Nursery news and interesting information
At Little Acorns nursery we want all families to be informed as much as possible…

Nursery news and interesting information
At Little Acorns nursery we want all families to be informed as much as possible…

Our Little Acorns Nursery Blog
Latest News
Enrol on a ‘Complete Antenatal Course’ — Absolutely Free!16th February 2026 - 11:19 am
Our Clayton-le-Woods Forest School is Open!15th January 2026 - 2:11 pm
15 Fascinating Facts About Babies16th December 2025 - 4:07 pm
Little Acorns Nursery
Little Acorns is an excellent nursery in Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley, Lancashire (PR6), near Clayton Green & Clayton Brook. It provides high quality childcare for babies (3 months +) & children of pre-school age.
Contact Us
34 Sheep Hill Lane,
Clayton-le-Woods,
Chorley,
Lancashire
PR6 7JH
Opening Hours
Open 7:30 am – 6 pm Mon-Fri




Halloween for Under-5s
Halloween Activities for Children
Today, in the modern day, there are many non-religious Halloween activities that children can enjoy in late October and they can be enormous fun and a time of great excitement for children. For really little ones, however, a balance will need to be struck so that things are entertainingly ‘scary’, but only in a fun way. We do not want to give them nightmares and therefore care will be needed to get the balance just right. Getting them involved in preparing the activities will help.
Children, adults and even pets can dress up in spooky outfits to look like witches, ghosts, ghouls, skeletons or any one of the many horror figures they’re familiar with from films. Children will absolutely love getting involved in this activity, particularly when they get together with friends. Dressing up is a fantastic activity for all age groups. Shop-bought costumes are easily available but it doesn’t have to be an expensive activity. Home-made costumes are also completely viable, for example …
The ‘Progress Check at Two’ – Rough Guide
What Exactly is the Progress Check at 2?
The ‘Progress Check at 2’ is, as the name suggests, a complete progress check for children who have reached the age of two. It should be completed before their 3rd birthday and appraises their progress in all the key areas of their learning and development. It’s actually a part of the continuous assessment that goes hand-in-hand with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Amongst other things, the EYFS governs the learning and development curriculum that’s in place for children attending officially-registered childcare/early years education settings in England. It is appropriate to check that all is well in such areas, particularly at this critical age, and we’ll explain why later in this guide.
The ‘Progress Check at 2’ is Not the Same as the ‘2-Year Review’ — But They’re Linked
Although the two reviews are different, there are definite areas of cross-over, so it makes sense for both reviews to align and feed into each other. It’s therefore useful for them both to be undertaken at a similar time, in tandem if possible. In this way, a 360 degree picture can be put together to give a complete, all-round, holistic view of the child at this milestone age. In so doing, any issues can be picked up early, so that suitable measures or interventions can be put in place to improve things for the particular child under review. For this reason, parents, guardians or carers of 2-year-olds are encouraged to allow the sharing of information*, pertaining to their child, between the various professionals involved in each of the two reviews.
Ofsted inspections will also check to ensure that Progress Checks at 2 are undertaken in an appropriate way at childcare settings. They also recognise the benefits of these progress checks aligning with the separate, more health-based, 2-Year Reviews.
The Significance of Age 2
The age of two is a significant one, hence both reviews taking place at this age. It’s a key age where …
Educational Food Growing Activities for Kids
Nature is incredibly important for children
and that’s just one of many reasons why little ones should be encouraged to learn about sowing seeds and growing their own plants. Today, we’re taking that a step further by explaining how children can grow plants that will give them real, edible food! With a little planning, care and effort, children can grow herbs, vegetables and even fruit if they put their minds to it. What’s more, it’s possible without a garden and needn’t cost a penny!
The Benefits of Children Growing Their Own Food
If they successfully grow herbs, vegetables or fruit that the family can actually eat, little ones will have an immense sense of achievement — and justifiably so. They will have learnt so much during the process too, including where plants, flowers and foodstuffs come from, how seeds germinate into plants, the relationship between flowers, pollination, seeds and fruit, caring for living things — and the circle of life itself.
That will never be more evident than when a seed has grown into a plant that bears fruit, which contains more seeds, through which the whole process can start again.
Children will also love growing plants as an activity. They’ll learn from the responsibility of tending to living plants and seeing the progress that seedlings make when they have cared for them. It’ll be a real milestone, too, when their plants start bearing fruit (… or veg!). And — who knows — harvesting fruit, herbs and vegetables that they can eat may even get them interested in cookery and trying out more foods. All in all, growing food is a brilliant and highly educational activity for little ones.
Take a look below for a few easy and inexpensive ways under-five children can get started.
Shop-Bought Seeds Are a Start But Free Seeds Are Even Better!
Grow Free Pepper & Tomato Plants!
If you have a large enough space in a garden, your child can do a similar activity using the seeds from squashes, pumpkins, marrows, courgettes and suchlike. However, those do take up quite a bit of room.
Grow Free Herbs!
Does your little one know that he/she can grow new herb plants totally free of charge? This is done simply by …
Are You Due £2,000 in Help for Childcare? Rough Guide to Tax-Free Childcare
In today’s guide, we take a look at Tax-Free Childcare, which could effectively contribute anywhere from £2,000 to £4,000 per child, per year, towards childcare costs for eligible families. Those are significant sums, which could really help families, especially with the rising cost of living. The funding is there for for the taking if you’re eligible So, don’t miss out!
Let’s take a look.
What is Tax-Free Childcare?
In effect, the Tax-Free Childcare scheme subsidises childcare costs by utilising the tax that eligible families would ordinarily have pre-paid on the taxed income they use to pay for childcare. Specifically, the Government will add an extra £2 for every £8 that eligible families pay into a special account used childcare costs — even more if the child has disabilities. We’ll explain more about the childcare account later, but the good news is that you can get as much as £2,000 per child per annum if you’re eligible, or up to twice that if your child has disabilities. That’s a lot of money!
Who is Eligible for Tax-Free Childcare?
The above list represents the key rules governing eligibility for most families. However, there are some additional rules around eligibility — and some welcome exceptions to the above. For example …
20 Reasons to Choose Little Acorns Nursery for Your Childcare
1. Winner of THE Top National Nursery Award
We’re award-winning — and not just any award. Out of all the nurseries in the UK, Little Acorns won the award for the best Independent Nursery in the National NMT Nursery Awards. That says it all, really, and such a unique award recognises our passion, professionalism and the unparalleled quality of childcare provision.
2. We’re Officially an Outstanding Childcare Provider
3. Outstanding Leadership & Management
The effectiveness of our nursery’s leadership and management is also outstanding and, again, Ofsted independently verify this.
4. Outstanding Teaching, Learning & Assessment
5. Outstanding Personal Development, Behaviour & Welfare
Ofsted also found the quality of personal development, behaviour and welfare to be outstanding at the nursery, so you know your child is in the best place if they go to Little Acorns Nursery in Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley.
6. Outstanding Outcomes for Our Children
What’s even more important about Little Acorns Nursery is that Ofsted found children’s outcomes to be outstanding if they attend the nursery. An outstanding outcome for your child is simply priceless.
7. Exceptional Feedback from Parents
Parents give us exceptionally good feedback about the nursery/pre-school. Take a look at the lovely comments in …
SUPER-CHARGE Your Child’s Education Through Reading
A 40 year study1 of pre-school children found enormous positive benefits when children regularly read with a parent or carer. Preschoolers were seen to gain a boost, incredibly, of the equivalent of 8 months. That’s remarkable given that the average age in the study was just 3¼. Particular benefits were clear to see in several areas, including:
Receptive language skills were seen to benefit the most and that’s important — after all, understanding and comprehension of words and meanings are keys to potentially huge growth in many other areas a child’s early years education. Indeed, lacking such abilities has also been shown to really hold children back in terms of later social and educational ability, with poorer outcomes when they’re older.
A Special Boost for Children from Lower Socio-Economic Backgrounds
Read With Children, Not Just To Them
That’s an important factor. Reading to children is all very well and will have benefits, for sure. However, reading with children takes the potential benefits to a whole new level and that’s why it’s the kind of approach we use at Little Acorns Nursery. Parents and carers should also …
THIS is Why Your Child Should Go to Nursery & Pre-school
While some parent/guardians simply have to send their little ones to nursery or pre-school, others may be fortunate enough to have a choice. If you are one of them, you may be wondering whether to send your child to nursery or pre-school anyway — even if you don’t need to go to work from a practical or financial perspective. Typical questions parents may ask themselves include:
Well, this article is here precisely to answer those kinds of questions. The overall consensus from experts, though, is that children will benefit enormously by regularly attending a high quality early years setting. Let’s take a closer look.
The Benefits of Nursery/Pre-school to Under-5s
Studies show that the benefits of nursery and/or pre-school to children are most pronounced when they attend a good early years setting. So the choice of provider is an important one and, indeed, one that makes all the difference to the outcomes for a child.
Multiple Studies Show Benefits From as Young as 2 Right Into Adulthood
According to a 2020 study by the Department of Education (DfE):
A 2002 study1 found that the benefits of a good early years education showed benefits as early as the age of two.
Later, in 2011, another study2 showed that children aged 15 were still benefiting if they’d received a good early years education at nursery, pre-school or other early years setting. The benefits were seen to be so significant that, by the time they reached the age of 15, they were the equivalent of …
12 Outdoor Activities for Little Ones
Our last post described the huge number of benefits of outdoor play for children in their early years. With that in mind, today’s post highlights twelve excellent outdoor play activities that young children can enjoy. With spring all but upon us at time of writing, children will be able to get outdoors more and more in the coming weeks and months. Our activity suggestions are fun, educational, will teach children new skills and will get them out into the healthy fresh air too. Our ideas below are mostly of the more natural variety too, so need not cost anything. Take a look …
Teaching children to spot birds will really help them to appreciate wild creatures. They can simply watch for them in the park, on the balcony, in the garden or out in the country. Putting out some bird food and waiting patiently and quietly out of sight will help, of course. If children have made home-made bird feeders — even better! It’s more educational if they can view a UK bird book or app so they can identify the types of birds that they see. Maybe make them a list if they can read, or a pictorial reference sheet that they can tick off. Robins, sparrows, blackbirds, pigeons, doves and various types of tit are common in the UK, but there are many other types too. Here’s a handy list of the 19 most common British birds.
2. B
ee & Butterfly Spotting
Similarly, bee and butterfly spotting is a wonderful activity for young children, although it relies more on there being an abundance of the right kind of flowers and plants growing nearby. Butterflies, bees and gentle hover flies will flock to plants like Buddleia, for example. They all generally like any flowering plants that are rich in nectar, scented and colourful. As we suggested for birds, perhaps parents or carers can print out pictorial reference for the different types that children may discover. Here’s a great reference for the different types of bee found in the UK and here’s a guide for UK butterflies.
Continuing with our wildlife activity theme, another educational and interesting activity for little ones is to see if they can find animal tracks. This is best done when there is suitable habitat for paw prints and suchlike, for instance where there is soft earth, mud or sand nearby. It might be a good activity to do whilst out rambling (see #6 below). Perhaps search near a lake or river as many birds and animals will visit the water’s edge — or in snow if it’s winter. (N.B. such activities should be done under adult supervision for safety, of course).
Once in the outdoors, whether in a garden, courtyard, park or countryside, children love building dens to ‘camp’ in. Building them is all part of the fun and they can be made with long sticks and foliage, a sheet draped over string tied between trees, or simply using a low-cost children’s tent or similar. Once erected, children will love using the den to use as a base, like their own ‘home in the wild’. Their imaginations can run riot and all manner of games, role-play and adventure can ensue.
5. Float a Boat
Little ones will love floating little boats on water (with supervision of a responsible adult for safety, of course). They’ll enjoy it even more if they have made the little boat or raft themselves. Boats can be made simply from …
The Benefits of Outdoor Play in the Early Years
Outdoor play is great fun for children — of course — and that should not be overlooked as a benefit. After all, any healthy childhood should be about adventurous play and fun just as much as it should be about learning. However, as we all know, playing and learning are very closely interlinked. That is why outstanding childcare settings like Little Acorns Nursery firmly believe in learning through play.
Having fun anywhere, but particularly outdoors in the fresh air, will help children’s wellbeing in terms of mental and spiritual health too. Playing outdoors will lift the spirits and give children a myriad of opportunities for fun, learning, self-improvement and physical wellbeing. Such activity releases the hormone cortisol in the brain and that helps to naturally reduce stress and anxiety.
Outdoor play is also a feast for the senses. During the early years, sensory experiences are very important, not least for their brain development. Playing outdoors will give them many sensory opportunities, for example in terms of what they hear, see, feel, touch and smell.
Outdoor play teaches children to be creative, inventing adventures and challenges with their friends, all the time stimulating their brains and minds just as much as their bodies. They benefit socially too, of course, growing closer bonds with their peers (and supervising adults), learning social skills like communication, understanding right from wrong, cooperation, and so on.
Outdoor Play at Little Acorns Nursery
Bird Feeder Ideas for Kids
In last month’s article about bird feeding for under-fives, we promised to follow up with a post showing ideas for bird feeders that children can make at home. So, that’s what we’ll look at today.
Making bird feeders is a fun activity for children, it’s creative, educational, teaches children new skills and gets children more in tune with nature. What’s more, making home-made bird feeders is pretty easy. It’s an inexpensive activity. It’s also great for the local birds, who get to eat much-needed extra food and that’s especially important during Winter. That’s a time when most other natural food sources for wild birds are in very short supply and the birds are burning calories just to stay warm. All in all, making home-made bird feeders and feeding birds during the colder months is an excellent activity for young children — and indeed for everyone!
So, take a look at a few easy-to-accomplish home-made bird feeder ideas below. However, young children should be supervised by a responsible adult at all times during both the making and locating of the bird feeders — health and safety comes first! There are also some guidelines included for the safety and wellbeing of the birds.
Apple Bird Feeder – Simple!
We’ll start with one of the most simple bird feeders: with adult supervision, children can be shown how quick and easy it can be to attract birds to the garden just by threading a nice apple onto a strong twig on a tree or onto the tip of a bamboo stake, or alternatively dangling it from a branch using a loop of string. Perhaps start the apple off by removing some of the skin in one or two sections, so birds can see the ‘flesh’. Before long, species like blackbirds, in particular, are likely to show an interest and be amongst the first to start nibbling them.
Children need to be patient; birds and wild animals instinctively wait a while before trusting new things that have appeared in the garden or anywhere outside. Patience is a great skill for them to develop, though, so this is another great lesson for them.
Or Use Bread – But With a Warning
Children can alternatively use a chunk of bread (ideally wholemeal, seeded and non-stale) but first read our warning below if going this route:
Warning: although bread is a popular choice for feeding birds, it’s actually not that great for them, particularly if it’s white bread and lacking in any visible seeds. It’s also dangerous for birds if it goes mouldy, which is why we say above that only small amounts that will be eaten within a day should ever be put out for the wild birds. So, in truth, any of the other food types mentioned in this article are far better for birds than bread.
These are fun and simple for children to make. The pine cones can be foraged from local woods and the best ones will be ‘open’ rather than ‘closed’, so that there’s somewhere that bird food can be pressed into. Children can simply spread peanut butter2, suet or lard1 all over the pine cone, pressing it in between the many seed scales that protrude from the open cone. Once covered, the entire thing can be rolled in bird seed and this will stick. The seed-covered pine cone can then be hung outside for the birds using some string, somewhere suitable (we wrote about …