From learning safety skills, exploring sustainability and whizzing up smoothies to making secret Father’s Day surprises, we’ve been busy having the BEST of times. Here’s some of June’s juicy best bits - just for your enjoyment!

 

1. Child Safety Week (3rd June)

What better way to super-charge our road safety skills than on our bikes! Our outdoor racetrack was the perfect place to help our kids understand the meaning of road traffic signs and symbols. From learning about the colours of traffic lights to following important ‘stop’ and ‘go’ instructions we might have been having lots of fun, but we’ve learnt some super important safety skills too. A few traffic hiccups *may* have taken place along the way, but it’s all part of the fun and learning! Thankfully no speeding tickets were issued in this activity!

 

2. World Environment Day (5th June)

We’re positively potty about looking after our planet so World Environmental Day was a wonderful excuse (not that we really needed one) to whip out even more eco-inspired activities. We built a bug hotel (5* of course) out of recycled materials and even tried our hand at worm farming. We got stuck into nature-inspired tuff trays where we explored the different habitats of woodland animals and headed outside on our much-loved “listening” walks to see what sounds from nature we could hear. From building our own weather stations to creating binoculars to spot birds, it’s been excellent eco-tastic fun.

 

3. World Ocean Day (8th June)

Hot off the heels of World Environment Day, we headed to the ocean for even more planet loving play! Using recycled plastic bottles, we created our own beautiful ocean bottles filled with sand, water and lots of cute little sea creatures. We talked about the importance of keeping our oceans clean and set about tidying up our tuff tray beaches that needed all the nasty plastic and rubbish removing to keep the water safe for animals. We enjoyed exploring the depths of the ocean and learning about the animals, fish and objects that can be found in the water. This gave us oodles of ideas for creating our mini aquariums that we filled with pretty seashells, underwater objects and lots of colourful sea creatures. From talking about how we can help protect our oceans to exploring the wonderful world beneath the surface, it’s been o-‘fish’ally awesome!

4. Healthy Eating Week (10th June)

Healthy eating is totally our vibe. We love how fantastic fruit and veg helps us to grow big and strong. As part of Healthy Eating Week, we went down to our POD veg patch to plant some seeds so we can learn how to grow some healthy food of our own. Then, we headed to our kitchen to kickstart our culinary journey and tickle our emerging tastebuds by making some super fruit smoothies of our own to try. First, we chopped, squished and squashed the fruit for some fine motor skill action, then popped it all in the blender allowing each child to decide what they wanted to add into their very own POD smoothie. Yum! We also got creative with some fantastic fruit art that focussed on a variety of different fruit and veg in more detail. We looked at their patterns, the textures of their peel and talked about their lovely vibrant colours. We then used the cut fruit as fab fruity stamps to make pretty artwork just perfect for the summer!

 

5. Book of the Month - The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr

Our book of the month is a total POD favourite and is filled with lots of food focussed fun. The Tiger Who Came to Tea is a beautiful book by Judith Kerr about a rather unexpected visit from a tiger at teatime! When Sophie opens the door, she’s surprised to find a hungry tiger on the doorstep. Despite giving the tiger lots to eat, the tiger’s appetite spirals out of control. We had lots of fun bringing this story to life. From designing invitations to join us at our own POD tiger tea party, to baking cupcakes to share, we drew up our menus and set the tea-table in tiger-riffic style. We thought about what we would serve to a hungry tiger (just in case one should ever appear on our doorstep) and used our remembering skills to put the food Sophie served the tiger in the same sequence as the story. We even made our own huge POD tiger out of cardboard (being careful to paint on his tiger stripes) and then jumped into some messy fun, making tiger footprint paintings that turned into our very own tiger trail around the POD!

 

6. Father’s Day (16th June)

Celebrating those we care about is not only super fun, but it boosts our children’s emotional development too. Father’s Day is a wonderful opportunity for children to celebrate the special bond they share with their fathers, father figures and family. It gives kids an opportunity to express their love and appreciation in a way that is unique to them. As well as making super special Father’s Day cards we spent time talking about families and listing all the extra-special reasons we love them.

 

7. First Day of Summer (20th June)

The weather got the memo just in time and we were raring to go. From playing in the sandpit to enjoying water fun, we’ve enjoyed picnics and snacks in the great outdoors. We soaked up the sounds and smells in our sensory garden and enjoyed all the lovely mood-boosting benefits of being outside. We might have even snuffled a sneaky ice-cream to celebrate the first day of summer!



June’s weather might have been a bit all over the place, but it hasn’t dampened our fun! Summer is officially on the schedule and July is already fit to burst with loads of awesome activities the kids will love. Sun hats, flip-flops and picnic blankets at the ready!