NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2021

Little Swans Day Nursery

December News 2021

Christmas is nearly here and soon you will hear the children coming home singing
J u l y 2their
017 favourite Christmas
songs as well as talking about their favourite Christmas story. It’s a lovely month at the setting as the children
are engaged in many activities; Making Christmas decorations and things to hang on the Christmas tree, making
a Christmas card to go home, using lots of glitter and sparkles! As well as Christmas crackers, place mats and
Christmas hats and a very big wall display advent calendar to open every day from December 1st.

Please check dates at the end of the newsletter to put in your diary for December. This will include
Christmas closure and fees.
Heroes Christmas News It is almost
that time of year where we will be putting up our Christmas
trees and decorations. The children will be using different
coloured tinsel and baubles and lights to decorate the tree.
The children will be helping to wrap boxes (presents) to put
under the tree. They will be using wrapping paper, newspaper
Smarties Christmas News It is nearly the end
and lots of different materials to do this and getting very
of the year and the Smarties are getting really excited
messy in the process!! about Christmas and the visit from Santa!! We will be
celebrating this month with lots of fun filled activities,
The children will be making their own tree decorations by such as the children creating their own Christmas
decorating paper, folding it and then opening it to see the folders which will be filled with all of their art work
shape they have made which hopefully will be a Christmas tree. that they will take home. They will make two
The children will be given paint and sticking materials (tissue Christmas tree decorations, one will be made from
TWITTER; search for swansyardley. Or go to our nursery
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tree. The children have been talking about Christmas presents
www.littleswans.org.uk
and have already made their lists! well of course they would!!
they will have a choice of a Christmas tree, a star or a
As a group we will be making a list of presents the children snowman. The other decoration will be made from
have asked for. The children will be making their own salt dough. Other creative work in their folders will
Christmas cards. To do this they will be shown Christmas include Christmas hats, Christmas cards with their own
cards we have purchased to give them some ideas… mmm the choice of decoration, such as tissue paper, sequins and
children will be using Christmas sponges, Santa, Rudolph, glitter. The children will make placemats with a
presents and a snowman. During this activity we will make some Christmas design to use for their Christmas dinner both
party hats which will be decorated with cotton balls and hand at nursery and at home.
prints to use as antlers. We will move on to make placemats
We will still be working on children’s communication
which will be used for their Christmas dinner!
and language through this period by asking them
The children will be creating a display board which will be a big questions about Santa and Christmas. They can talk
advent calendar! The children have contributed some ideas about Christmas through the help of pictures. You can
and have said they want to make presents and help to write help at home by talking to your child about the festive
some numbers on the board. We will also be learning Christmas occasion and the celebration of Christmas.
songs such as ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘All I want for Christmas’. We We will be writing letters to Santa and for this we will
will be teaching the children to use Makaton signs during the be using our post box where the children will post their
songs.
letters. The children will be using mark making tools
such as pencils crayons chalk and wax crayons.
We will be changing our books over to Christmas books and we
will be adding a snowman, a reindeer and some nativity
Over the course of December, we will be enjoying
costumes to our dressing up box. We will be holding a sensory play with pretend snow and shaving foam.
Christmas party, wearing a Christmas jumper and having a With these materials children can learn and talk about
lovely Christmas dinner too! the weather; ‘It’s cold, look at the snow flakes’ ‘Do
you think it’s going to snow for Christmas?’
The Heroes will be taking turns to help empty the Christmas We will be having a Christmas party in our room and
post box and collect their cards from their friends. the children will be taking part in fun games such as
musical statues, musical chairs and pass the parcel.

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Keep an eye out on your child’s learning journal for all these
exciting activities!! Merry Christmas everyone!!
Merry Christmas to one and all!!
 Little Swans Day Nursery Christmas Newsletter
page 2
Rolos Christmas News
This month the children will be learning all about Winter and Christmas. We have already begun talking about
this festive season and we are getting very excited!! We will be getting involved with lots of fun activities such
as making a reindeer Christmas hat using brown paint and tracing over our hands to make the antlers. We will
be making Christmas tree decorations using salt dough and we will use our creative thinking to choose the
shape such as a star, snowman or bauble. We will be designing placemats using coloured pencils and will use
these when we have our Christmas dinner. We will be making Christmas crackers using a variety of creative
materials such as card, glitter, paint and sequins too name but a few. We will be designing our own Christmas
cards by looking at examples and choosing materials and tools of our choice.
When we make our calendars for the year 2022, we will be using number and Christmas sponges to do this so
the children will still be engaged in learning through carrying out fun activities!
We love using our Makaton in Rolos and we will be learning ‘We Wish you a Merry Christmas’ in Makaton and
other signs such as tree, elf, snowman, lights and Santa.
We are turning our role play area into a Christmas home corner by wrapping presents to put under the tree,
decorating the Christmas tree and dressing up in Christmas outfits as well as putting up homemade wall
decorations.
We will be playing lots of festive games such as Pin the Beard on Santa, searching for elves and reindeers
outside and building igloos using milk bottles.
The Rolos will be having lots of fun making a post-box so that we can post our letters that we have written to
Santa either writing or drawing what we would like for Christmas!! Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Jelly Tots Christmas News Jelly Babies Christmas News

During this festive time of year, the Jelly Babies will be
With the festive season upon us we are going to be taking part in many fun filled activities!
celebrating Christmas in a big way!! We will be
involved in a range of Christmas activities from The babies will help their carers to put up the Christmas tree
making a Christmas crown hat for our party, decorations using tinsel, stars baubles, snowmen and
placemats for our Christmas dinner and crackers to reindeers etc.
pull open! To name but a few! The babies will be painting and wrapping boxes which will be
placed under the Christmas tree as presents.
The children will help to measure and mix ingredients They will be making Christmas cards using different materials
to make a Christmas biscuit of their choice by using such as paint, glitter and stamps. They will be choosing from
different cutters to make a tree, bauble, star or three different designs and then adding their own touch.
snowman. interesting..
As a very special treat we will be getting a visit from
Santa who will be giving out presents to the children We will be making salt dough decorations to take home to
on party day. The children will have lots of fun hang on the Christmas tree. They will get to choose either a
dancing to Christmas music and playing games such as tree, a bauble or a gingerbread man. They will decorate
‘Pass the Parcel’, ‘Musical Chairs’ and ‘Musical these using paint, glue for sticking glitter and sparkles. Our
Statues’. lovely babies will be encouraged to use a paint brush and a
To continue with our learning the children will wrap glue stick to help develop their motor skills while having fun!
up different shaped items such as a square, rectangle, We will be making Christmas hats which they will get to wear
ball or oval which will be displayed around the at the nursery Christmas party…wonder how long they will
Christmas tree as presents. stay on their heads for? ..
The children will be making their own Christmas cards They will be encouraged to decorate their hats using
using a choice of materials to decorate such as glitter, different coloured paint, glitter sequins and sponges so don’t
sponge, paint glue and sticking. be surprised if they start to come home with sparkly bits all
We will be trimming the room up with decorations the over them. We will be using a variety of different coloured
children have made with paper chains, salt dough, card for this activity.
tree decorations bells, tree, snowman, reindeer and They will also be making their own placemats using different
baubles. Christmas sponges of Santa, a reindeer a snowman and a
We will continue with our fun activities outside in the ginger bread man. Our babies will be encouraged to dip the
garden where the children will be given a challenge sponges into the paint and then press it onto the card. The
to find Santa’s presents!! Once found the children will Christmas placemats will be laminated so that the babies can
place them in the box and then count how many use them for their Christmas dinner at the setting before they

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presents, we have collected at the end. go home.
We will also have a big advent calendar wall display We will be making our own calendars and taking turns to open
and the children will take turns to open up the our wall display advent calendar too as well as making
calendar doors. Merry Christmas everyone!! yummy treats to go home such as shortbread cookies.
We will be having a very busy month!! Merry Crimbo all!
 Christmas Newsletter Page 3

Christmas Closure
Dates for Your Diary
The nursery will close on Friday 24th
December at 12.15pm. All children to
be collected by this time. We are open Thursday 2nd December 10am – Elsa from
from 7:30am as usual. Frozen coming into the nursery courtesy of a
If your child attends of a Friday please parent to say hello to the children and do some
let us know if they are in on December singing with them
24th, by Friday 17th December so that
we can manage child/staff ratios Monday 13th December – Children to bring
their Christmas presents in for Santa’s sack.
Please make sure the presents are no bigger
There will not be a main dinner on this than the size of a standard box of cereal
day but the children will have breakfast
as usual and then sandwiches and snacks Tuesday 14th December – Christmas dinner at
at 11:30am. the nursery

We will re-open on Tuesday 4th January Thursday 16th December – Children’s

2022 usual times Christmas party from 2pm to 4pm

Closure for Grant Children Friday 17th December – Children’s Christmas

Last day Friday 17th December sing along. All children to wear Christmas
Return on Tuesday 4th January 2022 usual outfit or jumper. We will record and upload
times onto the journal site

Monday 17th December – Christmas

jumper/dress week. Each day the children can
Fees over the Christmas come into the nursery wearing a different
period Christmas jumper or dress of their choice

Fees over the Christmas period Thursday 23rd December – Christmas pyjama
remain the same so please do not day. All children to wear a Christmas bedtime
change direct debit payments. outfit of their choice

For those that pay cash the Staffing

payments are as follows: We would like to welcome Robin who has joined
us in the Rolos room, Robin has seven years of
Thursday 23rd December two weeks early years experience in the setting and she has
fees due. This is to cover week settled well into the Rolos room.
commencing:
Monday 27th December Ashleigh in Smarties will be leaving us at the end
and week commencing; of term to take up a SEN asssistent role at
Monday 3rd January 2022 secondary school. Ashleigh will be missed by all

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and we wish her all the best going forward. We
have Amber joining the Smarties team from the
start of term in Janaury, she also has lots of
ecerience working in other early years settings.