At Little Elms, we've started exploring Christmas. We have been looking at different decorations as well as making our own Christmas tree.

It was suggested by one of the children that we could make some stars to hang on our Christmas tree. 

So that is what we did. 

First we had to find a cutter that was in the shape of a star. After a look around Little Elms, we discovered one. 

Next we got out the clay and used a cutter to cut the clay. A grown up had to help as it was tricky for us. 

Once we found the cutter, we used rolling pins to roll out our clay. We enjoyed rolling out the clay but it was hard work. 

After we had rolled out our clay, we then used our star shaped cutter to press out the stars. We had to push the cutter into the clay to make a star.

 Once we had pushed the cutter into the clay, a star shape was made. 

We then thought about how we wanted to decorate them and decided we wanted to put glitter onto them. 

We chose lots of different colours and enjoyed sprinkling glitter on, to make our starts really sparkly, just like real stars in the sky. 

Once they were dry they looked really twinkly. Instead of hanging them on our tree at Little Elms, we have decided to give them to our friends at Heaton House as a Christmas present. 

We can't wait to see their faces when they open them! 

 Today saw the development of the children’s interest in manipulation as a form of risk taking to develop self confidence here at Pebbles. In preparation for the rapid arrival of Christmas the children were supported to use their own creativity to decorate salt dough to create decorations. 

 "These [shells] go on here so it can fly to the top of the tree" - Henry (42 Months)
Shells collected by the children during visits to the beach, provided interesting additions for the children to explore.
"The snail shell is the star!" - Earl (48 Months)

 Creating patterns using similar shells.

 Some of the finished decorations, ready for baking. 

 Children developed fine motor skills as they arranged shells on their dough, recognising different patterns and texture.

"I have the jingle bells for my cutter!" - Melsa (35 Months)

The sensation of the texture and temperature of the dough kept some children engaged for extended periods of time as their senses made new discoveries.