We’ve had a really busy last two weeks at nursery, enjoying special activities and Christmas celebrations.

Our own Election

Last week we talked about how December 12^th was very important for our grown ups as they are going to vote in the election to decide which party was going to rule the country. We looked at some pictures and chatted about each leader and what their party wanted to do for Great Britain.

We decided to have our own democratic vote to see who we thought should rule the country.
We ticked just one box on our ballot papers and posted them in a sealed ballot box...it was very exciting indeed!

At the end of the afternoon the votes were counted...
It was a landslide with 20 votes for the red party (Labour)! 7 for the Yellow party (Liberal Democrats) 4 for the Green Party and just 2 for the blue party (Conservatives)

This learning was a great way to help our children to begin to understand about their right to their opinions, the importance of having their say and the values of our country. It also supported them to begin to understand the idea of democracy as everyone  making a choice and the thing that most people choose being the one that ‘wins’ We also had some interesting discussions about how this system was fair but that some people were always going to be happy whilst others were disappointed.

Christmas Stories

Over the last couple of week the children have been experiencing a wide range of Christmas stories as part of our maths and phonics learning. We had some old familiar stories and some new ones, some of which had been bought from the charity shop so we talked about how somebody else had enjoyed them before us.

The stories helped the children to learn new seasonal language and encouraged them to talk about the traditional and new celebrations at this time of year. It also gave us the opportunity to make links with other celebrations that we had learned about previously.

Yum! Christmas Dinner was really tasty!

Last Wednesday our children who have dinner at nursery had the special treat of Christmas Dinner.

There was great excitement as some of the nursery staff were having Christmas Dinner too!

With Christmassy music playing our dinner staff served up a traditional a British dinner of turkey and stuffing, sausage, potatoes, and of course brussel sprouts. There was also a lovely alternative meal for those vegetarians amongst us.

Everyone enjoyed their meal…yum! and what a delicious and healthy way to learn about the traditions of a British Christmas.

A Christmas Concert to Remember.

This years Christmas concert was a really lovely and and memorable event.

We were very excited to return to The Postmill Centre on Thursday as performing there up on the stage made our concert all the more special. We invited many visitors to experience our wonderful performances, including parents, carers, grandparents friends and governors the room was absolutely packed with people enjoying our musical extravaganza!

The children had been practising their songs, signs and movements  for the last few weeks as part of our Expressive Arts 'Music' curriculum through which children learn about singing and music as well as rhythm, steady beat and pitch.

The children sang and signed the songs together and each had a special hat that they’d made at nursery to make them look extra special during the performance. We also wore Christmas jumpers which looked fantastic and a Christmas Jumper collection also raised money for Save the Children.

The childen did a great job of performing a range of traditional and modern songs to tell the story of Jesus’s birth and the celebrations of the Christmas season.  Songs included old favourites like 'Jingle Bells’ as well as new songs such as 'Wake Up All You Woolly Sheep.’ The children loved using the microphone as well, to make their voices even louder.

We were really proud of them and at the end of our performance we celebrated as we sang together with the all the grown ups 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' to wish all our families a very Merry Christmas.

Very well done to all our nursery children and many thanks to all our families, friends and governors who supported this event.

Party Time!

To finish off our exciting term we had a really fantastic Christmas party.

Both our morning and afternoon children came together for a fun filled party with dancing, comedy and surprises!

The children wore their special party clothes and looked amazing! They were all really excited about a nursery day that was very different but lots of fun.

We began with a very special guest called Peter Presto. Peter entertained us by doing lots of funny things and showing us lots of magic tricks. We were all really surprised as things appeared and disappeared, changed colour and made funny noises. He also had some furry friends who came to see us too! Peter was very funny and really made us all laugh! He even chose some of our nursery children to help him with his magic and they were absolutely amazing! Peter and his helpers all did a brilliant job and the children really enjoyed the show...a big thank you to Peter.

Our party lunch was very special today with lots of tasty food to give us some energy for the next phase of our party.

After our lunch we had party music and the children really enjoyed dancing and playing some games like musical statues and musical bumps. We also had a very special visitor too…Santa Claus!... took time out from his busy schedule to come and visit us at South Normanton Nursery!

We talked to him about the things that we would like for Christmas and he even had a bag of gifts for each group that he had brought with him today. One special gift for each child to put under their Christmas tree, to open on Christmas day!

We had a really busy and fantastic party...what a lot of fun and what a lovely way to finish the term.

So now all that remains is to wish all of our children and their family and friends a very Happy Christmas and all the very best for 2020. Stay safe, have fun and enjoy the holidays.