Kits News - 2nd December 2022
This week we have continued our topic of Christmas. The children have been busy practising for our Nativity play and we are all starting to feel very festive indeed!
To support our learning about Christmas traditions and understanding of the world we went on a community walk to observe the Christmas preparations and festivities around us! The children loved the walk and we spotted lots of Christmas decorations on the houses, shops and streets around us! We also spotted lots of Christmas trees and discussed the history of the tradition and the different ways people can decorate their trees at home.
During Free Play the children have loved engaging in small world play activities and we have created seasonal scenes such as an ‘Artic Express’ with the trains and tracks and a ‘Snowy Cave’ with the shaving foam, animals and building blocks.
During our Focus Time on Thursday we explored different Christmas spices. We talked about the different spices and what we use them for and then the children smelt the ground cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, giving their opinion on whether they liked them or not. They used spoons to spoon the different spices into pots and mixed them together to create their own special spice mix. We combined the spices with some wet ingredients and then moulded them into different shapes for some special secret Christmas surprises to take home at the end of term
Each week we have a Dance lesson with Miss Jade from Inspire Dance School. During our Dance sessions the children all have the opportunity to explore moving to different genres of Music and playing with a range of props. The children develop their gross motor skills as they wave scarves and ribbons in the air and learn to negotiate the space around them, watching out not to bump into their friends.
The lessons develop the children’s imagination as we go on imaginary adventures through oceans and forests and move in different ways such as jumping sideways and creeping quietly. The children also develop their listening skills as they listen to Miss Jade’s instructions to stop and go as she shakes and then hits the tambourine. As well as Dancing, the lesson helps support the children’s self-care as they practice taking their shoes off. We support the children in learning how to do this independently, demonstrating how to release the straps and how to pull their shoes off.