Jennifer Activities for childminders, Childminding best practice, Forest Childcare

5 Nature-Related International Days To Mark With Kids

By Guest Blogger, Elizabeth Borley.

Written 23/02/2023

There are so many benefits to outdoor outings for carers of young children – both for you as a childminder and for the children you care for.

And there’s a lot to be said for familiarity of the same woodland walk.

But if you’re looking for new ideas to expand what you talk about when you’re outdoors, then maybe linking your childcare activities to the many international global awareness days will help you approach outings with fresh eyes.

Here are 5 nature-related international observances that are easy to incorporate into your childminding practice.

1. World Wildlife Day

When: 3 March

World Wildlife Day is an opportunity to be thankful for the diversity we find in nature. It creates a talking point for how we live with and interact with nature, and how we use the natural resources around us.

What to do

Who lives here?

Go for a nature walk. Spot minibeasts and find the habitats they live in. Talk about the different bird species you can see and hear.

Make posters of your favourite animals and talk about how important it is to look after the nature around us.

This is quite a well-known and popular event, so you might find local groups doing something like a litter pick that you can join in with (or why not organise your own?).

2. International Day of Forests

When: 21 March

International Day of Forests is the perfect moment to take the children in your care out to the woods! It’s a day that emphasises sustainable forestry and the management of woodlands as being crucial to well-being – something that Forest Childcare Association members won’t need convincing about.

What to do

Take a tree identification guide printable out on a walk and see what species you can find in your local woodland.

Make bark rubbings. Try to find the largest leaf. Talk about the trees that lose their leaves and the ones that keep them during the winter.

Look for evidence of things that live in and use the forests, like animal footprints and droppings, nests and minibeast homes. Talk about how we use the forest for walks and exploring.

3. World Water Day

When: 22 March

World Water Day is really close to International Day of Forests, so it might not make sense to mark them both in the same week with the children you childmind. You can always do an activity related to a global awareness day at some point in the same month if you can’t manage to tie it in with the exact day.

This event focuses attention on fresh water (so not oceans). It’s about raising awareness of the need for sustainable management of water resources.

What to do

Make a rain gauge from a bottle and put it outside. How much water can you collect while the children are with you?

Invite the children to make their own flavoured water to drink: add raspberries, cucumber, mint or orange slices to a glass of water.

Visit a reservoir or put your wellies on and splash in a stream! Talk about what lives in the water and how water is used.

4. World Migratory Bird Day

When: 13 May and 14 October

World Migratory Bird Day is marked twice in a year, so if you miss the opportunity to do something related in May, you can catch up in October! Different birds migrate to different places at different times of the year, so there are two moments annually for focused activities.

It’s a day to raise awareness of the need to conserve the habitats of migratory birds and the threats facing them.

What to do

Go bird watching! Find a hide at your local nature reserve and break out the binoculars. Look at library books that are a guide to the different species of birds and see which ones you can spot.

If you can’t get to a nature reserve, you can lie in the garden or in a park and look at birds flying overhead.

Draw pictures of birds, look at their flight paths on a map and talk about where they migrate to and why they go. How many countries do they cross?

5. World Soil Day

When: 5 December

Need something to do during December? How about marking World Soil Day?

Soil is essential for so many things: growing food for humans, sustaining plant life, as a habitat for worms and minibeasts and much more. The day is all about raising awareness of the nutrients in soil and how poor soil management strips out what is naturally occurring, leading to nutrient loss and lower quality food for us all.

What to do

The obvious thing to do today is go and play in the mud! Make mud pies and sculptures, splash in muddy puddles, dig holes and get dirty!

For a cleaner alternative, plant some seeds. Broad beans and onion seeds are good for this time of year, or look for quick growing hardy salad leaves like lamb’s lettuce. Alternatively, just ditch the soil and go for a classic runner bean in a jam jar or some cress!

You could also visit a local farm and talk about how they use the soil for growing crops.

Make it your own

You don’t have to mark an awareness day on the actual day. If it’s easier for you and the children you mind, find an alternative moment to do some of these activities, or create your own.

There are awareness days every month, so if you would like some new ideas for activities to do with your children that get them outdoors, take some inspiration from the international events calendars on the UN and UNESCO websites.

About the author

Elizabeth Borley is a member of the Forest Childcare Association and administrator at The Practical Forest School, a Sussex-based provider of afterschool clubs and in-school forest school activities.

Forest Childcare Association

The Forest Childcare Association is a best practice initiative for childcare providers who want to demonstrate their commitment to taking small children outdoors on a regular basis. By making a commitment to regular outdoor outings you can make a discernible difference to your children AND your business. When you join you will receive a Forest Childcare Starter Pack containing training information as well as business tools, a certificate to display and 50 Crafts and Activities to get you started.

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Jennifer Activities for childminders, Childminding best practice

Learning with Traditional Tales – Sharing stories with my childminder

Written 07/01/2023

This time of year when the excitement of Christmas is over, but the weather is still cold and grey is a fantastic time to create a bit of cosiness by curling up with a traditional tale or two. Reading stories to children is an essential activity to help children learn speech and communication skills and helping children learn new stories also enhances their cultural capital. Sharing traditional stories can help us feel connected to our own childhoods and are part of our wider cultural heritage. There is also a fantastic wealth of life lessons that can be learned by thinking about the messages contained in these stories.

When choosing a traditional tale to share with your children it can help to think about the following:

  1. What stories do the children already know? Do you want to focus more on one you have already read so that all the children can get to know it really well, or do you want to introduce a completely new story?
  2. Consider the cultural background of the children you care for. Do you share stories that reflect their culture and history? Perhaps the children’s parents can suggest some stories that they shared when they were little.
  3. Have you got any learning intentions you want to be able to tie into the story, for example learning about sizes or stranger danger with ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears,’ the importance of helping out with ‘The Little Red Hen,’ or simple counting skills with ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff.’
  4. Are you going to read the story from a book? If so think about the language in the version you have chosen. Do they have any repeating phrases that can help children learn language? Is the language challenging enough with different words to learn but not too hard to understand that the children loose interest? There tends to be lots of different versions of traditional tales so you can find one suitable for the age and developmental stage of the children in your care.
  5. Do the children actually like the story? A story can fulfil all of the above requirements but if the children do not engage with it then it is pretty pointless!

Tips for getting the most out of the story when reading it with the children:

  1. Read the story several times until the children get to know it. (This can be done over a few days – you do not need to sit there reading it on loop!) Make sure all the children know the story well. By doing this you are helping increase each child’s cultural capital.
  2. When the children know the story well enough to anticipate which part of the story comes next encourage them to join in with repeated phrases and new words.
  3. Get the children to act out the story while you read it to them. Can they make up different actions to go with different parts or characters of the story?
  4. Can the children think of simple changes they would like to introduce to the story. For example if you are reading ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears,’ maybe the bears have pancakes for breakfast instead of porridge? This helps children take ownership of the story and also begin to understand the structures of storytelling.

Tips for telling the story to children instead of reading it from a book:

Although reading books to children is important there may be times that you simply want to tell the children a story instead. Telling a story without having a book to hold means you can have your hands free to use puppets or gestures to emphasise the words. It also means that, if you have a larger group of children that have to sit in front of you while you read, that there is no physical barrier between you and the children, meaning that you can relate more directly to them and their responses to the story. (In childminding settings with just one or two children this isn’t such an issue as they will normally be sitting on your knee as you read to them.)

  1. Use your body language and gestures to help tell the story. If a character is feeling cold, wrap your arms around yourself and shiver dramatically, if a giant appears, shade your eyes and peer upwards as if looking at them. Using gestures like this to emphasise your words will help children understand the story even if they cannot see any pictures. Encourage the children to copy your actions. In this way even non-verbal children can join in and show their understanding of the story.
  2. Think about how you can use your voice as you tell the story. Use a quiet voice when a character is creeping up to someone or a loud voice if you are pretending to be a giant! Children love it if you use different voices for different characters but don’t make voices too silly as this will distract the children from the story itself.
  3. Don’t think that you can’t move about. Why not tell a story outside and when the characters move – so do you! As long as the story remains the main focus you can act out running from a dragon, trip trapping over a bridge or climbing up a beanstalk.

Things to do so that children and parents can extend their learning:

  1. Provide puppets and props (don’t forget dressing up props if they are suitable for the story and you have them!) for the children to tell the story themselves during free play.
  2. Leave the story book somewhere accessible to the children so that they can request it when they want you to read it to them even when you have moved onto other books or stories.
  3. Share versions of the story with the children’s parents so that they can help continue the learning at home. (Worried about lending out your precious books to forgetful parents? Check out the solution below!)

Products that can help you explore traditional stories with your children:

Members of the Childminding Best Practice Club receive monthly toolkits bursting with information, ideas and support. These include special Traditional Tale focused Toolkits.

These toolkits have a wealth of resources to help you share traditional tales with your children. Including things like:

Specially rewritten and illustrated childminder friendly versions of different traditional tales. Print out as many copies as you need to share with parents.

Resources to compliment the story such as posters or games.

Ideas for crafts and activities you can do to go with the story theme.

Full set of planning covering every area of learning.

Hand drawn colouring sheet

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Jennifer Activities for childminders, Business tips for childminders, Characteristics of Effective Learning (COEL), Childminding best practice, Themes

Loose parts

By Guest Blogger Samantha Boyd

Updated 12/08/2022

Loose parts is a term that is becoming more and more popular within education but particularly in Early Years settings and if you are looking to be more environmentally friendly, is a great way to recycle and reuse. So, what are loose parts and what benefit do they have to children’s play and development?

Loose parts are not toys, in fact they are the exact opposite. A toy has one purpose, to be what it was built for. It cannot be anything else. A loose part however, with a little imagination can be absolutely anything.

loose parts. Pebbles and shells in a childminder's sandpit

Simon Nicholson created the theory of loose parts in 1971. He was an architect who believed that all children were creative, and that this creativity should be nurtured and encouraged, rather than suppressed by what adults believed children should be like. So, he tried giving open ended materials that could be used with imagination and become anything the child wanted it to become – they can become parts of construction, pattern forming, used in role play and social play, anything; and he was amazed by the imagination and creativity the children showed. Actively engaged children are resilient learners who can solve problems and think outside the box.

Some examples of loose parts:

Natural: shells, stones, wood chips, pine cones, leaves, feathers, seeds, flowers

Manufactured: buttons, boxes, fabric, ribbons, nuts and bolts, pegs, pipes, guttering, straws.

When using loose parts, children can follow their own agenda, their own learning. Set up invitations to play and see what the children can do. Trust the children to know. You may need to model how to use them. Many children are not sure what to do because they have not needed to use their imaginations in this way as toys and adults have told them what to do with things. So, allow the children to explore these objects.

Ask parents to support you by asking for donations. You will be surprised at how supportive parents are.

Here is an example of some artwork achieved with loose parts.

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Kids To Go was established in 2008. Products include the Ultimate Childminding Checklist, best practice resources promoting diversity, safety and childminding in the great outdoors (Forest Childcare). It is the home of the Childminding Best Practice Club and the free weekly Childminding Best Practice newsletters.

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