Jennifer Activities for childminders, Childminding best practice, Diversity Topics, Themes

25 Childminding topics to explore in Spring

Spring topics for childminders. Baby animals.

One good way of using topics to plan your work is to plan topics that help reflect the changing of the seasons. Are you looking for some good topics to explore with children in Spring? Here are some ideas:

Well-loved themes:

  1. Baby animals.
  2. Spring life cycles.
  3. Easter
  4. Spring

Some slightly different ideas:

Spring themes for childminders. Spring flowers, primroses
  1. Gardening. Spring is a fantastic time to plant seeds and explore gardening with children.
  2. Frogs. World Frog Day is on the 20th of March
  3. Trees.
  4. Weather. Spring is a time of very changeable weather so is a good time to explore a weather themed topic with children
  5. Mini-beasts.
  6. Spring flowers.
  7. How about some nursery rhymes that tie in nicely with a Spring topic, like ‘5 Speckled Frogs’ ‘Mary had a little lamb,’ ‘Little Bo Peep’ or ‘5 Little Ducks.’
  8. Watch me grow. As children watch other things like baby animals or flowers growing they may also become interested in how they grow.
  9. Bees. World Bee Day is on the 20th of May
  10. On the Farm.
  11. Birds.
Diversity ideas for childminders, St David's day

Diversity themes to explore in Spring

  1. St David’s Day 1st of March
  2. May Day
  3. St Partick’s Day 17th of March
  4. Holi
  5. Mother’s Day
  6. St George’s Day. The patron saint of England has a special day on the 23rd of April

Some more unusual (but fun) themes to explore in Spring

  1. Washing. Spring cleaning anyone? Children can have lots of fun with soapy bubbles washing toys and themselves! A good topic to help enforce good hygiene practices in your children.
  2. Earth Day
  3. World Laughter Day (3rd May)
  4. Turtles. World Turtle Day on the 23rd of May

Written 08/05/2023

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Good (and terrible) ways to use themes

When planning your curriculum it is important to think about how you are going to introduce children to new ideas and experiences. Using themes or topics is one good way to help you do this.

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10 Easy Vegetables, Fruits and Herbs for Childminders to grow with Children

Growing edible produce with children is a fantastic way to help them learn about all sorts of things, from life cycles to how food is grown, to healthy eating.

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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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