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The blossom is in full bloom here and so I wanted to share some of the best ways you can bring it into the children's play.

'The significance of the cherry blossom tree in Japanese culture goes back hundreds of years. In their country, the cherry blossom represents the fragility and the beauty of life. It's a reminder that life is almost overwhelmingly beautiful but that it is also tragically short. '

Homaro Cantu

Don't be too busy to rush past the blossom trees but instead let them be a remind that life is short but beautiful and to look up and notice them. 

1. Look up

Look up at the blossom and see all of it's beauty. If possible go and lay under a blossom tree with the children and practice a moment of stillness. What do the children see, smell, hear and feel? Why not place a perspex mirror under the tree or some water play (always supervise) to reflect the blossom and provide an interesting perspective in the play. 

It's also a wonderful sensory experience to take your shoe...

Easter is big in Denmark. It kicks off the summer season after a long, dull Nordic winter, and the Danes go all in for it.  a

For Danes Easter means being together with loved ones, relaxing and having fun making new memories.

Here are a few ways Danes celebrate Easter.

Decorate the Home

Like everywhere else in the world, the egg is a major symbol of Easter, also in Denmark. It symbolizes new life and a new beginning. For decoration using egg shells, you can blow out your own egg by making a tiny hole at the bottom and top with a needle. You might decorate some hard boiled eggs and have them on the side to admire. You could collect some twigs from your garden and hang home made salt dough decorations on them too.

Spring flowers are also collected and displayed inside the home to embrace the element of nature.

Get Together

During Easter, Danes celebrate mostly the arrival of springtime and with Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday being national holida...

Here at Little Nature Tots we aim to provide inviting invitations for babies to play, explore & investigate.

Within our play we use lots of natural materials which we forage & enhance using other sensory objects.

Our stations are planned and set up to ignite sensory development within the 5 senses: See, Hear, Taste, Smell & Touch.

1. Bauble water play

Fill a tray with water & add different coloured baubles. Then add some fir or pine tree to add colour and texture. Allow your baby to look at, touch, roll & explore the objects in the water.

2. Winter rice play

Fill a tray with rice and add festive objects & colours. Here I also added some sticks to make patterns. Your baby will love to feel the rice with their fingers and toes.

3. Mud kitchen sensory play

Collect crunchy leaves & evergreens from around the garden. Add some small pots and pans. Your baby will love to explore the smells and textures.

4. Winter sensory tray

Using a foil blanket as the base, add a variet...

Guest Post by: Sam Goldsworthy 

Since undertaking the Hygge accreditation we have really embraced the feeling of togetherness and cosiness. The one thing that struck a positive chord with us when reading about life in Denmark was the way they come together on a Friday afternoon to enjoy cake and celebrate the end of the week. We thought ‘wow’ we could do easily achieve this in our setting. So we originally planned to bake each Friday morning and come together in the afternoon to enjoy our bakes with a hot chocolate or a warm milk and reflect on the adventures that we have had together during the week.

Our Hygge Friday developed to include ‘voting'. So we would choose two recipes and ensure we had ingredients for both. We placed a picture with each bake with the wording underneath for the children to be able to read or visualise the choices depending on their age and stage of development. They would often ponder then, would choose a bake and write their name under the bake that the...

Embracing the concept of Hygge in our Montessori preschool Wise Owls (follow on instagram  @wiseowlsmontessori)  has been both magical and gratifying. The concept of living in the now and embracing the simple and natural things in life has been wonderful to see first-hand amongst the children. We embrace the sense of togetherness as well as capturing the feeling of nature, warmth and cosiness.

Throughout the year, we love to incorporate materials from our outdoor environment, for example, going on nature walks to collect branches and leaves to make our season tree which is proudly painted and created by the children and displayed in the classroom throughout the year. The children love learning about the different seasons and incorporating nature and hygge into the classroom. Providing natural objects made from wood allow us and the children to feel closer to the simplicity of nature. We have also recently gathered natural materials to make our own Winter Wreaths for our school doors. ...

Here at Sarah’s Little Stars, we love to bake.

The children love the independence that it brings to their morning or afternoon.

We bake so much that the children can often do most of the steps without asking for an adult’s help. 

Watching the children work as part of a team is one of my favourite parts of our week. Someone might say “me do eggs” and an older child might say “there’s 4 eggs xxxx, so we can we all have  a turn!” And the little one is then seen counting the eggs and shouting “Yes”- the excitement on their face is just priceless.

From time to time the children will  often give me or my assistant Claire a job todo, “can you clean this up Claire?”, “Sarah, is the oven on?”, “Claire can you help xxxx put the flour in whilst I’m stirring?”

They might not be the most exciting jobs in the kitchen that morning or afternoon but its just lovely that they want to involve us in their baking.

Baking covers a range of skills

- Risky play ( using the oven/whisk/grating tools/ k...

What is a tinker tray?

Tinker trays are filled with open ended loose part materials that will spark curiosity, problem solving, critical thinking and imaginative play. The objects in the tray can be used in any way the child chooses and there is no set way that they should be used.  It is commonly used in the Reggio Emilia Approach to learning and can be adapted for a range of different ages and stages of development. 

Materials for a tinker tray

Any tray with compartments can be used to display and store the loose parts to be used in play. I quite like using trays made out of natural materials like wood and seagrass as i always think we can display our materials in a beautiful way in these. Here are some ideas of what you could use or re-use:

• A cutlery tray insert
• A chocolate box or biscuit box insert
• Bun trays
• Tie box
• Jewellery tray insert
• Desk drawer dividers
• Tool boxes
• Crafting boxes
• Ice cube trays
• A tea bag caddy 

Items ideas for your tinker tray:

We can creat...

20 Simple Winter Hygge Activities for Children from Daisy Ducklings Childminding.

We have always spent our days in nature, appreciating the natural world around us, but since we became Hygge Accredited in 2022, we have slowed down even more. We spend our days being calm and mindful, practicing yoga, being in nature or exploring the provocations or invitations to play in our indoor environment.

Winter is such a magical season. We love nothing more than wrapping up warm and exploring, feeling the crisp cold air on our cheeks. Then coming back to our cosy home from home setting for a snuggle under a blanket and a warming hot drink.

Here we share some of our favourite Winter Hygge Activities to inspire you:

1. Winter Crate Shelfie

Wooden crates are very verstaile - use them to set up a little nook with a book, some fairy lights and nature and watch the children get stuck in.

 2. Shadow Play

Re-enact favourite stories in the dark with blankets, handmade stick puppets and a torch.

Here are 30 delightful winter-themed books for children, some of our favourites, that capture the magic and wonder of the season:

1. "The Yule Tomte and the Little Rabbits: A Christmas Story for Advent" by Ulf Stark - This charming and funny Christmas story of a grumpy tomte and the hopeful little rabbits is told over twenty-five chapters -- one for each day of Advent.
   
   
   

2. "The Snowflake" by Benji Davies - An enchanting and timeless winter tale from one of today’s most celebrated picture book stars.
   
   

3. "Pick a Pine Tree" by Patricia Toht - Pick a pine tree from the lot – slim and tall, or short and squat! Long straight limbs or branches bent... Mmm! Just smell that piney scent!
   
   
   
4. "Snow in the Garden: A First Book of Christmas' by Shirley Hughes - This beautiful Christmas anthology contains winter adventures, seasonal poems, festive recipes and easy-to-make craft activities as well as Shirley Hughes' trademark warm and classic illustrations. 
   
   

5. "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats - A clas

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