Creative Christmas Construction!
Santa's Little Helpers Set To Work
Pre-School's Construction Area saw a redesign for the festive period, including the addition of a work bench that would soon become the elves creation station. The children couldn't wait to put the elves costumes on and get to work on their first masterpiece.
With their green and red stripy hats on their heads, their pointy shoe covers on their feet and their bright green trousers pulled up to their waist, the children set to their first assignment; to make a car. They each took their places at the workbench, with one child putting the powered play drill into the holes in the wooden planks, another putting the bolts into the holes using the powered play screwdriver and the third child using the powered play torch to shine light onto their model, screwing the nut onto the bolt. The children directed their play well, each having an important role in producing the end product; their car model. They discussed how they made their model with a practitioner when asked and could explain what each part of the model was; "These are the wheels", "This is the window", "This is the door so they can get in and out of the car."
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The children in Pre-School often choose to play in Santa's Workshop during Choosing Time, with the Construction Area being a firm favourite area to play in when self-resourcing. One child decided to play in Santa's Workshop the day after Pre-School's trip to the local care home, Granville House, with one aim in mind. When speaking to one of the elderly ladies, he had asked what she would like from Santa for Christmas and discovered that she had recently misplaced her teddy bear that is usually on her bed, and would like to ask Santa for another one. Remembering this conversation, in particular, he set to work in Santa's Workshop in the hope of creating a model of a teddy bear from his new friend, Jean. He concentrated on the task in hand, maintain his concentration, attention and focus for a period of time and showed pride in his completed teddy bear model, smiling and giggling when welcoming praise from a practitioner.
Following on from this, with a little encouragement from a practitioner, he took to the Christmas themed writing table to write a gift tag for the teddy bear model he had made, a card to wish the residents at the care home a happy Christmas and a letter to Santa, requesting that he delivers his new friend Jean a teddy bear for Christmas. Click here to read more about the children writing their letters to Father Christmas