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The beautiful white, frothy elderflowers tend to bloom in late May, turning to elderberries in late August. Prime picking time is in the morning, on a sunny day (before insects have taken the pollen). Once regarded as one of the most magically powerful of trees, elder is a forager's favourite and its flowers are the scent of summer. The flowers and berries are the only edible part of the Elder Tree. They are mildly toxic and have an unpleasant taste when raw. Cooking destroys the toxic chemicals.

Here are a few activities to explore:

1. Make delicious elderflower cordial or gin!
2. Add them to cakes or biscuits 
3. Try them deep-fried to make tasty elderflower fritters 
4. Make elderflower jam
5. Add them to homemade Playdough 
6. Add them to your mud kitchen and potions
7. Paint Elderflowers using a cotton bud to create a spray of white flowers - or splatter the paint to see what effect you get.

Find out more about Hygge in the Early Years here.

Embracing the concept of Hygge in our Montessori preschool Wise Owls (follow on instagram  @wiseowlsmontessori)  has been both magical and gratifying. The concept of living in the now and embracing the simple and natural things in life has been wonderful to see first-hand amongst the children. We embrace the sense of togetherness as well as capturing the feeling of nature, warmth and cosiness.

Throughout the year, we love to incorporate materials from our outdoor environment, for example, going on nature walks to collect branches and leaves to make our season tree which is proudly painted and created by the children and displayed in the classroom throughout the year. The children love learning about the different seasons and incorporating nature and hygge into the classroom. Providing natural objects made from wood allow us and the children to feel closer to the simplicity of nature. We have also recently gathered natural materials to make our own Winter Wreaths for our school doors. ...

Autumn is one of the most beautiful times of year. 

Here we share 50 play activities for you to get inspiration from. Some wonderful ideas for your left over pumpkins too - not just for Halloween!

You can also find weekly nature planning ideas and invitations to play in my Rewilding Nature Study Programme

1. Make conker tea - provide charity shop tea pots and utensils for children to make their own nature afternoon tea!

2. Try Apple Bobbing! A classic.

3. Decorate pine cones.

4. Pumpkin Wash station.

5. Play Pumpkin or apple skittles!

6. Spider Web sensory tray using masking tape to create a web. Add conkers and tweezers.

7. Pumpkin hammering.

8. Autumn painting.

9. Apple printing 

10. Pumpkin ring toss.

11. Weighing pumpkins.

12. Spider printing.

13. Skeleton bone dig.

14. Pumpkin Tea! Open the tops and let the children scoop out the seeds and flesh for their pumpkin tea or pumpkin soup creations.

15. Web painting.

16. Make your own nature paint brushes.

17. M...

Autumn time has to be one of my favourite times of the year. Having Oliver now makes it even more exciting too as I take a moment to stand back and watch him experience everything.

We have loved getting outside each day and doing a daily walk. Talking about all the things we notice each day and notice any changes. Doing this is very much inspired by the practice of the Danes with the daily walk children in early education do. We stop at our favourite tree as well to document its changes as we move through the year. 

I also think it's important that we as adults take the time to just pause and appreciate the slow moments of joy in the day. We can't teach hygge and living well if we don't model it ourselves. I've built this into our daily walk and we will often find a little spot to just sit and watch what's going on. 

On our walk yesterday we took great enjoyment in collecting up some of the fallen leaves and twigs. We then brought these back and I popped them in some water in our tu...

Embracing Hygge at The Flower Cottage this Autumn season 🍁

Hygge in the Early Years member Caitlin, from The Flower Cottage Childminding has recently given her setting a wonderful autumn makeover. Giving us all the Autumn feels! We couldn't help but fall in love as it is so inspiring.

We asked Caitlin if she would share with us some of the hygge activities in her setting:

Noticing changes as we transition from Summer to Autumn, observing the colours transitioning, watching the leaves fall and finding hidden treasures outdoors that can be brought into our indoor play 🍂

Melting pumpkin spice wax melts in our burner on a morning and simply enjoying a lovely storybook as a group, cuddled in blankets and cosy jumpers.

Enjoying slow learning in our play spaces filled with twinkle lights, flickering candles and nooks of light from lamps, following the child’s lead but always being there on hand in time of need.

Enabling and encouraging children to reach their next hurdle and pr...

Welcome is a key word for our Early Years environments, as we welcome new parents and children to our settings and establish routines. Our practitioners continue to reflect upon how welcoming their entrances are to parents and children. Here are a few examples from last year.

The entrance to Nursery at Spring Lane Primary School

The entrance doors to Reception at Bourton Meadow Academy

The entrance to Nursery at George Grenville Academy

Part of the entrance display for Nursery at Lace Hill Academy

A welcome display for Reception at Lumbertubs Primary School

Our welcoming environments were inspired by a Hygge approach.

What is a Hygge approach?

Building a sense of togetherness between home and school reflects a Hygge approach. It is so important to us.

Positive relationships and the happiness of our parents and children are strongly linked.

Campfire Education Trust schools have worked hard to ensure that all our new starters feel a sense ofbelonging as soon as they e...

Hygge case study by Philippa S

My practice before the accreditation:

Our classroom was light and spacious but due to the high ceilings and cold colours, prickly carpet and blue lino flooring it was lacking a homely welcoming feel to reflect our nurturing practise. The classroom I inherited was disorganised, chaotic and messy, lacking order and calmness, requiring an air of order enabling the children to feel calm and in control of their own learning.

The visions I’ve created in my work:

I have created a classroom exuberating a nurturing, peaceful but exciting and inspiring continuous provision-based room. I have thoughtfully planned each area of the classroom, with the children at the heart of my planning and practise.

This has included, but is not limited to:

• Reading: Working with colleagues to read and sort all of EY/KS1/2 reading books to match their phonetic teaching. Working closely with parents to build a partnership based upon trust and honesty – enabling them to bes
...

TEACHER – HOME EDUCATION SETTING

After the birth of our son, I decided to leave my role as a junior teacher to be a full-time mum. Here began my wonderful journey into the world of early years - fascinating! It was during this time that I discovered the importance of open-ended play and the learning environment. Our home quickly transformed to provide beautiful spaces to play, explore and learn in this new way. Eager to learn more, I was led to the ‘Hygge in the Early Years Accreditation’. A fascination with the Danish lifestyle soon developed and both my husband and I began reading books and incorporating more hygge into our own lives. Based on this new-found knowledge, we decided to home educate our little boy, at least during his early years. The ‘Hygge in the Early Years Accreditation’ has been invaluable in helping me create a beautiful environment in which our son can explore and develop.

Below are some highlights of my journey.

BALANCE - I really enjoyed the first module and ...

"When I first joined my setting at the end of 2018 was the first time I heard the word “Hygge.” I remember it took me a while to remember how to spell it, ‘Hoogah, Huggeh’ I could never get my head around it. We used to have a room dedicated to all things ‘Hygge’ and it was my favourite place in the nursery. The room only lit by the salt lamp, fairy lights and whatever cosy image was projected on the wall, a crackling fire, a calming underwater scene or even a forest with the sounds of rain and bird song. The diffuser always puffing out a gorgeous smell. No matter how busy I was I always had time to stop and appreciate how the ambiance of that little room made me feel. After around 6 months unfortunately the man who used to look after the Hygge room left for another setting and as time went on the Hygge room disappeared, something broke, someone took bits of it for a project they were working on and it was soon in a state of disarray and later turned into a cloak room. I really missed ...