Bug hotel: school gardening club

bug hotel
This week’s project for the School Gardening Club was to make a bug hotel. The idea is to create a cosy habitat for insects to shelter in over the winter. You can make your bug hotel structure from planks of wood layered up on bricks, pallets or crates, but one of our teachers discovered this cutlery tray in the old school kitchen – the perfect shape and size for our hotel. We stapled a plastic mesh on the back, just so the filling wouldn’t slip out of the back as soon as the children started filling it up. Read more »

Creative Christmas Countdown: Christmas tree bird feeder


Today it’s NurtureStore’s turn to share an idea in the Creative Christmas Countdown hosted by Creative with Kids. A big festive hello to those of you visiting from the interactive Advent calendar and welcome to NurtureStore. While you’re here you might like to take at look at some of our other creative, crafty Christmas activities or sign up for our weekly Play Planner.

For today’s Creative Chistmas activity I’m sharing an idea to make a Christmas Tree for the feathered friends in your garden. Christmas is a time of year when we can really encourage children to think of others and give gifts to those they love. How about spending some time with your kids, giving thanks for the natural world and helping them put together a Christmas feast for the birds?

Here are four easy ideas you can use to make a bird feeder – and if you make them all, you can hang them together on a tree outside to make an Christmas tree that gives your feathered friends a festive feast.

How to make a bird feeeder: popcorn chain Read more »

Clock change craft: let there be light

jar jar candle holder craft
We are fighting back against the darkness brought with the clock change and making jam jar candle holders to light up our home.

As soon as the clocks go back it’s like someone threw the light switch and the afterschool atmosphere changes. Instead of lamenting the lack of light we are making our own, transforming jam jars into beautiful candle holders to create a cosy glow in the kitchen as we play and eat dinner.

How to make jam jar candle holders Read more »

Autumn Play Planner: fun ideas for every day this week

autumn theme ideas

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If you’d like to have a copy of the weekly play planner delivered straight to your e-mail in box, just sign up in the ‘Join Our E Newsletter’ box over on the right. The planner will arrive on a Sunday, ready and waiting with a week’s worth of play ideas for the week ahead.

*** Readers in Australia and New Zealand can find our spring archive here***

 Monday’s child is…  Read more »

Salt dough candle holders for Diwali

salt dough candle holder diwali craft
Are you celebrating Diwali with your children next week? I think observing festivals from many different cultures is a wonderful way to introduce  kids to the wider world.  The festival of lights is taking place on Wednesday 26th October 2011 and this year we are marking the occasion by making some salt dough candle holders.

Salt dough candle holder Diwali craft Read more »

Fun and funky pumpkin decorating ideas

pumpkin decorating with children

Whether you are celebrating Halloween, harvest or the coming of autumn, now is the time to do some pumpkin decorating with your children. We didn’t want to make anything too scary but we did want lots of hands-on, creative fun. We bought some small pumpkins, so everyone could have one each, and set up a decorating station with lots of interesting materials the kids could use to customise their pumpkins.

Decorating pumpkins with children: fun and funky ideas Read more »

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