It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

...'Everywhere you go!

There's a tree in Garden Dais, one inside as well.

It's the sturdy kind that doesn't mind the snow.'

Decorating Christmas trees is a festivity that dates back to the 15th Century when the Pagan tradition of using green leaves of evergreen trees to decorated homes started. This originated as a design to symbolise life amid the dark, cold winter nights. At Daisykins Nursery the Pre-School children each took turns in helping to decorate the Christmas Tree in Garden Dais, our outdoor area.[ngg src="galleries" ids="276" display="basic_slideshow"]Not only did this help us get into the Christmas spirit, but also supported the children's Personal, Social and Emotional, Mathematics and Understanding the World development as the practitioners promoted the children's learning throughout the activity.The children co-operated with each other through-out, sharing and taking turns, waiting patiently until they could place another decoration on the tree. They welcomed praise from the practitioners and their friends when they had secured their decoration onto the tree and talked about how decorating the tree made them feel. They expressed a range of emotions including; "happy", "Christmassy" and "excited".Practitioners encouraged the children to count a given amount of baubles before placing them on the tree and promoted the use of prepositional language, asking them to place their ornament "on the branch underneath the bauble", "beside the snowman ornament" and "on the branch above the elf ornament". One child placed their bauble beside the Santa ornament and without prompting identified the preposition of their decoration, telling their friends; "Look! Mine's beside Santa!". [ngg src="galleries" ids="277" display="basic_slideshow"]This activity also sparked a great conversation about their own family customs and traditions. The children and practitioners discussed how they celebrate Christmas, who they celebrate Christmas with and what family traditions they have. The practitioners loved hearing about the different festive activities the children engage in at home and have used this as the main focus of an activity that they have planned to do next week during their daily group time.The tree looks fantastic and the children were filled with pride, eagerly pointing it out to the other children who came to play in the outdoor area. We'd love to see your Christmas Trees! Comment below, email or contact us on one of our social media sites to show us your decorations at home.