Two children interacting with different coloured sensory scarves, which as laid out on the floor in the shape of a rainbow

Pride Month

Happy Pride Month! We believe it’s never too early to nurture values of kindness, acceptance, and allyship. Our children are learning that every family looks different, and each is something to be proud of. We celebrate all forms of love throughout the year, and Pride Month offers us the perfect opportunity to shout about our values and what we get up to on a daily basis.

June has been chock-block full of wonderful Pride-inspired activities, from making rainbow Pride flags, to reading stories that celebrate different family make ups, to exploring tuff trays with love-themed sensory play. Just look at what we’ve been up to….

Rainbow painting with the babies

  • Child with a red car painted on their face proudly holding up their picture of a rainbow and smiling
  • Adult sitting on floor, holding out her painty hand to a child who is mixing paint colours on her palm
  • Back of child's head bent over paper on the floor, showing rainbow paint options and mixing colours with brush
  • Child with rainbow face paint sitting on the floor painting a pre-drawn rainbow with a paint brush.
  • Child sitting on the floor looking at a colourful rainbow paint palate with a drawing between them and the paint.
  • Child crawling on floor over paper with paint palate, making marks with hand on the paper
  • Child sitting on the floor with rainbow paint tray between his legs. His face is painted as a butterfly and he is reaching for the paint with his paintbrush.
  • Child with face painted as a bunny smiling and showing us her rainbow painting

Our littlest friends have been enjoying getting colourful (and a bit messy!), experimenting with rainbow painting. We fly our rainbow flags with Pride (pun intended!) at both the Southville and Chessel Centres, to demonstrate our allyship with our LGBTQ+ friends.

The rainbow flag, and rainbows in general, are now universally recognised symbols of Pride. They transcend national borders and unite people of different cultures in the global LGBTQ+ family. By embracing rainbows in nursery, we reinforce our support and spread joy amongst our smallest community members.

Teaching toddlers about Pride

  • Child holding a hand-drawn rainbow standing in front of a colourful tuff tray full of paint swirled together
  • Display in nursery room of wooden rainbow toy with three books behind - "You are fabulous as you are", "Love grows everywhere" and "Happiness is a rainbow"
  • Child exploring a tuff tray set out with heart shaped molded red sand, paper hearts and a wooden rainbow.
  • Selection of three books on a table - "Love Makes a Family", "My Mums Love Me" and "And Tango Makes Three".
  • Child proudly holding hand-drawn rainbow and smiling at her achievement
  • Child stands holding a book open, her head down looking at the pictures but also displaying them to the camera
  • Child standing in front of tuff tray filled with rainbow paint swirled together waving two pieces of paper with art on them
  • Detailed photo of tuff tray before children have played with it, containing red sand shaped into hearts, heart confetti and a wooden rainbow.

Our two-year-olds have been exploring sensory play that incorporates hearts and rainbows. The team used these visual resources to start conversations with the children about love and acceptance. Then the group read stories together from some of our favourite authors to enhance that learning.

Preening with the preschool

  • A child with many colourful clips at the front of their hair. They are arranged in a line, wiht the colours being ordered in a rainbow pattern. They are smiling looking up at the camera and looking proud of their colourful hairstyle
  • A child stood at a table, using glue and strips of coloured paper, sticking them on a plain piece of paper to create a colourful flag.
  • Two children interacting with different coloured sensory scarves, which as laid out on the floor in the shape of a rainbow
  • A child smiling and proudly holding up a colourful flag they have made. It is a small piece of paper with stripes of colours on it - pinks, orange and yellow
  • A child exploring a sensory tray with coloured pasta in it. They have their hands grabbing the pasta, feeling the different textures
  • A child sticking a strip of coloured paper to a piece of white paper that has two coloured strips on it. They are looking focused as they add the final piece of paper to their colour flag
  • A child holding up a colourful flag they have made. It is a small piece of paper with 4 stripes of colours on it
  • An adult and a child posing for the photo, the adult is holding up a string that has many colourful flags along it

Our Preschool friends have been getting creative by making their very own coloured flags, taking inspiration from the many types of flags included in the LGBTQ+ community. The children then lined their flags up together to make bunting for a Pride window display.

Later, the children explored sensory activities by feeling the difference in textures of dyed dry pasta and soft rainbow coloured sensory scarves. They discovered how fun to try out new hairstyles at nursery, and had a blast trying to put as many coloured hairclips in their friend’s hair, creating a rainbow all the way across their head!

Talking about LGBTQ+ with your children

We have two Parent Guide Leaflets about Pride & LGBTQ+ and Different Family Make-ups. Our Different Family Make-ups leaflet also includes suggestions of some lovely books to share with your child. These are available at your child’s nursery room.

  • A screenshot of out Parent leaflet on talking to your child on different family make-ups
  • A screenshot of our parent guide on talking to your child about pride and LGBTQ+

Notable LGBTQ+ Dates

The month of June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month

Saturday 28th June to Sunday 13th July – Bristol Pride

Saturday 12 July – Bristol Pride Parade and Festival

The month of February is LGBTQ+ History Month

A pride progress flag, with 'All Are Welcome! written over the front