animals Archives | Little Acorns Nursery School https://www.littleacornsnursery.school/tag/animals/ Fri, 15 Mar 2024 12:09:04 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 Let’s Get to Know Wild Mammals! An Educational Nature Activity for Kids — with Free Poster https://www.littleacornsnursery.school/wild-mammals-nature-activity-for-kids/ Fri, 15 Mar 2024 12:09:04 +0000 https://www.littleacornsnursery.school/?p=6291 World Wildlife Day (3 March)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 British¹ wild land mammals that young children can learn to identify and look out for. Some can be seen when on walks, on holiday, or even perhaps at the local park, while others are rather more elusive — but that just makes it more exciting for children when they finally spot them! The poster is perfect for displaying on the wall at home — and is a fun way to both intrigue and educate children, including under-fives. With that in mind, why not download your free land mammals poster today, print it out, and get your little ones closer to nature?]]> 12 Outdoor Activities for Little Ones https://www.littleacornsnursery.school/12-outdoor-activities-for-children/ Sat, 12 Mar 2022 14:22:45 +0000 https://www.littleacornsnursery.school/?p=4187 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 ...

Bird spotting is a wonderful activity for young children and helps introduce them to an appreciation of wild creatures.1. Bird spotting

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. BBee and butterfly spotting is a wonderful activity for young children.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.

Another educational and interesting outdoor activity for little ones is to see if they can find animal tracks.3. Search for Animal Tracks

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).

Children love building dens to 'camp' in.4. Make a Den

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 ...]]>