To celebrate the festive season, the children at Acre Woods Childcare Eastwood have been making ornaments to decorate the Centre’s Christmas tree.
Educational Leader, Bitu, shares details of the experience and how the Centre will be celebrating this December.
“We always have a tree at the Centre, but this was the first year that the children made ornaments and decorations of their own for it,” explains Bitu.
“We invited children and families from across the Centre to get involved in the experience so that the tree could be a true representation of our community.”
Once the tree was assembled, the children quickly got to work with decorating it.
“The children made various items to decorate the tree with, such as bells, paddle pop stick stars and clay shapes,” shares Bitu.
“After we put up the Christmas tree, we invited the children from all of our age groups to participate in placing baubles on it. We also had a number of families contribute to the tree with baubles, lights and decorations brought from home.”
In addition to decorating the tree, the children participated in several festive experiences, including making room decorations, baking and decorating Christmas cookies, and creating cards and gifts.
Amongst the activities and high spirits, Bitu and the team prioritised having conversations with the children about Christmas and what that looks like around the world.
“We discussed how Christmas is celebrated in different ways, and why some people celebrate it and others don’t. Out discussion then explored other festivals throughout the world, which led us to different types of people and different cultures,” says Bitu.
“We also talked about how some families may not be lucky enough and how we could help them this festive season. Our Centre is doing a Christmas toy drive this year, so we have asked families to donate some toys and books. It was lovely to see how excited the children are to donate to those in need.”
The Centre also spent November and early December preparing for their end of year celebration and disco, which took place on the 12th. Bitu and the team look forward to wrapping up 2019 with more exciting activities and themed learning opportunities.