It’s time to celebrate all things marine! Every year the UK comes together to celebrate National Marine Week, a week for us to explore sea animals and plants from Saturday 24th July to Sunday 8th August.
Our seas are home to over half of all our wildlife each contributing to flood management and water purification, and provide the oxygen for every other breath you take!
]]>It’s time to celebrate all things marine! Every year the UK comes together to celebrate National Marine Week, a week for us to explore sea animals and plants from Saturday 24th July to Sunday 8th August.
Our seas are home to over half of all our wildlife each contributing to flood management and water purification, and provide the oxygen for every other breath you take!
Fun family Marine activities to get your children involved:
Rock-pooling – In the UK we’re never more than 70 miles from the sea! Enjoy a family day out rock pooling and exploring the different creatures you may find. From teeny crabs to starfish, grab a net and bucket and see what you can identify using this handy guide.
Beach clean – Pollution is a huge problem across our coastline, the National Trust have a range of beach clean events throughout the UK. This is a great way to encourage your children to ensure their rubbish is put in the bin, and to showcase the impact it has on our marine wildlife - https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lists/pitch-in-with-a-beach-clean
Sensory play - Sensory play is a wonderful way for children to interact with the world around them. We have a fantastic ‘Sharing a Shell Sensory Play & Book Set’ This lovely sea themed set includes Sharing a Shell book by Julia Donaldson and sensory play items so you can create a play tray and read along with the book.
What's included:
Or choose our The Snail and the Whale sensory play set with the book by Julia Donaldson & Alex Scheffler – a wonderful story of a snail who hitches a ride with a whale and they head off to see the world.
Whatever you get up to, we’d love to see your photos! Share them with us online by using #willowandwildorganic or tagging @willowwildorganic
]]>It’s a great way to encourage discussion with your children about the ocean and what we can do to reduce plastic pollution and other impacts, to help protect our life-source.
Did you know these 5 facts about our ocean?
]]>It’s a great way to encourage discussion with your children about the ocean and what we can do to reduce plastic pollution and other impacts, to help protect our life-source.
Did you know these 5 facts about our ocean?
If you’re looking to get the children involved in a fun-eco friendly activity we have a fantastic deep blue sea sensory play set available at Willow & Wild Organic!
You can also download these free colouring sheets, here and here.
Read all about World Ocean Day at https://worldoceanday.school/we-are-watery-beings/
Whatever you get up to, we’d love to see your photos! Share them with us online by using #willowandwildbox or tagging @willowandwildbox
]]>This is such a great idea, with open ended recourses that can be used to create amazing invitations to create and play! They’re suitable for most ages and can be adapted to suit learning needs if you are home learning too. I was amazed to see that the set even included a Lanka Kade wooden Bumble bee 🐝
]]>This is such a great idea, with open ended recourses that can be used to create amazing invitations to create and play! They’re suitable for most ages and can be adapted to suit learning needs if you are home learning too. I was amazed to see that the set even included a Lanka Kade wooden Bumble bee 🐝
What’s more if you subscribe to a year of play then you get the amazing metal galvanised sensory tray for free!! I’ve had this tray for a while it’s incredible, water tight and the perfect size for children to play alone or in pairs easily. You’ll see in lots of my play it features heavily!!
This month’s subscription had a bee theme. Protecting and nurturing our eco system is something I’m very passionate about and love to share this with the children I work with.
My first tray I set up using the pieces included in the set was this stripy sensory activity. I recreated the stripes of the bee using black play sand and delicious citrus scented yellow sensory rice.
Activities like this allow children to develop fine motor skills, maths skills such as measure and shape and paired with the fab big book by Osbourne an opportunity to read and learn more about the wonderful world of bugs!
Included in the sensory kit is magic soil, a pot, seed markers and sunflower seeds! These seeds are so simple for children to independently plant and watch grow. I’ve created a reel that will be shared over on Willow and Wild Organic’s Instagram page 🥰
Once you’re finished with the pot you could create a bee hotel, rolled up brown paper makes the perfect environment for solitary bees, this could be hung from a tree or nestled in a cosy spot for them to find. We added flowers that might attract the bees and tempt them to our hotel.
Finally the “pièce de résistance” Willow and Wild Organic’s famous sensory dough. I wanted to keep this really simple and open ended and let the resources speak for themselves! The children love using the cork stampers to create pattern and texture and the subtle scent excites the senses whilst we play! We added flowers and leaves to add to our printed patterns.
The best and most impressive thing to me is that these sets are eco-friendly and plastic free! So not only are you having fun and exploring amazing resources you’re also helping the planet too! I am so excited to see the next subscription and what you guys do with your packs!!
]]>How can you help?
Fun activities to get the children involved:
If you’re taking part in World Bee Day we’d love to see your photos! Share them with us online by using #willowandwildorganic or tagging @willowwildorganic
]]>I think that spring is one of my favourite seasons to celebrate, and after the last 12 months of lockdown and uncertainty, hopefully we can now look forward to the future.
The Willow and Wild Organic Easter sensory resources are perfect for using in so many ways to celebrate Easter, spring and fresh new beginnings.
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The Willow and Wild Organic Easter sensory resources are perfect for using in so many ways to celebrate Easter, spring and fresh new beginnings.
Spring brings so many opportunities to explore with your little ones, we hope that warm sunny days are heading your way and you enjoy getting outside to try some of these!
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