Festive Fun in Toddlers

Toddlers join in Christmas Activities

A Christmas themed morning full of activities was set up for the children in Toddler Room to join in.  The children stepped inside the messy room and didn't know what to start exploring first!

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Kelly, our Nursery Manager, had previously dyed some rice green and this was added to the tuff tray along with small Christmas themed pots, metal spoons, wooden trees and wooden snowmen. The children scooped up the rice and used excellent hand eye coordination to fill up the Christmas pots. This opened ended activity enabled the children to use their own imagination, with some children happily emptying and filling their pots and others playing with the wooden trees and snowmen. Kerry, one of our practitioners, watched as the children demonstrated their physical abilities and their Communication and Language skills as they communicated with their peers. Kerry scaffolded the children's learning by introducing simple maths concepts, for example, counting the trees and snowmen. She also used the mathematical vocabulary including "More" and "Less" when the children filled up their pots.

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Different coloured bows and ribbons filled up the water tray and hidden under these were different coloured baubles for the children to find. As the children found the baubles the practitioners encouraged the children to count them. A discussion about sizing was also introduced into the play with practitioners asking the children which one was bigger and which one was smaller.

Over in the sand tray our fantastic Time to Talk Champion Gail played a simple but effective game with the children. Several large snowflakes were hidden under the sand and Gail used hand gestures and simple words to ask the Toddlers where the snowflakes had gone . The children found this game fascinating and repeatedly asked Gail to play it again.

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To end the enjoyable festive morning the children grouped around the playdough table and used loose parts to make marks in their green playdough. The children squashed small hoops, beads, wooden sticks and fir cones into their dough.