Christmasspecial

Christmas time with youngchildren is a magical experience,as they encounter all of itswonders: the expectation ofwaiting and counting the days

till Santa Claus’s visit, the years of traditionthere are to explore. During this time ofyear – from as early as the beginning ofNovember – early years settings canbecome hives of activity and parentalinvolvement, as children work through arts and crafts activities, stories and tales,and rehearse performances for the eyes of proud relatives. At Olympus KeyMed Day Nursery, our practitioners offer manyeducational opportunities to children, inorder to help them to understand the realmeaning of Christmas: being together,cherishing the love of family and friends,and celebrating belonging.

Settings, however, need to reviewcarefully the opportunities they offer duringthe festive period. At our nursery, we have

The creative processThere are six stages in the process weuse to enable children to unlock thecreativity of the festive period:

1 Reception of creative informationand inspirationFirstly, we provide the children withinformation about Christmas, throughbooks, movies, stories and objects, sothey gain an insight into the celebration – a basic understanding about itsmeaning – and may be able to recallmemories (depending on their age), or create new ones.

2 Internalisation of creativeinformationAs the next step of the process, we offer the children a wealth of materials to explore and experiment with. Weprovide each child with a personalcontainer and encourage them to selectthings that they like or prefer. Throughthis activity, children understand that each material has unique characteristicsand the exploration gives them an idea of how different materials behave.This provocative activity stimulateschildren’s imagination and theircommunication, interaction and sharing is a natural outcome.

3 Preparation of creative informationWhilst children are spending some timeexploring these materials, we adults areobserving the children touching, smelling,collecting, rejecting, choosing, throwing,selecting and sharing them. By closelyexamining their reactions, we candetermine what they like, what theyremember, what they want, and whatthey do not want, as they carefullyexamine objects one by one. Spendingample time observing the childrensignificantly shortens our planning time.

4 Processing of creative informationNow the children express their reactionsto, and views about, the materials viacollections, arrangements, and sometimesverbal narratives. They start to arrangethe goods and form their ideas abouttheir usage in play. We often see anincubation or ‘wondering’ period occurhere, during which the children processthe information they have gathered.

close to 20 years of practice behind us, but after we reflected upon what it wasexactly that children were being asked to do, we decided to change our methods. It was important to us that all children were encouraged to be creative andindependent in their learning and choices.Being creative in our nursery means toobserve freely, experiment happily, explorewith interest, imagine, plan and createmasterpieces by choice – rather than, forexample, colouring predetermined outlines,using only red paint, and sticking pre-selected,universally square-shaped pieces of fabriconto pre-cut card, so adults can skilfully turnthem into Christmas symbols in a bid tocreate the so-called ‘Christmas spirit’!

We have decided to follow a differentapproach and offer opportunities to developcreativity as continuous provision, wherechildren can study materials and makeinformed choices when engaging in art activities.

A child-ledChristmasWhether it’s making decorations or planning

a festive performance, it’s important to providechildren with the chance to explore their

creativity, says Judit Horvath...

We introduce the subject of Christmas viastorytelling, books, images and movies, and

based on children’s conversations, werecord the story of their performance

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A penguin mask for the children’s performance

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Judit Horvath is manager at Olympus KeyMed Day Nursery, an‘outstanding’ setting in Southend, Essex.

abouttheauthor

The Penguin Christmas story (written by the preschoolers of Olympus KeyMed Day Nursery)

This story was recorded by the childrenwith adult help, so that when theyperformed it for their parents, it wasnarrated by their voices...

There was a baby penguin called Ralph.He lived in a cold place and swim in thesea. Ralph had two friends called Deanand Demon. They love splash aroundtogether. Christmas was coming, soRalph and his friends write a letter toFather Christmas. Demon asked Santafor a new doll, Ralph asked Santa forwater toys and Dean asked Santa for a ball.

It was really nearly Christmas. Pingu,the big penguin woke up and found thatthe world was white. It was magic. Pingusaw thunderstorm. It was a bit chilly outon the water. Ralph and his friends hadto swim a long way to the post box topost their letter. On the way they met a shark called Bobby, he was scary and big and they were scared. Far awayPingu saw some white trees, and all thelittle penguins were there: “One, two,three, four, five, six…eleven and a shark.A shark????” Pingu ran there with bellsto scare the shark away. The shark justasked them: Where are you going?” “We

are going to the Snow Postman”. “Can I come? I want a toy fish for Christmas.”“Ok, come with us but don’t eat us!”

They then went to the Snow Postman.After a long swim they found the postbox and posted their letter to Santa overto the snow farm. It started to get darkand the penguins got tired and it wasgetting darker. They decided to sleep.But when they woke up they were lost.Then they saw a farm. On the snow farmSanta was feeding for reindeers, feedingsome breakfast. There was a mummySanta, a daddy Santa, an elf walkingalong and they are quite chilly, but theyare not wearing anything. They must bereally, really chilly cold! Cold for thereindeer.

Santa and mummy Santa was sittingon a chair next to some presents andangels. Pingu, Ralph, Dean and Demonstarted to run there. “ A birthday toyou…”, Pingu sing. Santa give him a star.“It is not a birthday silly, it’s Christmas.”Santa went to the tree, a blue one. He then gave the polar bears, seals apresent, and some food, star-food, in thesnowing. Started snowing, star snowwas falling, there were lights. Santa gavepresent to everyone.

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5 Planning and verification of visionAs a typical next stage of the process, we gather the children and planactivities/room designs together. By this stage into the process, the childrenpossess a range of information via theinformation received from adults and from their exploration, so they are able to translate their knowledge intopractical, new ideas.

6 Active realisation andimplementation of ideas In the final stage of the creative process,we facilitate the activities that childrenchoose by providing them with variousfestive images and materials, sharingsimple versions of the story of Christmas,and giving them plenty of time to createtheir very own magical Christmasexperiences. Through these, children make connections, enhance memories and develop an awareness of the culture of the celebration.

Activities &performancesThe possible applications of the creativeprocess outlined above are limitless. When our nursery prepares for Christmas,we involve the children in all stages ofplanning, preparation and decoration. Weorganise cookie swap mornings, recipe

sharing, Christmas table design sessions,Christmas tree decoration courses, in all of which the children take the leading roles,becoming, for example, event planners,trainers, DJs and caterers.

Our annual Christmas Show is plannedfollowing the steps of the creative process,too. We introduce the subject of Christmas to the children via storytelling, books, images and movies, and based on theirconversations, we record the story of thechildren’s performance. We also record thestory told by the children – therefore both

the script and the narration are unique andpersonal (you’ll find an example in the panelon this very page).

The EYFS states that ‘Practitioners mustconsider the individual needs, interests, andstage of development of each child in theircare, and must use this information to plan a challenging and enjoyable experience foreach child in all of the areas of learning anddevelopment.’ This, during the festive periodat an early years setting, simply means thatto fully experience the magic of Christmas,it’s important for children to immersethemselves in the festivities and becomeinvolved with as much as they can, ratherthan only following adult instructions. Forchildren, part of the reason why Christmas is so magical is because everything is newand exciting. So, instead of getting swept upin the clichés of Christmas, try to recapturethat sense of wonder by indulging in thefree-flow of creativity – in this way, new and exciting and meaningful Christmasmemories will be guaranteed.

A Christmas reindeer

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