Preschool - Skill building through play and exploration

The festive season has been wholeheartedly embraced in Gateway Nursery this half-term!

The Preschool children enjoy choosing their own activities to participate in and having a say in their day-to-day provision, so have spent time playing with the dinosaurs in frozen wonderlands, counting how many baubles we can fit on a Christmas tree and practising letter and number formation in all sorts of mediums; flour, glitter and tea to name but a few. These literacy skills were put into practise when they ‘wrote’ postcards to children from other countries after learning about Christmas traditions from around the world, sharing sentiments such as 'Merry Christmas!', 'I like to play with toys' and much excitement over 'chocolate on the tree’.

Of course, they have also been working hard to create an assortment of arts and crafts, inspired by Christmas and winter. They have been using their imaginations to make Christmas trees, cards, calendars for the new year - all adorned with plenty of stickers and sparkles. The creative spirit quickly extended throughout the classroom and the children helped to make decorations for our Christmas-themed open morning that ran alongside our PTA’s fabulous Christmas Fair.

This merry half-term was brought to a close with a lovely Christmas play, written by one of our teachers. ‘The Advent Calendar’ featured a number of festive friends such as snowmen, angels, stars and a very special baby partaking in lots of song and dance.