Daisykins Winter Activities

Practitioners at Daisykins Nursery in Rugby have been doing lots of different activities with the children relating to Winter and Christmas. Each room have decorated their own christmas tree and practitioners encouraged the children to add their own decorations and place them where they would like them to go. The reception area has also been decorated and the bus has been turned into a sleigh!Children in Pre-School have been practising very hard learning new songs for their Christmas concert ready to perform it in front of their parents/carers. A practitioner also set up a winter village for the children to play in, using fake snow, glitter and small-world people. Another activity the Pre-School children took part in was writing their own letters to Father Christmas. They drew pictures of the things they would like and told practitioners so they could write them down for them. The Pre-School role play area has had some new additions to the dressing up. Children have enjoyed pretending to be Mary, Joseph, the angel Gabriel, Father Christmas and Mrs Claus. Practitioners in the Baby room have also set up different activities for the babies to explore and take part in. They have made their own advent Christmas tree by painting the baby's hands green and then encouraging them to make handprints on the paper. They have also made handprint Reindeer for their Christmas display. Another activity that practitioners carried out was painting to make snowflakes. A practitioner covered a table in long strips of white paper and then squirted on some white and blue paint and sprinkled on some glitter. The babies were then encouraged to use their hands to spread the paint all over the paper, mixing the different colours and glitter together, using their senses to explore. After their painting had dried practitioners used their masterpiece to make snowflakes to hang in the room.[ngg_images source="galleries" container_ids="194" display_type="photocrati-nextgen_basic_slideshow" gallery_width="600" gallery_height="400" cycle_effect="fade" cycle_interval="3" show_thumbnail_link="0" thumbnail_link_text="[Show picture list]" order_by="sortorder" order_direction="ASC" returns="included" maximum_entity_count="500"] In Pre-School Minors the children have been making their own Christmas wreaths. The children were given washing up brushes and two different coloured green paint.  A member of staff made an example and then the children were encouraged to dip the brush into the paint and make marks on to the paper. After their pictures had dried the children added fingerprint berries by dipping their finger in red paint and dotting them on their wreath. They then had a choice of different coloured bows to add to their wreath. The Pre-School minors are also learning lots of Christmas songs as they are going to go and put on a performance for the old people. Toddler room had a visit from Claremont and they set up lots of different activities for the children to take part in. The toddlers enjoyed making their own sensory bottles, playing in the pretend snow with the winter animals, singing some Christmas songs while shaking the bells and having a festive story. They have also been making their own Christmas trees out of paper plates. Practitioners cut them into different sized pieces and then encouraged the children to use paintbrushes to decorate them with green paint and stick on different shaped sequins. As well as this they have made their own snow angels by pressing their hands into white and then making marks on the paper. At Daisykins nursery in Rugby practitioners like to ensure that all children are able to access a wide variety of activities. Many of these are based around the children’s interests and are set up to challenge them and help them to develop further. We like to encourage parents/carers to contribute to ideas for activities and practitioners like to plan activities here based on the children’s interest at home as well.