NYLO Spring Activity Round-Up

Spring is on its way! Flowers are blooming, the days are getting brighter, and it’s the perfect time to enjoy new activities as a family. The NYLO team has put together a selection of simple, fun ideas to help your child explore food, movement, and sensory play this season.

These activities are ideal for children aged 1–5 years.
Please always supervise young children during every activity.

Cooking

Fruity Yoghurt Bark

This easy recipe is a great way to help your child try different fruits and textures. Making yogurt bark together can build confidence around food, encourage independence, and support fine motor skills. You can use any fruits your child enjoys, or experiment with new flavours. This can be a really great option for a healthy dessert for your little one.

Ingredients

250g Greek Yogurt

50g Strawberries

1-2 bananas

3 TBSP smooth nut butter

Equipment

Baking tray, flat plate or clean takeaway container.

Baking parchment

Spoon

Table knife (or child safe dog knife)

Steps

1. Help your child spread the yoghurt evenly over parchment paper.
2. Support them to chop strawberries and bananas into small pieces.
3. Let them drizzle nut butter over the top – this could be using a small teaspoon or a squeezy peanut butter bottle.
4. Freeze for around 4 hours, or until firm.
5. Break or cut the frozen yoghurt into pieces once frozen (you may need to leave it out the freezer for a few minutes to soften).

Store yoghurt bark in a freezer-safe bag for up to one month.

Substitutions:

• Dairy free: use fortified soya or coconut yoghurt.
• Nut free: swap nut butter for smooth seed butter.

Skills developed:

• Fine motor skills
• Independence around food
• Exposure to new flavours and textures

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Did you know?

Yoghurt contains calcium for healthy bones and teeth!

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Activity

Red light, green light!

This classic game helps children practise listening skills, memory, and physical development. It’s ideal outdoors, such as in the garden or the park, where there’s plenty of safe space.

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How to play:

Make a starting line and a finishing line. The “caller” (Adult or child) stands at the finish line. Everyone else starts at the starting line.

When the caller shouts “Green light!” players move forward.

When the caller shouts “Red light!” players must freeze. Anyone caught moving returns to the starting line.

The first player to reach and tag the caller becomes the new caller.

You can play this game indoors too. Tiptoe on “Green Light” and freeze silently on “Red Light.” Perfect for quieter play.

Want to make it more challenging? You can add more elements by adding more colours… Blue light – walk backwards. Yellow light – walk sideways.

Skills developed:

• Listening skills
• Imaginative play
• Language development
• Following instructions

Playdough

Homemade playdough is a fun, hands-on way for children to enjoy messy play, explore textures, and develop their senses, imagination, and thinking skills. It’s ideal for indoor play and can also be taken along for a picnic-style activity.

Our recipe is easy to make, safe for toddlers and uses everyday kitchen ingredients. Watch the video to show you what you need and the steps to make it:

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Skills developed:

• Co-ordination (stirring)
• Fine motor skills (kneading, moulding)
• Numeracy (weighing ingredients)
• Learning, imagination and thinking

Spring Picnic with your Teddies

Invite your little one’s favourite toys to join snack time this spring by hosting a teddy bears’ picnic. This fun activity is a relaxed way to explore new foods without any pressure to eat them. It also gives you a chance to talk together about different food groups, colours, and shapes.

Here are few fun ideas you could try:

• Let your child “serve” snacks to their teddies or toys
• Encourage little ones to touch and explore new foods while feeding their guests
• Pour drinks and hand out snacks to build independence
• Talk about the colours and shapes of the foods
• Chat about which foods helps us grow, give us energy, or keep us healthy

You can use real food that everyone can share, or pretend food using your imagination. You could even make pretend snacks from playdough for extra creative play. This kind of pretend play helps build confidence around food and supports language development.

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Skills developed:

• Language
• Social and imaginative play
• Fine motor skills (pouring, serving etc.)

For a chance to be featured in our NYLO Newsletter, send us a photo of your pretend picnic to [email protected].