1st – 31st May: National Walking Month

The campaign is encouraging “the Magic of walking”. It wants people to explore their local areas and appreciate the nature around them. By walking and being physical it keeps our hearts and body healthy. Remember to link in Active Azra as the character who likes to keep those belly buttons on the move.  Walking can have a positive impact on children’s mood, concentration, and creativity. The physical activity specialist, Lisa Young from the British Heart Foundation states “Walking is a fantastic way to keep active and maintain a healthy heart as it is fun, flexible and free.” One of the simplest ways to encourage children and families to walk more is by promoting Active Travel. Little Feet part of Living Street which is a UK organisation and charity for promoting walking and states that 9 out of 10 children are not meeting their physical activity levels. Early Years settings need to discourage the use of cars and pushchairs and encourage more walking. Living Streets have created and Early Yaers Little Feet Challenge which you can order here. Why not encourage staff, parents, and children to compete with one another and to be positive Role Models incorporating the role of Suzy Startwell.  Are your staff and parents achieving their recommended 10,000 steps per day? Leader boards at the ready!

1st – 31st May: Local and Community History Month

This is the perfect event to share local knowledge and history with the children and parents in your setting. Why not make it Startwell focussed? Do they know where the local Dentists, Doctors, allotments and parks are? What is the local history in your area or the history of your nursery? Remember to link in your Startwell characters e.g. Smiley Shen with the dentist and Fay 5 a day with the grocery store and why not do a few community walks and link in Active Azra.

5th May: African World Heritage Day

African World Heritage Day was started in 2015 so that the history and traditions of African families can be celebrated. Why not take this opportunity to look at fruits widely cultivated in Africa such as bananas and pineapples linking in Fay 5 a day and explore traditional African dishes alongside Micky Me Size. You could also try some traditional dances alongside 180 Katie as music and dance is a huge part of culture.

5th – 11th May: Children’s Book Week

Children’s book week is designed to raise the profile of the importance of reading but also the message that reading for pleasure is fun.  Why not try one of our active story sheets to help bring a story to life using a range of physical movements. Check out our active stories page here.

6th May: World Asthma Day

World asthma Day was founded in 1988 to raise awareness of what Asthma is and how it affects people that have it and their families. There is no cure for Asthma and sadly it can be life limiting in some cases. Why not use this day to talk about how our lungs work and the importance of keeping them active and healthy as exercising can help improve lung function. But remember you must build up exercise and always be aware of children’s conditions and trigger points. Why not start with a few Active Azra exercises from our website and move into 180 Katie where appropriate. Take a look t activity ideas here.

8th May: VE Day

VE Day marks the end and memory of World War 2, and 2025 marks 80 years. Celebrations in the form of parties and family activities and remembrance services with a 2-minute silence at 3 pm are common across the UK. It gives people a chance to come together to remember the sacrifice made by those who lost their lives and the impact on families. If you are holding a VE Day picnic, remember to use a range of healthy options for your picnic and link in Micky Me Size so we only eat the right amount for our tummies. Why not play some old traditional street games such as hopscotch and hoopla and link in Sammy Skills.

8th May: Outdoor Classroom Day

Outdoor classroom day is a day to promote the importance of being and learning outdoors. The aim is to look holistically at the child and consider the health and education benefits that come from being outdoors. Nurseries and schools up and down the country take part in this event that happens twice a year in May and November. They take part by having all or most of their activities outdoors for the whole day or taking more nature walks to explore the local environment. Why not link in 180 Katie and do your wake up and shake up outdoors or take the children on a nature walk with Active Azra. Share your day with us through our social media links.

12th May: Vesak Day

Vesak, is also known as Buddha Day or Buddha’s Birthday, it is a celebration traditionally observed by Buddhists and some Hindus. Vesak is the celebration of the birth and passing away of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. Temples are also decorated with flowers, and offerings of food. Family and friends also share lovely, colourful cards with each other and share vegetarian food. Why not link in Fay 5 a day and make some fruit/vegetable art that can be eaten with 2 Snacks Max.

12th – 18th May: Mental Health Awareness Week

The theme of Mental Health Awareness Week is “community.” Startwell aims to promote healthy lifestyles and wellbeing, this is often called mindfulness. Healthy eating, exercising and sleep all play a part in a person’s mental and emotional state. Why not talk to the children about the importance of being kind to others, asking our friends if they are ok and making sure that they are eating, sleeping and being physically active and linking in the appropriate character.

12th – 18th May: National sun Awareness Week

Most people love the sun and children love being outdoors, so we need to be aware of the benefits but also the harm that being in the sun has on our bodies. Firstly, the benefit of the sun is natural vitamin D for our bodies to help promote growth and development of the teeth and bones. New research shows it also offers improved resistance to other certain diseases. To gain extra vitamins including vitamin D make sure families are aware of the FREE vitamins they can get in Birmingham for pregnant women until their child is 1 and for children up to the age of 4. Check out our Healthy Start page on our website for more info. The second part of Sun Awareness Week is to remember to look after our skin and reduce the risk of sunburn. Young children have thinner skin than adults. Remember that everyone regardless of skin tone needs to use a high factor sun cream and stay out of direct sunlight during 10-2pm. Take a Look at our Sun Safety Sheet here.

12th May – 12th June: National Smile Month

National Smile Month is the UK’s largest and longest-running campaign to promote good oral health. This year’s theme is Feed your Smile, thinking about the food that we eat and the impact on our teeth. Remember to link in Smiley Shen and focus on 3 Key Messages:
1.          Brush your teeth last thing at night and on at least one other occasion with fluoride toothpaste.
2.         Cut down on how often you have sugary foods and drinks.
3.         Visit your dentist regularly, as often as they recommend.
For further information you can visit National Smile Month’s website here.
For Startwell ideas on how to promote oral health in your setting take a look at our Smiley Shen page.

18th May: Women’s FA Cup Final

Are the children in your setting interested in kicking balls or scoring goals? The Women’s FA Cup is England’s top cup competition for women’s football clubs that is just for English teams. This event is a great opportunity to raise the profile of girls and women in football and teach children a range of basic ball mastery skills. Remember football is a ‘Manipulative Skills’ which makes up part of our Fundamental Movement Skills, so this is a great time to link in Sammy Skills.

25th May – 8th June: French Open

The French Open is a tennis tournament that was first held in 1891 and played yearly in France. The French Open is a great time to get children interested in tennis and trying out new skills. Remember to link in Sammy Skills as you practice those fundamental movement skills of manipulation as you use bats and balls.

26h May  – 1st June: Garden Wildlife Week

Garden Wildlife Week has a focus on learning about the wildlife around us. Can you do a wildlife watch in your garden and make a note of what animals and insects you find? Don’t forget to look under rocks and check out our Pinterest page for ideas on building bug hotels. Once you’ve found/ spotted wildlife in your garden Active Azra wants to know can you move round your garden like them e.g. fly like a butterfly, slither like a worm, crawl like a spider.

7th April: World Health Day

This year the World Health Organisation (WHO) is shining a light on Global Action for Universal Health. World Health Day is the starting point for many other health awareness days that you can support in your setting. This year’s theme was chosen to champion the right of everyone, everywhere to have access to health services, education, and information, as well as safe drinking water, clean air, good nutrition, quality housing, decent working and environmental conditions, and freedom from discrimination. This is an opportunity to promote all of Startwell’s key messages as research says that eating well, good oral health and exercise are important for supporting health and wellbeing.

7th – 13th April: Community Garden Week

Community garden week is all about exploring outdoors and having a go at a range of gardening activities. It is a great time to get back into the garden and give it a tidy up and overhaul. Why not involve the children in cleaning, sweeping, tidying the garden, and setting up new areas for them to explore. This will keep the children active like Active Azra. It is also the perfect time to introduce a range of skills with Sammy Skills through from digging, weeding, and planting. Remember to link in Fay 5 a day if your growing fruit or vegetables. Check out our website for gardening tips and information.

14th April:Vaisakhi

Vaisakhi is the Sikh harvest festival; it is one of the most significant holidays in the Sikh calendar.
Vaisakhi is focussed on community spirit and practising spiritual and physical integration. Celebrations are usually held in the Gurdwara’s and on the streets, which are colourfully decorated with orange flags and banners and feature marches and processions. Why not hold your own Vaisakhi procession in the nursery where children can dance and move as they move through the procession. Remember to link in Active Azra.

16th April – 24th April: National Parks Week

National Parks Week is dedicated to raising public awareness of Britain’s national parks. Why not do a local map of parks in your area that parents and children can visit. Remember to link in Active Azra and encourage families to walk and keep their belly buttons on the move as they explore their local area. Remember to take some water and fruit to snack on with 2 snacks Max for the long walks.

23rd April: St George’s Day

Use active storytelling to teach children the tale of St George and the Dragon. Try incorporating the following action movements during the story:

•             Dragon – flying (running with arms spread out and moving in an up and down motion)
•             St Georges horse – galloping
•             St George – sword and shield movements
•             The King’s army – marching towards the dragon and running away from the dragon
•             Princess – dancing and twirling when she returns to the village

This is a great story to get your 180 minutes in and make Katie happy. Challenge children to make the movements in the story high intensity (how fast can they gallop?) to work towards the 60 minutes of high intensity movement over 3-year-olds need each day.

20th April: Easter

The Easter bunny has arrived – why not undertake lots of active easter egg hunts where children undertake a physical activity when they find an egg with Active Azra. Remember to talk to the children about the importance of Micky Me Size – eating in moderation and Smiley Shen and how to look after our teeth. Remember not to do chocolate easter egg hunts in setting – look at our Pinterest pages for alternative easter egg hunts instead:

29th April: International Dance Day

International Dance Day is a fantastic day to look at the genres of music that you play in your setting. Try playing a range of genres to see how the children react to different types of music. Why not link in 180 Katie and see if you can raise those heart rates and make your heart go Boom Boom Boom.

30th April: Stop Food Wastage Day

Days of the Year.com state “Roughly one-third of the food produced globally is either lost or wasted every year.” When I complete mealtime observations in settings it always amazes me how much food is wasted and thrown away. With homes and settings affected by the cost-of-living crisis ensuring food waste is reduced is important. This is the perfect time to reflect on Micky Me Size and remember how much food is needed so we stop over cooking and having too much waste. This day also helps us to reflect on what we throw away before it’s even cooked due to use by dates and buying too much.

2nd February 2025 – National Hedgehog Day

It is a day to remember that UK hedgehog populations are shrinking, and most children have never seen a live hedgehog. Lets use the day to celebrate all things hedgehog – why not make hedgehog bread with 2 snacks Max for snack time, or go on a walk with Active Azra to collect leaves and make hedgehog leaf pictures.

 

3rd – 9th February: Children’s Mental Health Week

Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week will take place, with the theme of My Voice Matters. It was set up by children’s mental health charity Place2Be and shines a spotlight on the importance of children and young people’s mental health.  It aims to look at reflecting on how children are given a voice and how we listen and respond to them. It aims to look at the importance of good mental health for children and young people and the importance of sharing thoughts and feelings with trusted others. Physical activity is a great way to boost mood, why not try different types of dancing as a way of expressing emotions e.g. high energy dancing or ballet dancing and link in 180 Katie.

 

7^th February: Wear Red Day in line with National Heart Month 2025

Wear red day is a fundraising and awareness day to support children and adults born with congenital heart disease. It’s really easy to take part as all you need to do is wear something red. Why not take this opportunity to use 180 Katie to talk about the importance of a healthy heart and how to make the heart go Boom Boom Boom. It’s surprising how many children do not know where their heart is so this is a great opportunity to talk about the heart and its role in our body. If you can get hold of a stethoscope and listen to their own hearts that will make it all the more exciting and real for them. Remember the need to do 180 minutes of activity daily to keep our hearts healthy.

 

7th February: NSPCC Number Day

The NSPCC runs a maths focussed fun and fundraising day each year and provides a range of downloadable resources and ideas to help you have fun from dressing up as digits or wearing clothes with numbers or maths themes on through to going on a number hunt. The resources are suitable from children in nursery right through to schools. The idea behind the event is to celebrate maths whilst any funds raised go towards helping to protect more children from abuse. Could you set up your own maths number hunt with Active Azra – remember to make them search high and low both indoors and outdoors or try making healthy sandwiches and counting the toppings as you slice and add them, how many triangles/squares do you have? A reception recently shared with us that counting down from 10 is a key area that children are struggling with – why not try some number rhymes that count down instead of up.

 

11^th February: Safer Internet Day

Active Azra wants you to think about the use of technology in your setting but also at home. We know children are using technology for longer and from a much earlier age even though Government guidance recommends no screen time for under 2’s. Why not use this day to make parents aware of safe internet messages, recommended screen time and alternative activities they could be doing to keep them active like Active Azra.

 

14^th – 21^st  February: National Nest Box Day

Did you know that there is a shortage of nesting sites for birds? Do you have an area in your outdoor provision that you could add a nesting box? It is a great opportunity to explore nature with the youngest of children and to get them interested in learning about wildlife and a focus on our birds. Can the children help to make bird boxes with Sammy Skills and hang bird feeders in your outdoor areas.

 

14^th February: Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day, is celebrated on February 14 to show your love to your partner but in recent years this has grown in popularity and people often use it to celebrate their love of their family and pets. Valentine’s Day is often associated with sugary sweets and chocolate but check out our Winter Pinterest board for alternative healthy ways to celebrate it in your setting.  Or try our recipe for our heart shaped Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies. It’s also a great time to look at the importance of keeping your heart healthy with 180 Katie.

 

15^th-23^rd February: Real Bread Week

This is a great opportunity to make and explore bread with the children and talk about it being an energy food for our bodies. Try making bread or having flour play in your tuff trays for exploration with our younger children. Why not have a bread tasting session at snack time and try different varieties or another favourite of Startwell’s is bread painting using food colouring. Remember to link in 2 Snacks Max and maybe even Micky Me Size so we don’t eat too much.

 

20th February: National Love your Pet Day

This event is a great opportunity to start exploring the needs of others and empathy. You can start to look at what do living things need and maybe even turn your role play area into a Vets or a Doggy Day care. Remember to talk about the use of outside and the movements that animals make – can the children act out the animal movements? Why not link in Sammy Skills and use a range of animal Yoga poses. Check out our Yoga with Sammy Skills cube game and Sammy Skills’ board on Pinterest for extra ideas. 

 

26^th February: Tell a Fairy Tale Day

Launched in the US several years ago Tell a Fairy Tale Day has become really popular in the UK. It provides the perfect opportunity to spend time reading fairy tales and enjoying favourite childhood tales

A fairy tale is a short story that typically features fantasy characters and magic. Fairy tale collections are among the first books read and introduced by parents. But have you seen the mixed up fairy tales range? Why not look at reading these and it is also a great opportunity to make up your own fairy tales with the children or change traditional tales to link them to your setting. Try turning the fairy tales into active stories, we have made Run Gingerbread man run into an active story follow the link and have fun trying it out in your setting.

5th November: Bonfire (Guy Fawkes) Night

Remember, Remember the 5th of November –why not check out our Pinterest page for Autumn and try some of the amazing, fun, and healthy activity ideas that we have pinned for you such as dancing like fireworks and flames with the children and Active Azra or what about cooking up a batch of our super warming spicy lentil and carrot soup or pumpkin/butternut squash soup from our website recipe tab. The children will love getting hands on with the contents of the inside of the pumpkin or hammering nails into them, remember to link in Mickey Me Size and Sammy Skills.  All these ideas and more can be found on our Startwell website and social media pages. Why not share the recipes with your parents so they can have a go at home.

7th November: Outdoor Classroom Day

Outdoor classroom day is an initiative that takes place across the UK and the World. The focus is on celebrating the outdoors, learning through the environment, and making children happier and healthier and improving their sense of wellbeing. Outdoor classroom day will see lots of children in a variety of settings spending the whole day outdoors. Why don’t you have an outdoor day where all the learning takes place outdoors. We know the amount of time children spend outside has decreased and days like this really hope to promote its importance and highlight the issue. Link in the physical characters to your activities. Why not try making our mud dough with Sammy skills or doing an outdoor wake and shake up with Active Azra.

11th – 15th November:Nursery Rhyme Week

Nursery rhymes play an important role in early childhood development and education. As well as being fun they are excellent teaching tools for a range of topics.  Here at Startwell we love an active nursery rhyme or using music to encourage movement. Children spend too much time sitting singing songs so be creative and get everybody moving. Can you be a great role model like Suzy Startwell and get the children active with Azra by turning your nursery rhymes in to action songs? Why not check out the Active Azra Nursery Rhymes Cube games on our website. Check out one of our Active Nursery Rhymes videos here as an example!

11th – 17th November: Sugar Awareness Week

Eating too much sugar can cause us to gain weight and has a detrimental effect on our teeth and can contribute to tooth decay. Can you promote healthy snacks for families at home and promote our 2 snacks Max message?  Put up a Smiley Shen sugar display to highlight how much sugar is in various drinks, cereals, toast toppings, sweets, biscuits, and chocolate. Check out Better Health, Healthier families sugar swaps and Action on Sugar for more information. For more ideas on how to protect teeth and for activity ideas to do with the children, look at Smiley Shen’s activity ideas on our Startwell Website.

13th November: World Kindness Day

World Kindness Day is celebrated throughout the World every year on 13th November. People pledge to undertake a good deed to help someone else on this day. Why not use this day as an opportunity to get the children to pledge to do a physical activity to keep their bodies healthy and a pledge to do something else for someone in the setting or at home and create a World kindness board where they can share their pledges. Remember to link in Suzy Startwell as you start off the kindness pledges.

14th November: World Diabetes Day

The purpose of this one day is to raise awareness of a condition that millions of people all around the world live with every day. Diabetes is a serious, lifelong condition where your blood glucose level is too high. There are two main types, Type 1, and Type 2. There is nothing we can do to prevent Type 1 diabetes but 12.3 million people in the UK are at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.  Around 3 in 5 cases of type 2 diabetes can be prevented or delayed by maintaining a healthy weight, eating well and being active. The colour and focus of World Diabetes Day is wear blue, be more physical and increase your steps. Remember to link the Startwell characters to your activities.

17th: 23rd November: Road Safety Week

This year’s theme for 2024 is “ be a road safety hero”. It is about raising awareness of the damage that can be done to lives through driving too fast and the importance of making good choices whilst in a car but also as a pedestrian. It hopes to highlight the importance of sticking to road speed limits, driving safely and crossing roads at appropriate crossings. Why not set up a road/ bike track in your garden and use traffic lights to control the speed of the children driving. Link in Sammy Skills as they increase their skill of driving/riding. You could also play traffic light games with them where they need to move at different speeds according to the lights etc.  You could take the children on a walk with Active Azra and use traffic lights and zebra crossings to cross safely. Visit Brake’s website for more information and activity packs.

20th November: Universal Children’s Day

Universal Children’s Day is celebrated across the World with a focus on improving children’s rights and welfare. Why not hold a week of activities in your setting where you focus on children looking at nursery rules and any changes that are needed that the children can action. Lots of nursery rules focus on kind hands, good sitting etc but can you add some nutrition and physical ones in – such as We try new food, we eat our fruit and vegetables with 5 a day Fay, we keep our belly buttons moving like Active Arza etc.  It’s another opportunity to look at Children’s Health and what keeps our bodies’ healthy and taking part in activities to keep them healthy alongside the Startwell Characters. Check out United Nations’ Children’s Day webpage here.

30th November: St Andrew’s Day

St Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland. On this day people gather and celebrate the day with food, celebrations, flying the Scottish flag, dancing, and storytelling. Why not make Scottish flags with the children and listen to some traditional music such as bagpipes etc and watch how children move to the music. Remember to link in 180 Katie as the children move and dance to traditional music.

1st April – 1st May: National Pet Month

This is a great opportunity to learn about pets with the children in your care and how to look after them. Think about changing your role play area into a vets and link in Sammy Skills, use his Pinterest page to link in some animal yoga poses or pretend to be the animals in your vet area. You could also link in Worlds Vet Day on 29^th April. Check out our Sammy Skills Pinterest page here.

10th March – 9th April: Ramadan

Ramadan is observed by Muslims and is a month-long period of fasting, prayer, and spirituality. During Ramadan, followers fast/pray in a bid to cleanse their souls and strengthen their connection to God. Families come together to eat and pray during non-fasting hours. Traditional Asian food can sometimes be high in fat depending on how it is prepared and cooked. If you have families celebrating in your setting why not try Startwell’s healthier Balti recipe or any of our other healthy recipe ideas.

1st – 7th April: Community Garden Week

Community garden week is all about exploring outdoors and having a go at a range of gardening activities. It is a great time to get back into the garden and give it a tidy up and overhaul. Why not involve the children in cleaning, sweeping, and tidying the garden and setting up new areas for them to explore. This will keep the children active like Active Azra. It is also the perfect time to introduce a range of skills with Sammy Skills through from digging, weeding, and planting and remember to link in Fay 5 a day if your growing fruit or vegetables. Check out our website for gardening tips and information. Check out our Spring Pinterest Activities for more ideas.

2nd April: International Children’s Book Day

International Children’s Book Day is a day to promote and celebrate reading and books with children. The great thing is all you need to celebrate this day is a good book. Why not use this opportunity to read a story with a healthy wellbeing theme? Having a story book box that is filled with stories and props to act them out is a great way to get children interested and engaged with reading/books and using their imagination. Remember Active Azra likes us to undertake active stories as well as ones that we sit down for. Don’t forget to contact us if you want another copy of our “I’ve had enough” books and link in Micky Me Size. This year’s theme is ‘the small is big in a book’.

2nd April National Autism Awareness Day

Autism Awareness day raises awareness about autism and how it affects not only those who have it and their families but other people around them as well. This year’s theme for 2023 is colour. Action.org.uk states that “Autism is a condition which means a person’s brain works differently to other people’s and affects the way they experience the world around them. (Autism spectrum). Raising children’s awareness that we are all unique and “It’s good to be me” is a great theme. Why not use coloured scarfs and allow the children to dance and move in whatever way they want to a range of music and explore different people’s musical tastes/ favourite genres. Remember to link in Suzy Startwell and Active Azra.

7th April: World Health Day

This year the World Health Organisation (WHO) is shining a light on the ethos of Health for All and the theme is My Health, My Right. World Health Day is the starting point for many other health awareness days that you can support in your setting. This year’s theme was chosen to champion the right of everyone, everywhere to have access to health services, education, and information, as well as safe drinking water, clean air, good nutrition, quality housing, decent working and environmental conditions, and freedom from discrimination. This is an opportunity to promote all of Startwell’s key messages as research says that eating well and exercise are important for supporting health and wellbeing. For inspiration, please visit our Characters Pinterest boards

13th April: Vaisakhi

Vaisakhi is the Sikh harvest festival; it is one of the most significant holidays in the Sikh calendar. Vaisakhi is focussed on community spirit and practising spiritual and physical integration. Celebrations are usually held in the Gurdwara’s and on the streets, which are colourfully decorated with orange flags and banners and feature marches and processions. Why not hold your own Vaisakhi procession in the nursery where children can dance and move as they move through the procession. Remember to link in Active Azra or 180 Katie if the activity is making their hearts go boom.

16th April – 24th April: National Parks Week

National Parks Week is dedicated to raising public awareness of Britain’s national parks. Why not do a local map of parks in your area that parents and children can visit. Remember to link in Active Azra and encourage families to walk and keep their belly buttons on the move as they explore their local area. Remember to take some water and fruit to snack on with 2 snacks Max for the long walks.

22nd April:
Earth Day

Earth day is designed to raise awareness of changes to the environment. It is a great opportunity to focus on learning through the environment. Why not have natural resources play day or a learning outdoors day? This year’s theme is ‘Planet Vs Practice’ and aims to raise awareness of the importance of removing and reducing single use plastics in our environment. This is a great day for getting Active Azra involved and keeping those belly buttons on the move as you play, learn, and explore. Bob the Builder tells us to “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”.

22nd – 28th April: Allergy Awareness Week

The topic of Allergy Awareness Week 2024 is ‘Childhood Food Allergy, with a focus on the weaning journey for parents of babies with food allergies. If you need support with your weaning menu please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Startwell team.

All settings must be compliant with the EU and UK allergen laws. All nurseries need to make sure that they have a written menu for the food and drink they serve and a list of recipes for the food. Each ingredient needs to be checked to see if it contains one of the 14 most common allergens. Nurseries need to have the allergen information on view for parents to see or somewhere it can be easily accessed. For more information visit the ‘Allergen Information’ page on the Startwell website where you can download the ‘food allergen table’ which can help you document the allergens on your menu. You could also access our food and mealtimes training – we are running a session on the 12th March from 1.00-2.45pm! See our training dates here.

23rd April – St George’s Day

Use active storytelling to teach children the tale of St George and the Dragon. Try incorporating the following action movements during the story:

•             Dragon – flying (running with arms spread out and moving in an up and down motion)
•             St Georges horse – galloping
•             St George – sword and shield movements
•             The King’s army – marching towards the dragon and running away from the dragon
•             Princess – dancing and twirling when she returns to the village

Follow this cbeebies link for 2 short clips on how children can celebrate St George’s day. This is a great story to get your 180 minutes in and make Katie happy. Challenge children to make the movements in the story high intensity (how fast can they gallop) to work towards the 60 minutes of high intensity movement over 3-year-olds need each day. Fore more on St George’s Day click here.

24th April: National Asparagus Day

Did you know that Asparagus has its own day? 24^th April signifies the start of the season for this vegetable, and it normally runs until around June. Asparagus is a vegetable that we don’t often see on nursery menu’s so why not take this opportunity to do an exploration and taste session with the children. Asparagus is not only packed full of vitamins and minerals, but also rich in antioxidants so it is healthy. It’s also high fibre and easy and quick to cook as it is best served steamed. Did you know there are over 200 edible varieties? Remember to link in 5 a Day Fay.

24th April: Beep Beep! Brake Road Safety Day

Beep Beep Day is focussed on learning about road safety for young children. It aims to support parents, carers, and children to learn about safety rules when out near a road. Brake provides a free action pack for all settings that take part, and the packs are designed for children aged 2-7 years old. Going for walks in your local area is a great place to start learning about road safety and perfect for getting those belly buttons moving with Active Azra. Follow the link to access your pack

24th April: Stop Food Wastage Day

Days of the Year.com states “Roughly one-third of the food produced globally is either lost or wasted every year.” When I complete mealtime observations in settings it always amazes me how much food is wasted and thrown away. With homes and settings affected by the cost-of-living crisis ensuring food waste is reduced is important. This is the perfect time to reflect on Micky Me Size and remember how much food is needed so we stop over cooking and having too much waste. This day also helps us to reflect on what we throw away before it’s even cooked due to use by dates and buying too much.

29th April: International Dance Day

International Dance Day is a fantastic day to look at the genres of music that you play in your setting. Try playing a range of genres to see how the children react to different types of music. Why not link in 180 Katie and see if you can raise those heart rates and make your heart go Boom Boom Boom!