 Welcome to this month's special physical development bulletin.
 This month we are focusing on what you could do to join in with the Queen's Jubilee celebrations. Why not encourage your children to celebrate in style whilst also helping to develop their fine and gross motor skills without even realising it?
 Children love to grow things in the garden or pots on the windowsill. Why not try and plant quick growing plants such as sunflowers, marigolds or tomatoes? The CBeebies website has 7 top tips from Mr Bloom for gardening with children.
 Encourage children to make bunting out of triangles of coloured paper which can be decorated with paint or other craft materials and attach them to string or long thin paper strands. As well as being fun it helps their fine motor muscle development as they make marks or fold and cut the paper and use sticky tape, string or staples. Children can also make flags from rectangles of paper and crowns from coloured cardboard covered in gold paint or tin foil adding on jewels. Children can also dress up using pieces of material or blankets, sheets or silky scarves or skirts to use as robes or cloaks.
 Let your children make small sandwiches in triangles with cheese and tomato, hummus and breadsticks or fruit kebabs served with water or milk in tea cups or party tumblers.
For healthy children's tea snacks try these:
- Fresh cucumber and carrot sticks
- Hummus or guacamole with breadsticks
- Cucumber and cheese sandwiches
- Fruit pieces and yogurt dip
- Why not serve scones in place of cupcakes? Scones have much less sugar in and only take 30 minutes to make. Try this recipe for perfect quick and easy scones.
 Sing action songs and encourage children to join in such as "I'm a little teapot" or play games such as musical bumps, chairs or statues, pass the parcel - for older children you could include actions in each layer such as pretend you are wearing a very heavy crown or are curtseying before the Queen.
 Physical activity - flag making/waving and walking
Make a flag with some paper and a stick then wave it as you parade around - this helps develop not only your fine but also your gross motor muscles.
 Cook along with this video of Ben from CBeebies as he makes scones for your party.
- 225g self-raising flour
- 55g margarine
- 25g caster sugar
- 25 g sultanas
- 150ml milk
- Pinch salt
- A little more milk to glaze
- Pre-heat the oven to 220 C (gas mark 7)
- Mix the flour and salt then rub in the butter until it looks like breadcrumbs
- Stir in the sugar and then the milk to make a soft dough
- Turn onto a floured work surface and knead very lightly. Pat out to a round roughly 2cm thick
- Use a small cutter to stamp out rounds and place on a baking sheet. Lightly knead together the rest of the dough and stamp out more scones to use it all up
- Brush the tops of the scones with a little milk. Bake for 12-15 minutes until well risen and golden
- Allow to cool before eating.
If you prefer savoury scones then replace the sugar and sultanas with some grated cheese (keeping a little back to sprinkle on top of the scones before baking).
 May also sees walking to school week and this can include encouraging our early years children to walk in each day (even if they just park the car a little further down the road for those children who have to commute in by car or travel a long way to your setting). There are some resource packs to support the initiative here or you can use your own stickers or tick charts - it’s a great way of getting a head start on those 3 hours of physical activity that children should have each day.
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