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This guest blog has been written by Colette Hearity a mixed EYFS KS1 teacher. Colette completed her PGCE at Edge Hill University and has worked across key stages throughout her teaching career, although her true passion is within the Early Years Foundation Stage.  
She recently completed the NaSENCO Award and currently leads Early years SEND, Science, History and Spanish in her school.
You can follow her @eyfsearlyyearsideas

The Truth behind Transition

As us teachers are dragging ourselves through the final few weeks of term the thought of transitions should be at the forefront of all our minds.

It is vital that we make this time in children’s academic journey as smooth as possible, especially as lots of children find the step up from Early Years into Key Stage 1 so daunting.

But why is this?

Whether it’s due to the jump in expectations, the more formalised learning or just no longer believing they are, ‘playing all day’ children’s wellbeing after joining KS1 and beginning the rigo...

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...

With Easter upon us shortly it's easy to get back into the habit of dressing each area of provision for the celebration. 

Instead focus on leaving a few hooks in your adult initiated sessions that will grab your children's interest and lead them curious to know more. It could be sharing an Easter story for instance and then having one or two areas of your provision with provocations in linked to this. This then invites the child to explore and learn more. It also means that children that don't want to explore this can still head into the areas of provision to develop their own lines of enquiry or take the lead on their own child led play. 

Taking this approach also frees you as an adult up from spending so much time filling every area of provision with resources and instead can really prioritise your time and focus your efforts on the things that will make the biggest impact. 

With this in mind I wanted to take the opportunity to share some of the provocations and hooks that I h...

As you know from our Rewildong Wanderlust Child Nature Study Programmewe love supporting children's play through nature and the outdoors. Here are 10 nature play ideas for celebrating Valentine’s Day. 

Head outside and look for heart shaped leaves. Find other nature to decorate these with and then take a photo. This can then be turned into a card. 

Set up a natural maths provocation around the story of Clara Button and the Wedding Day Surprise. 

Create a natural batch of Playdough by leaving out the food colouring. Pop on a board along with some flower petals, cake tins and cutters. 

Set up an invitation to explore loose parts

Use magnetic tiles and nature to create hearts

Create a Valentines Day Shelfie like  @_little.thinkers_

Make some Forest love potions

Make the words Love and decorate them with nature

Make a heart shaped nature wand 

Make Woodland Love Tea

Set up a flower shop and practice the gentle art of flower arranging

Set up a senso...

Hygge is all about embracing the simple moments in life with such warmth and comfort. Winter time offers us the perfect opportunity to make some seasonal changes to our home to create a calming and warm atmosphere. Getting that hygge feeling in our home is especially important when Christmas time can at times feel quite busy and chaotic with so much going on.

Here are my top tips for bringing some hygge into your home at this time of year.

Consider lighting

Turn off the overhead lights and instead be more creative with the way you light up your spaces inside. Go for lamps on tables, the warm flicker of a candle dancing , light the fire or adda string of fairy lights to jam jars to give  twinkle of magic. 

Some of the things that I loved seeing in Scandinavia were the lanterns filled with fairy lights on a porch creating a warm welcome to visitors. Or the paper stars hung in the windows to light the way on a dark night. It it snows you could even have a go at making some snow lant...

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

   ...

Autumn is one of the most beautiful times of year. 

Here we share 50 play activities for you to get inspiration from. Some wonderful ideas for your left over pumpkins too - not just for Halloween!

You can also find weekly nature planning ideas and invitations to play in my Rewilding Nature Study Programme

1. Make conker tea - provide charity shop tea pots and utensils for children to make their own nature afternoon tea!

2. Try Apple Bobbing! A classic.

3. Decorate pine cones.

4. Pumpkin Wash station.

5. Play Pumpkin or apple skittles!

6. Spider Web sensory tray using masking tape to create a web. Add conkers and tweezers.

7. Pumpkin hammering.

8. Autumn painting.

9. Apple printing 

10. Pumpkin ring toss.

11. Weighing pumpkins.

12. Spider printing.

13. Skeleton bone dig.

14. Pumpkin Tea! Open the tops and let the children scoop out the seeds and flesh for their pumpkin tea or pumpkin soup creations.

15. Web painting.

16. Make your own nature paint brushes.

17. M...