The POD Turned Two! Birthday Fun in February!

Time really does fly when you’re having fun! February saw us turning two in perfect POD style! We celebrated with cake (of course), face painting (obligatory) and lots of crafts (it isn’t a POD party without some glitter and glue!). Thanks to all the adults that joined us as we marked this milestone moment. Big shout out to The Final Edit for our awesome balloons, Cheshire Celebrations for the Magic Photo Booth and Kirsty Antrobus Photography for those precious pics of the day!

February’s Book of the Month – “Love You to The Moon and Back”

As you know, there’s nothing we love more than a good book! Our February book of the month was “Love You to The Moon and Back” by Amelia Hepworth. This is a beautiful tale about the many ways we can show love to those we care about – just perfect for the run up to Valentine’s Day! Little Bear and Big Bear playfully express how much they love each other in this heart-warming story that is full of beautiful illustrations and rhyme. Inspired by the story, we took our own intergalactic learning journey to outer space by crafting paper rockets and creating puffy paint moons. Space then became our playground as we practiced our movements with planet stepping stones and even some star catching! After enjoying some space exploration tuff trays and even making our own fizzy asteroids, we joined a Teddy bears space picnic which was out-of-this-world!

We got Calm, Cool and Collected During Children’s Mental Health Week

Children’s Mental Health Week (5th -11th February) saw us focussing on the topic of family, friendships and feelings. We know that when we’re feeling good inside, everything else seems much easier to handle. Learning about emotional wellbeing is just as important as academic skills like reading or counting, and just like these other skills, getting it right takes practice. We stretched our bodies (and minds) in yoga and made time for a bit of mindfulness with some breathing exercises. We pampered ourselves with natural facemasks (complete with cucumbers for the eyes) and even dabbled with foot spas! Using the healing properties of nature, we headed outside as we let the fresh air calm our senses. From listening to whale songs to using light to explore our senses, we all came away feeling positive and uplifted! Namaste!

We Explored Exciting Traditions and Celebrations such as Chinese New Year, Pancake Day and Valentines!

Celebrating festivals, celebrations and traditions are an important part of our children’s learning and development. Not only do they help kids understand other cultures traditions and beliefs, but they are also lots of fun! The children welcomed in the Lunar New Year with much excitement! The POD was awash with red and gold as we prepared to bring love and luck to our friends and family with some traditional Chinese New Year celebrations. We were joined by Cathy from REonDemand who immersed us into this vibrant and enchanting celebration. We listened to traditional music and learnt the customary lion dance and (as it is the year of the dragon) a dragon dance too! From making beautiful fans and dragon puppets, to enjoying sparklers (at a distance) and even trying some Chinese food, we made sure our Lunar New Year celebrations were full of prosperity, good fortune and good health!



Pancake day (13th February) at the POD is always flipping good fun! We explored a bit about why we make Pancakes and then spent a lot of time enjoying them! From weighing our own ingredients to mixing our own batter and of course choosing our own toppings and decorations, we took our pancake game to the next level this year - and ate more than we’d probably like to admit!



Valentine’s Day (14th February) saw the POD filled with love-infused fun and activities! From making valentine cards to talking about what it means to be kind, we explored the themes of love and friendship. We took heart-shaped activities to the max, with puffy-paint heart pictures, baking (and tasting) love heart cookies and some super sensory fun with our valentine inspired tuff trays! We even mixed up our own love potions with petals and glitter!

Practically Wild – We Looked at the Life Cycle of a Butterfly

As Spring begins it’s the PERFECT time to talk to our children about the changes we can see in nature. One of the most engaging ways to do this is to look at the life cycle of a butterfly. This February we looked at the fantastic transformation a caterpillar makes to turn into a beautiful butterfly. We read the story “The Hungry Caterpillar” and then set about making our own bespoke butterfly pictures using potato prints.

We had a WOW Day to Remember!

What better way to close our topic on ‘Adventures’ than with a totally WOW-worthy Curse of the Missing Crystal Challenge. That’s right, we split into two Preschool teams to take part in solving tricky puzzles and challenges to find those precious missing crystals. Scallywags and Swashbucklers went head-to-head, following the treasure map clues over obstacle courses, crocodile swamps and even word soups! It was totally terrific fun.

February has been full to the brim with lots of fantastic learning. Whether we have been talking about feelings or joining in the many festivities celebrated this month, we’ve had the best of time together. February might have been FAB but March promises to be Egg-cellent too. You could say we’re already a little bit egg-cited about what’s in store.

Watch this space!