Squirrels News - 9th December 2022
This week we have been busy at work in our festive post office where the Squirrels have been writing letters to Father Christmas and posting cards to their friends and family. The postal workers were all extremely busy making sure everything gets to where it should be in time for Christmas and it was great to see everyone working together as a team to get the job done!
Around the classroom we have been developing our fine motor skills through a variety of festive activties. We used green playdough to create Christmas trees which we decorated with loose parts and later in the week we continued to use the loose parts to decorate a tree made out of paper chains. In other activities, the children loved using the garlic crushers to make food for the farm animals as well as threading beads and re-enacting the nativity story.
Outside we explored planting, letter recognition and developed our balance and coordination skills. During our Focus time we have been concentrating on positional language as well as rehearsing for our upcoming Nativity performance.
As the temperature has dropped it has been feeling ever more Christmassy and we all enjoyed wrapping up nice and warm to partake in a community walk where we visited the local market to look at all the wonderful Christmas trees and wreaths. As we walked around, we found a wonderful sign which said 'Balham Does It Better' as well as a wonderful shop window display which looked like a snow globe! Our community walks are a great way to expand the children’s observation skills and curiosity and to increase their understanding of their local community and the world around them.
Later in the week we had a lovely time on our final Outdoor Learning Day of the term. On the way we met two police officers named Barry and James who told us all about their jobs as police officers and the children enjoyed telling them about the things which are important to them such as birthdays and pets.
When we arrived at the common the children were extremely excited when they discovered we had a wonderful treat of sugar free hot chocolate and gingerbread biscuits. We then had to use our problem solving skills as unfortunately Father Christmas had got himself stuck in a tree. The children searched high and low for sticks that might be long enough to free him. Everyone loved this game and were always surprised when Father Christmas hadn't learnt his lesson and just kept getting stuck. At this point having met the police earlier it was suggested that we should ask for their help as they could provide us with a big ladder. Unfortunately they had moved on from where we met them but that was ok as luckily by the time we left the common Father Christmas had learnt his lesson and came safely back to nursery with us!