\nEach year on April 22, more than a billion people celebrate Earth Day to protect the planet from things like pollution and deforestation. So in celebration of Earth Day we have this wonderful craft to create your own mini window sill garden. All need is our free print out plus cress or mustard seeds, compost, egg carton and scissors.

Here’s how to make yours:

\n\nPlease click here to access the printable!\n

First fill the lid section of the egg carton with compost. Ideally try and use a green egg box if you can find one.

Next sprinkle the cress or mustard seeds into the box and water regularly over the next few days.

In around 4 days time you should see little shoots appearing.

In the meantime you can be cutting out the garden accessories. For this all your need to do is stick the free print out onto some card, then carefully cut out each item.

Once you have a carton full of shoots you can start slotting in your garden accessories. Be careful to wait a few hours after watering or your paper decorations could become soggy. They can be easily be taken out each time you need to water.

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Our mini garden craft uses illustrations found on our new Greenhouse and Garden Set.

For children who love nature and playing in the garden, this set is ideal for encouraging green fingers. A traditional plywood greenhouse with base has an opening door, and two removable roof panels. It can be filled with two seed trays, a planting bench, four pot plants, and three tomato shrubs. We have included a cold frame for nurturing seeds, a raised bed with nine vegetables, a compost bin, a lawnmower, a watering can, a topiary tree, a wheelbarrow, and last but not least, a deck chair for your dolls to enjoy the fruits of their labour.

https://tenderleaftoys.co.uk/collections/doll-s-houses/products/greenhouse-and-garden-set

\nThe official Earth day website has a whole section dedicated to lots of Earth Day tips on how you and your family can get more involved from changing to a plant based diet to fight climate change to flighting food waste by composting. More info here https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-tips/\n

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Please click here to access the printable!

Greenhouse and Garden set Wheelbarrow set Flower bed

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Grab your teddies or family and friends and invite them into your pretend play doctor’s surgery! Print out out our free printable page from here \n

Next cut along the dotted line, then grab a pen and any medical toys you might have to help with your diagnosis!

You could also cover your Patient Exam print out with sticky back plastic, then use a white board pen so you can wipe it clean and start again!

The illustrations on the Patient Exam form are from our brand new Doctor's Bag. A fabulous retro styled Doctor's Bag, full of all the essentials for treating poorly patients!

\n $\"medical$ Teaching our little ones the importance of caring for one another is at the top of our list. What better way to learn through play than with a beautiful wooden doctors set! We even included the all important face mask in this set.

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Check it out here plus there’s a great video from our YouTube channel where you can see it in action!

Doctors Bag

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With the summer holidays in full swing, you might be wondering how to keep up the reading and writing with your children throughout the long break?

Local libraries in the UK run an annual Summer Reading Challenge to encourage children to continue reading through out this period. This year they have teamed up with WWF for their challenge with a range or fun cartoon characters young readers can meet along the way. And on completion of the challenge children receive a real medal and stickers!

More details here:

https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/.../summer-reading...

Oxford Owl have written a list of ideas on how to keep little ones brains active called \"How to beat the summer slump\" We particularly like their suggested activity of adding to an existing story your child already loves. For example rewriting the end of the Gruffalo

Read all the article in full here:

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/.../how-to-beat-the-summer.../

We've designed a fun print out inspired by the WWF Summer Reading Challenge featuring our Forest Friends from our new wooden stacker toy!

All you need to do is print out the activity below,

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then get your little ones to practice your reading skills and help our Forest Friends find their names. All they need to do is draw a line from the animal or insect to the correct name! We’ve given you a clue with some colour coding! There is also an option to practice their hand writing by tracing their names.

Have fun!

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Check out our new Forest Friends here:

Stacking forest

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September means back to school for most children and an exciting first day for all 4 and 5-year-olds just starting school. The morning school run can be rushed and often frantic but the walk home can allow for a more relaxed pace. So with this in mind and the changing of the season, we’ve created a simple activity which can be taken on the walk home for all ages to enjoy…

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Print out our Forest Treasures free printable below and take it with you next time you’re walking back from school. Then have a look at the floor around you and see what natural treasures you can see and what ones you can collect. When you get home use your printout to order your forest floor treasures into a pattern. Perhaps friends and siblings can also create one and then you can compare each other’s finds.

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Why not photograph your pattern then start all over again? It might help to cover this page with sticky back plastic so it can be wiped clean. Or pop it into a clear plastic folder to take on your walk then you can also store your forest treasures in it too. We like to use plastic folders made from 100% recycled materials.

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This activity has been inspired by our new Forest Floor tinker tray box. It comes with a variety of woodland treasures, from pebbles to leaves, for your little one to sort, stack and arrange. The lid is also removable and can be used as a chalkboard to draw a forest scene inspired by the wooden pieces. See it in more detail here:

\nMy Forest Floor Botanical Press Woodland Animals\n

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Notebook

Earth Day 2021

Medical pretend play

Reading and writing fun this summer!

Back to the school run fun!