National Children’s Gardening Week arrives in late May and is the perfect time for young children to get involved in gardening activities. In celebration of the event, we describe a wonderful gardening-related activity that’s small-scale, easy, fun, and educational — perfect for little ones! The finished result is also rather magical and, once complete, lends itself to imaginative play. Today, we outline how children can make their own miniature fairy gardens. These are a great way to introduce little ones to creative gardening at a child-friendly scale. Under parent supervision* and largely using scavenged materials from outdoors, under-fives can let their imaginations run free and get creative! What’s more, the results are simply enchanting and will bring magic and a whole lot of delight to young children!
Take a look at some of the examples we show below and you’ll quickly see how enchanting the results can be. Shown are just a few of the many magical mini gardens that are possible using simple, natural, materials and a sprinkling of creativity. They are sure to inspire children to attempt their own fairy garden creations. Whether children call them fairy gardens, magical gardens, or mini gardens is up to them. Indeed, they may even think of them as mini kingdoms where imagined adventures are ready to unfold! This is a wonderful open-ended activity for kids that’s perfect for National Children’s Gardening Week. Enjoy!
When is National Children’s Gardening Week?
National Children’s Gardening Week begins on the 24th of May this year (2025) and runs until the 1st of June. The timing is no coincidence as it’s generally a warm week and therefore perfect for gardening and growing plants and flowers. What’s more, it also spans the half-term school holiday that most schools recognise in the last week of May.
The Aims of National Children’s Gardening Week
National Children’s Gardening Week is designed to inspire youngsters to get involved in gardening-related activities. It’s timed to arrive during a traditionally warm time of year when seeds, plants, and flowers grow fast. With such timing, they’ll see the fruits of their labour in a short space of time — sometimes literally! That’s great for little ones who may not have mastered the art of patience!
Gardening teaches children so much. Through gardening-related activities, they can spend time outdoors* in the fresh air and enjoy the many different benefits of spending time closer to nature. They’ll discover new skills and learn about living things, the world around them, and their place within it. Through such endeavours, they’ll better understand the circle of life and the need to care for living things. They’ll learn about taking responsibility, the importance of empathy, cause and effect, and so much more. It’ll also be fulfilling, enjoyable, and fabulous for their physical and mental well-being. Learn more about the benefits of spending time around nature for children here.
* (Appropriate adult supervision is essential for children, especially the youngest, when playing, exploring, and foraging outdoors. This includes the assessment and oversight of fairy garden assembly including age-appropriate component choices).
Fairy Garden Inspiration for Your Child
With that explained, let’s begin by showing 24 wonderful fairy garden examples to inspire you and your child. Click an image for a larger view and caption:
As you can see, each fairy garden is made almost entirely of natural materials that have been scavenged from the outdoors. Parents can help children find such things and, of course, supervision outdoors is paramount for young children. The types of materials that are perfect for making fairy gardens include:
- Loose compost or sieved earth, which can be shaped to form the foundation of the fairy garden structure;
- Different types of moss, some of which can be carefully laid onto the shaped earth or compost and used to represent grassy lawns and hills, while other types can represent bushes;
- Small pebbles, which can represent footpaths, stepping stones, or even standing stones;
- Medium-sized rustic rocks, which can be used to represent rocky outcrops, small cliffs, and focal points;
- Small sticks and twigs, which can represent trees or be used for picket fencing boundaries or paths;
- See shells, which are perfect for introducing a magical feel and can be used as attractive decorations;
- Small pieces of driftwood from the beach, which can represent tree trunks and suchlike;
- Tin foil to mould into miniature ponds, lakes or streams or to cover rocks that are used as magical features;
- Small seedlings or picked flowers, which (under supervision) can be pushed into mossy mounds to add a bit of colour and beauty;
- Small fir tree sprigs which, when placed vertically into mounded moss, will look like trees;
- Plus other small props to add details that will appeal to a child, for example, a little wooden house that a child may already have in their toy collection. Other options are (when age-appropriate) miniature figures, small animal models, and so on. These are a great way to add characters to fairy gardens in readiness for the creation of stories and interesting adventure scenarios in the child’s play. They are the finishing touch that can bring the fairy garden to life!
How to Assemble a Child’s Fairy Garden
First, your child will need a small space in or on which to build the fairy garden. Although this could be a small, unused area in the garden, something more portable would be better so the fairy garden can be created somewhere convenient like on a garden table, on a raised flowerbed, in a potting shed, etc. A medium-sized flower pot filled three-quarters with soil, a shallow tin, a flat section of log, or a flat rock — as shown in many of the examples — would make perfect portable bases for mini gardens to sit on. A kitchen tray or seed tray could also be suitable as a base, particularly if the final creation will be housed indoors and children intend to water them to keep the moss and any plants alive.
TIP: Sometimes, it’s useful to get a head-start with the main base by choosing a log, flowerpot, or rock that already has some moss established. This saves time and also means the moss will hold more firmly from the outset. Be mindful not to harm any minibeasts living there though – teach kindness to little ones.
If starting from scratch, a little soil or compost needs to go on first to form the structural ‘landscape’ of the scene, shaped creatively to the child’s preference. Although a flat mini landscape will work, an undulating format will add extra interest to the final scene. For instance, children could shape this ‘foundational’ base to form a hillside, valley, or simple slope. Such things will eventually allow for intriguing details and picturesque focal points, particularly once covered in a thin layer of short moss to represent grass. Longer or more bulbous types of moss can be great for representing bushes, while fir tree sprigs make wonderful trees if stood on end and secured upright by pushing into the moss and underlying soil. A hillside with trees or bushes surrounding a miniature house will look fabulous as in some of the photo examples provided today. Lower levels may be perfect places to make ponds or streams. Once such foundations are in place, paths can be represented using carefully placed pebbles. For larger fairy gardens, children can consider introducing bigger components like standing stones, or rocks used to represent cliffs and rocky outcrops. Small seashells and even small flowers with stems pushed into the moss can be nice decorative touches to take creations to the next, beautiful level. Children can occasionally water the final creation to keep the moss moist, green, and alive.
The beauty of this activity is that children (and parents) can let their imaginations run riot! And, who knows; the activity could even lead to a life-long interest in model making and the creative arts! Children will love the finished result and can interact to create stories, different scenarios, and adventures using their wonderfully organic and magical scenes.
Support for the EYFS
Speaking of creative arts and crafts, this activity is also a great way to support the specific ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ area of focus within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum. It’s indeed the perfect opportunity to spark children’s imaginations and creativity and perhaps even result in some role-playing.
Another area of the EYFS that’s supported by this activity is ‘Physical Development’ as children will need to be dextrous in order to carefully place items like moss and other components within their fairy gardens. It will require fine motor skills and good hand-eye coordination.
‘Understanding the World’ is another area of the EYFS that’ll be well-supported by this activity. Children will learn more about nature, the world around them and some of its flora and fauna. And, if they decide to try to keep their fairy gardens alive through watering and perhaps even selective plant-growing, it’ll teach them important lessons about responsibility and the care of living things.
Have a wonderful time with your fairy gardens! They’re great fun, rather magical for little ones, and superb settings to use as focal points for imaginative play!
Nursery Places Available in Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley
If you’d like your under-five child to get the best start in life in a first-class childcare setting near Chorley, consider a nursery place at Little Acorns Nursery, Clayton-le-Woods. Here, we understand just how important nature is to children and that’s one of the many reasons why Forest School was introduced to the setting. That’s along with a high-quality curriculum that brings out the best in every child, fabulous facilities indoors and out, and an enviable reputation for excellence. Ours is a home-from-home environment too, where children are part of the Little Acorns ‘family’ and first-class early years practitioners ensure they’re as school-ready as possible by the time they leave us. Free childcare hours are also available here for eligible babies and children aged from 9 months.
Contact Us Today
As a nursery based in Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley, we are also a suitable choice for families in Clayton Brook, Clayton Green, Thorpe Green, Pippin Street, Buckshaw Village, Whittle-le-Woods, Farington, Bamber Bridge, Lostock Hall, Euxton, Leyland and Penwortham.
When April is on the horizon, there is a buzz amongst parents whose children will receive school offers that month. It’s quite a milestone in the lives of families as it’s the time they’ll find out if their children have received an offer for their top school choice. If not, will they be offered another “preferred” school listed lower on their application? It will often have felt like a long wait to find out the results, too, with families having applied in mid-January or potentially months earlier. Because we are an early years nursery, today’s guide focuses on primary school offers. We’ll explain in detail when to expect your child’s primary school offer, criteria that may have affected it, and your options if you’re not happy with the school place offered. To keep things as simple as possible, we’ll concentrate on applications for a standard school start date in the September term (rules and dates for ‘in-year’ applications are slightly different). If your child is due to start primary school this year, take a look.
Today we look at the wonderful Ofsted report published recently for Little Acorns Nursery in Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley. Ofsted is The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. Their inspector visited this fabulous Lancashire childcare setting in late August and released its official report a month later on 25 September 2024. Our post today spotlights some of the many glowing comments made by the inspector therein, following her visit. It also highlights the reasoning for ‘good provider’ ratings across all areas of the Ofsted report. Take a look and you’ll see why babies, children under five, and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities absolutely thrive at Little Acorns.
Overall effectiveness: Good
Any good nursery or childcare provider will ensure that children understand right from wrong and are mindful of the effect their actions have on others, including peers. Nurturing good manners and appropriate behaviour amongst little ones benefits everyone including, of course, the children themselves. Ofsted’s latest report recognised that Little Acorns is very successful in this regard:
Children find messy play hugely rewarding as well as being immense fun. Messy play nurtures children’s imaginations, creativity, dexterity, and self-expression and benefits them in many other ways. It is therefore a crucial part of early years learning and development — and more important than it perhaps sounds. Ofsted picked up on the quality of messy play activities at Little Acorns Nursery within its report:
As a condition that affects children’s reading and writing abilities, Dyslexia is something that can significantly hold little ones back. If not diagnosed and addressed in good time, it can have a knock-on effect that adversely affects the education and potentially whole lives of people affected. It’s therefore important to learn what to look out for so as to recognise the possible signs of dyslexia in children should they occur. With that in mind, today’s article explores the answers to frequently asked questions about dyslexia so as to explain what dyslexia is, how it affects children and adults, what to look out for, and what to do to mitigate its potentially harmful effects.
Described back in the 19th century as ‘word blindness’, Dyslexia is a lifelong problem that primarily affects the ease with which a person can read (especially) as well as affecting other language-based skills like writing, spelling, and sometimes even pronunciation. As such, it has potential knock-on effects in a wide array of areas of people’s lives and can present daily challenges for those affected.
Some people with dyslexia have described its effects as causing letters to jump around and words to jumble up. Others say that words blend together and even spaces between them can disappear. Individual letters and numbers can mix up and, for some, characters may seem incomplete. Sometimes, they are perceived in mirror form (so, for example, a “b” becomes a “d”) or are even perceived as being upside down (so, a “6” would be perceived as a “9”). Whatever the specific effect, the result is to make words unintelligible. Immense concentration is required to try to make any sense of them. Clearly, this presents enormous challenges to reading, writing, spelling, reading out loud, and even mathematics. The knock-on effect of all this is that reading and learning from books about any number of topics — including those in the curriculum — can therefore be hugely challenging and profoundly impactful.
The signs of dyslexia vary from child to child and this, in itself, makes spotting the issue more tricky. That said, the most common signs of possible* dyslexia, specifically in children of pre-school and school age, relate to language-related difficulties. Examples include:
Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty. While some children affected have no additional limiting condition, some have additional problems. These can include dyscalculia, dyspraxia, ADHD, short-term memory issues, and issues with time management. We’ll aim to cover some of those topics separately, in future posts.
Where an issue like dyslexia is suspected, parents/carers should speak with their early years provider or school teacher to voice any concerns — and vice versa. The earlier an issue like dyslexia is spotted, the sooner measures can be implemented to help the child. Such early intervention is really important when reading and language are affected because they have such a snowball effect on other areas of learning. That said, it is more difficult to diagnose dyslexia in the pre-school years, as signs are not so obvious at such an early age. However, a few early signs may sometimes become evident as indicated in the early entries of our list of possible signs of dyslexia earlier in this article.
Once babies have transformed into toddlers, it’s never too early to introduce them to maths-based concepts and language. Indeed, introducing under-fives to such concepts in the earliest years will benefit them hugely as it lays the foundations for future learning. That’s one of the main reasons it is a part of 
Familiarity with mathematical terms and concepts also helps to prepare children for formal education, including in many areas other than pure mathematics. Understanding maths concepts from an early age will allow them to confidently engage in number-related exercises and discussions, greatly enhancing their school readiness across multiple topics. Such preparation will allow them to take maths-based challenges in their stride right from the moment they begin Reception Year in primary school. What’s even more striking is that studies show a direct correlation between early mathematical skills and later educational achievement.
Counting is the most obvious example. Counting can be introduced and practised by your little one in many, many situations, from counting how many more mouthfuls of food a child should eat, to the number of Lego blocks in a tower they’re creating.
Shapes also have roots in maths, so children should get familiar with 3-sided triangular shapes, 4-sided shapes like squares and rectangles, and so on.
Creative endeavours can also be vehicles through which supervising adults can highlight elements of mathematics that are built into designs and creations that children may generate. Patterns and shapes are obvious examples of that. Last but not least, parents can involve children in maths facets which are integral to everyday life, for instance, counting items when out shopping, or measuring when putting ingredients together for a meal. Children will love being more involved in such activities and will learn about maths in a fun, natural, and engaging way. Doing so will create the strongest foundations for their future learning.
Beginning school is a huge milestone for any child as well as for the child’s parents or guardians. Whether transitioning from nursery/preschool or straight from home, beginning school can be a daunting step in a child’s life — especially if they’re unprepared. Today’s post therefore aims to help parents/guardians make the transition to school as easy and stress-free as possible for their child, so they are empowered to feel at home and hit the ground running from the moment they begin. Take a look, therefore, at our guide on How to Help Your Child Transition to School. Following the advice should help make this milestone plain sailing for everyone involved.
One of the most critically important steps for a smooth transition to school is to ensure your child receives a comprehensive early years education. By this we mean they need to have been nurtured between birth and school age in all areas of their learning and development — ideally including the 
During their journey from birth to school age, it’s also important to nurture children’s independence, social skills and soft skills.
When starting school is only a few weeks away, there are several small but impactful things you can do to better prepare your child for the transition:
Pack your child’s backpack and ensure it includes everything they’ll need. For example, perhaps a snack and/or lunch box, any spare clothes, PE kit, stationery if needed, and so on.
Be on time. Dropping off or picking up late will stress both you and your child out!
Children and childcare staff at Little Acorns Nursery love nature. So, with World Wildlife Day coming earlier this month and Spring now upon us, it’s the perfect opportunity to release our free Wild Mammals poster. Shown in full colour and printable in high resolution at A3 or A4, it features 20 British
January’s Big Garden Birdwatch is a perfect home learning opportunity where children can find out about wild birds and get a better understanding of nature itself. What’s more, it’s a hugely worthwhile event that will benefit birds, conservation efforts, and children themselves. The activity also demonstrates how easy it is for little ones to become citizen scientists. With that in mind, let’s explore today the Big Garden Birdwatch, explain what it is, how to take part, and why it’s important for families to get involved.
The idea of the Big Garden Birdwatch is to understand how garden birds are faring in the UK. Sadly, many bird populations are in decline, with some species facing huge declines over recent decades. Some 38 million fewer birds are now seen compared to 60 years ago. Song Thrush populations, for example, are down by 80% since the survey started in 1979. Even House Sparrow numbers have more than halved during that time. By studying the bird populations each year, trends can be identified including whether any bird species are in danger. Then the RSPB and other conservation organisations can work out what the problems are and how we might go about rescuing the situation as a nation. It also follows that, if there is a problem with bird populations, then there is likely to be a wider problem in nature too. This could be, for example, due to disease, over-intensive farming methods, habitat loss, invasive species, climate change, use of chemicals in gardens and farmland, and so on. Gathering data across the UK each January will help guide the nation to improve things — and children can help by getting involved in the Big Garden Birdwatch each January.
— it’s quick, easy and free to do so. Once registered you’ll receive detailed instructions in your free guide to the event, which includes your free bird identification reference sheet. This will be useful to you and your children so each bird species can be recognised more easily.
This wonderful activity is a great way to encourage families outdoors, where children benefit from nature in a myriad of ways. From lower stress and increased well-being to improved academic performance, stimulated imaginations, and better sleep, 
Together with the RSPB, we also have bird identification covered for children. The first option is the RSPB’s free bird reference sheet, which families will receive when they register for the event. Their digital version is best because it’s more environmentally friendly, is quicker to access, and usually shows a larger list than is shown on their printed version.
However, don’t forget that Little Acorns Nursery also published 
How to Encourage Birds to Visit Your Garden
As we discussed in our recent post 
Designate an area in your home for play. It doesn’t need to be elaborate — even a corner with a few age-appropriate toys, books, and art supplies may be sufficient. Ensure, of course, that the space is safe and free from hazards before your child embarks on their play activities.
Outdoor play also offers a wealth of learning opportunities. It promotes physical health, stimulates the senses, and allows for unstructured exploration, which all contribute to holistic development. Take your child to the park, explore nature, or simply play with them in the back garden if you have one. Outdoor activities will also foster an appreciation for the natural world. Indeed, we wrote a whole post about 
Reading is a wonderful way to support learning through play. Choose age-appropriate books, of course, and be sure to engage in interactive storytelling. Ask and encourage questions about the story, encourage your child to predict what might happen next, and ask them what they might do if it were them in the story. Books and reading teach children so many things and, like pretend play above, truly encourage their imaginations and get their creative juices flowing. 
Arrange play dates with other children or involve siblings in play activities at home. Social play helps children learn essential social skills like cooperation, sharing, and conflict resolution. It’s also a great way to make new friendships, learn from each other, and become a closer member of friendship circles.
