Mindful Mover Activities

We love being active at the POD, so we were super excited about our Mindful Movers theme in July. Great for gross motor skills, as well as being fun and energetic, Mindful Movers is all about children growing their confidence and ability in their movements as well as learning mindfulness skills and techniques that will help them become even happier little people!

We outdid ourselves on the basketball courts with some epic dribbles and dunks! From oh so sweet shots with hoops at varying heights, we also learnt how to be resilient to those rebounds when we didn’t score. We’ve played tag rugby which saw us ducking, diving, swerving and swooping and using our muscles in exciting new ways. We worked on our hand-eye coordination by catching and passing the ball plus worked on changing our direction at speed! With lots of dance thrown into the mix we’ve explored various styles and genres as well as adding our own freestyle flavour to the dancefloor! In yoga, we’ve taken time to stretch and breathe and let our minds wander.

We know that when kids get the chance to learn new skills, to challenge their bodies to try (and even fail) at games, we are teaching them about how to cope with adversity in a safe space. Being active not only improves children’s ability to focus in the classroom, but stretching in yoga or dance and practicing breathing techniques helps them keep control of their emotions. Being mindful sprinkles a special kind of magic that enables our kids to be fully equipped for whatever life may throw at them.

Awesome Outdoor Fun

Whilst we never let the weather spoil our fun (we enjoy wet and windy days just as much as the sunny ones) but when the sun really does have his hat on, we have a few extra-special activities up our sleeves to take full advantage of the sunshine. We’ve had some super sensory fun building sandcastles complete with moats and flags. We’ve combined two of our favourite summer activities, water and painting and added a watery splash of colour to everything – including each other.

In true Practically Family style we’ve hit the kitchen with some culinary fun and made the yummiest ice lollies which gave us the chance to talk about how water freezes (and melts). We’ve blown lots of bubbles using our nifty mindfulness exhaling techniques and we’ve counted (or popped) nearly all of them! Being fully immersed in our outside learning allows our children to really live in the moment. To enjoy their surroundings to the max.

Book of the Month – The Snail and the Whale

Stories provide children with a wonderful way to make sense of the world around them using relatable characters and narratives to draw them in. Our book of the month - The Snail and The Whale, is a tremendous story about a very small snail who hitches a ride on the tail of an enormous whale. Written by the brilliant Julia Donaldson, this book is brimming with adjectives, rhyming words and lush vocabulary. Not only is this a great story but like all really good books the message it leaves is one that fits our July mindfulness theme to a tee.

The little snail, despite its size, saves the day. It reminds us that no matter how small we are in the world, we can achieve great things if we try. This started lots of lovely conversations about how we have all managed to do things we initially thought we couldn’t, just like the little snail in the story. The unlikely partnership between the snail and the whale saw us explore the meaning of friendship as well as covering topics like being independent – as the little snail dreams to travel the world even though the other snails said not to!

In reading this brilliant book we’ve spent time thinking about the concept of big and small. We’ve played with big and small building bricks and learnt how to measure height and length with tools like rulers and tape measures. We’ve deep dived into the ocean and learnt about lots of fantastic sea creatures, created oodles of whale art and painted a gigantic whale’s tail on the wall of the POD to remind us of this fantastic story. We added a bit of extra mindfulness magic into the mix as we created our own POD spa relaxation area complete with whale sounds and hand massages! Bliss!



We really have had a whale of a time this July! From making BIG memories to mastering some small but mighty mindfulness techniques, we’ve loved every single second!