury school visited us at nursery to sing some carols.

Then we joined them at the Court as first they performed before we had our turn to shine!

Father Christmas

Santa embracing IT!!

This week the nursery children received a personalised email message direct from Father Christmas. Using his web cam he showed us round

his home, introduced us to his reindeer and consulted his list to find out if the children had been behaving and check what they wanted for Christmas.

It was obviously a recorded message, as later the same day Father Christmas turned up in person. He gave out small gifts, as he will be back to visit all good little boys and girls on Christmas Eve! When he had gone we played some party games and danced to our Christmas music.

Christmas Painting 8th - 10th December

On Wednesday last week the children took great care to create very personal and individual paintings of snowmen and were all very proud of their creations.

Then on Friday a group of children enjoyed a group activity splashing red paint everywhere to make a Christmas Post Box for cards for their friends.

Christmas Activities 6th - 10th Dec

The children have been busy for some time now with craft activities for Christmas - but we can't show photos or

reveal details for fear of spoiling

the surprise!!

However we can show everyone pictures of both the nursery and

After-School club children decorating our Christmas tree.

And this week we have been making decorations both for nursery and to take home ...

The nursery children (even those as young as 2!) surprised us by embracing an activity provided for the Breakfast and After-School club children. They took great care pushing cloves into oranges to create pomanders which both looked and smelled beautiful.

And even our baking this week was festive ... chocolate shortbread Christmas trees!

'The Night Before Christmas'

Last Thursday afternoon (2nd December) the older nursery children walked to the village hall to see Overbury school's Christmas play.

They really enjoyed it the performance, they were engrossed.

They particularly liked all the animals - mice, dogs and reindeer, and Father Christmas of course. They also enjoyed looking out for the school children they have come to know from Breakfast and After-school club.

The show obviously put them in a Christmassy mood, all the way back to nursery they sang the Christmas songs we have been learning at nursery!

Fun in the snow

The snow might have caused problems up and down the country, but if you are under 5 all it means is an opportunity to have fun and explore.

The children had fun chasing each other round and making footprints.

And in the digging pit they wondered what had happened to the big holes they had made in the mud!!