News & Events Springtime 2024

Springtime with NYLO

Spring is just around the corner – as it gets warmer and lighter outside, there is lots more opportunity for fun filled play!  The NYLO team have selected some springtime activities that the whole family can get involved with. 

These activities are ideal for children aged 1-5 years. Remember not to leave your child unattended while doing any of these activities.    

Cooking

Rice Cake Flowers

Ingredients

  • Rice cakes 
  • Cream Cheese 
  • Grapes 
  • Blueberries  

Equipment

  • Chopping board 
  • Knife 
  • Teaspoon 

How to make it

  1. Cut grapes into quarters lengthways to use later. (This helps reduce the chance of choking) 
  2. Spread some cream cheese over one side of the rice cake. 
  3. Add a blueberry in the centre of the rice cake. 
  4. Add 5 grape halves to each rice cake to create flower petals. 
  5. Enjoy! 

What the children can do

  • Spread the cream cheese 
  • Add the fruit to make flowers 

Skills

  • Spreading
  • Adding ingredients

Rainbow Salad Pots

Ingredients

  • 350g pasta 
  • 200g green beans, trimmed and chopped into short lengths 
  • 160g can tuna in water 
  • 6 tablespoons natural yoghurt 
  • Handful of chives, snipped (Optional) 
  • 200g cherry tomatoes, quartered 
  • 1 pepper, cubed 
  • 195g can sweetcorn, drained 

Equipment

  • Chopping board 
  • Knife 
  • Weighting scale 
  • Saucepan 
  • Sieve 
  • Tablespoon 
  • Fridge containers 

Before you start

  • Drain the tuna and sweetcorn 
  • Cook, drain and cool the pasta and green beans 
  • Cut the cherry tomatoes into quarters 

How to make it

  1. Mix the tuna with the yoghurt. Add chives and mix well.  
  2. Tip the pasta into a large bowl or 4 small ones (Perfect for a picnic!).
  3. Spoon the tuna mayo over the top of the pasta and spread to create a layer. Add a layer of green beans, followed by a layer of cherry tomatoes, then the pepper and sweetcorn. Cover and chill until you are ready to eat.  

Skills

  • Layering 
  • Mixing 

Activity

Spaghetti Paintbrush

Did you think you could turn spaghetti into a paintbrush? Here’s how you can make it!

Equipment

  • Paper 
  • Spaghetti 
  • Child friendly ready mixed paint 
  • Plastic/paper plate for the paint 
  • Elastic band 
  • Large tray (optional) 

Steps

  1. Tie some spaghetti together with an elastic band. 
  2. Ask an adult to boil a small pot of water and cook one end of the spaghetti. Only the bottom few inches of the spaghetti need to be cooked. 
  3. Cool the spaghetti. 
  4. Meanwhile, prepare the paint and paper. 
  5. Once the spaghetti is cooled, you can start using the spaghetti paintbrush. 

Do you hear what I hear?

Who doesn’t love a guessing game? Have your child guess the food that you are preparing or eating either when cooking or at mealtime. All kinds of exposure play a key role, including non-taste sensory. This could be listening, seeing, touching and smelling.  

Some food ideas are: 

Crunching apple/celery/carrot/pepper 

Crushing crackers 

Cracking/ whisking eggs 

Peeling banana 

Slurping soup 

Eating toast/ spreading on toast 

Music Shakers

Make some music with food!

What you will need:

Plastic bottles 

Dried food such as rice, oats, lentils, pasta, beans 

Steps:

  1. Recycle some plastic bottles. Clean and dry them. 
  2. Pour different dried food into different bottles. Don’t fill them too full or it might be heavy for them to hold/ won’t make sound.  
  3. Tighten the lids so nothing will come out.  
  4. Let the music begins! Put on your favourite song and start shaking to the song.  

Here is one of the songs that we love to sing at NYLO…