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.
Little learners, get ready – it’s almost time to buzz into action for World Bee Day! The annual event arrives in May and it’s a brilliant opportunity for children and families to get involved in something meaningful, fun, and full of learning opportunities.
World Bee Day is celebrated every year on 20th May to raise awareness of the vital role that bees and other pollinators play in our world. From helping plants grow and supporting the food we eat every day, bees are some of nature’s hardest workers – and they need our help to survive and thrive.
“Bee inspired by nature to nourish us all”
Getting involved in World Bee Day isn’t just fun — it also supports many areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), helping children learn and grow in meaningful, hands-on ways. Here are just a few ways bee-related activities can support early development:
Expressive Arts and Design: Making bee crafts, drawing flowers, role-playing as working bees, or moving like insects in a dance — all help develop creativity and imagination.
There are so many fun and simple ways for little learners to join in with World Bee Day! Here are a few activities that are perfect for children under five — each one encourages creativity, curiosity, and care for nature while also supporting the EYFS.
Using paper plates, cardboard tubes, egg cartons or recycled materials, children can create their own bees! Add wings, stripes, googly eyes and antennae for a hands-on creative session. These are wonderfully creative activities that will boost several areas of the EYFS including Expressive Arts & Design and Physical Development.
Explore the garden or outdoor space and, without disturbing them, see what pollinators your child can spot. Can they see any bees? What colours and flowers do they seem to like best? Are they collecting nectar? What type of bees are they? Bumblebees are super cute. Honey bees are super-hard workers and do so much for the world. A bee-spotting activity is a great opportunity to explore areas of the EYFS that include Understanding the World and Communication & Language.
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.
Children will love creating wildlife art. Whether it’s drawing animals and plants, making a collage, or constructing an animal out of cardboard or origami, wildlife art is a wonderful way to get children involved. What’s more, they will get a sense of satisfaction from the activity and it can help them appreciate wildlife more.
Another incredibly worthwhile activity that children can get involved in is fundraising for a wildlife-related charity. This can be done, for example, through a sponsored activity of some kind. That could be a sponsored walk, hop, swim, or whatever children and families choose (under supervision, of course, for the youngest). A sponsored fundraising activity will not only raise funds for a wildlife charity of choice but also spread the word. Furthermore, children will get an enormous sense of achievement at the end when their actions raise vital funds for animals or conservation. Volunteering for local wildlife charities is also hugely worthwhile, of course, but it is more suited to when children are older.
World Wildlife Day brings into focus the enormous challenges that affect nature’s flora and fauna. Sadly, many of those challenges are caused by humans, whether it’s due to habitat loss, global warming, or something else. By raising awareness through World Wildlife Day activities, children and families can also challenge themselves to live more sustainably. This is a whole topic in itself! However, some easy measures can be things like:
Children can also get closer to wild flora and fauna if they live near a wildlife sanctuary (or zoo) or somewhere like a national park. Nothing can really replace seeing animals and plants in real life and so it’s worth researching to find somewhere to visit close by. In Lancashire, just five miles from Little Acorns Nursery, for example, is 
Teaching children how to grow their own plants and, better still, food is a wonderfully educational and fulfilling activity. As well as learning to appreciate wild plants growing in parks and the countryside, learning how to grow their own, at home, is also great fun. Luckily, we have a whole blog post dedicated to 
A nature scavenger hunt is also great fun and is sure to get children interested in nature, wildlife, and the outdoors. The activity involves looking out for specific natural things, for example, a pine cone, a robin, a squirrel’s drey (i.e. nest), a winged seed, or animal tracks. It will also 
Encouraging (and supervising, where appropriate) an activity where children try to see different types of animals, birds, and insects is also a wonderful way to get them interested in nature. To make it easier, we have published some free, downloadable reference sheets, which also double as posters, for families to use during this activity. These include 
If children like the idea of attracting birds and other wildlife to their own garden, there are many easy ways to make this possible. As well as putting out suitable food to attract birds, children can help make a quiet, wild area with a compost heap to attract minibeasts. There are so many ways to attract wildlife so, to get you started, check out our 
With the start of the new year now behind us, it’s time for children to get ready to take part in National Storytelling Week. This year it begins on Saturday the 1st of February and ends on Sunday the 9th. It’s a wonderful initiative that brings children and families together to use their imaginations, get creative, and entertain one another. What better time of the year to do that than during mid-winter? National Storytelling Week is perfectly timed to be a fabulous antidote to cold, blustery, winter days and is a wonderful way for children to escape through the power of the mind.
Whether listening to another’s story or creating it themselves, storytelling is a fun activity for children and adults alike. In either case, imagination is a powerful thing that will allow children to immerse themselves in new worlds, new situations, and new adventures. What’s more, it can even allow them to temporarily become someone or something else. That’s hugely powerful!
With a theme as open-ended as reimagining their world, children have free reign to come up with all kinds of storylines and scenarios. When it comes to creating stories the world is, as they say, their oyster and it’s only limited by their imaginations. They could perhaps come up with some kind of fantasy with colourful landscapes, magic, and weird, wonderful creatures. Or perhaps the story revolves around a futuristic city where travel by hoverboard is the norm. Or maybe the storyline is something more simple and subtle that’s not so different to reality. It’s entirely their choice and, for supervising adults and parents, it’ll certainly be interesting to see what they create.
First-time storytellers may better grasp the idea if an adult/parent first tells a story as an example. This will help them see what’s possible — and indeed show that anything is possible.
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:
If your child is 3 or, at the latest, has just turned 4, it’s time for you to apply for their primary school place. What’s more, you only have until about mid-January to do so. That’s all true whether you intend them to start school at 4 or leave it until they’re 5. In today’s guide, we explain the rules around applying for a primary school place, the key dates you need to know, what to expect, and the various options open to you and your child.
Most children in England start primary or infant school earlier, in ‘Reception’ year. For most, this will be in the September term when they’re still only 4. That’s just one reason why applying for a primary school place is so important while they’re only 3 or, at the very latest, have just turned 4.
Registering an interest that you’re interested in a particular primary school is sensible and, indeed, may result in the school supplying some useful information. However, it will not guarantee your child a place even if it’s attached to their nursery or preschool. You therefore need to make your official application through 
Research your local primary schools, visit them to get a feel for them, and ask teachers and heads any questions you may have. Schools often have open days or evenings or accept appointments for these purposes.
The child’s proximity to the school;
For primary** school places, offers are released around the 16th* of April each year, the exact date depending on whether the 16th otherwise falls on a weekend or public holiday. For 2025, 2026, and 2027, primary school ‘offer day’ will therefore fall right on target on the 16th of April as each is a weekday for each of those years. Those applicants who had applied online, on time, and supplied an email address during the application process, will be the first to receive offers via email. Later the same day, others who supplied an email address will also receive offers via email. Those who applied without supplying an email address will have their offers posted via 2nd Class post, meaning they may find out what school their child has been offered a day or two later than the 16th of April. That said, some local authority portals allow all parents to log in to view school offers online.
With September 2024 arriving, eligible children aged as young as 9 months can now access free childcare in England. The new childcare ‘hours’ are available where working families are eligible for the support and, in tandem, where local childcare providers are set up with appropriate staffing ratios and capacity. The good news, however, is that Little Acorns Nursery, in Clayton-le-Woods, supports the new scheme. It’s therefore with great pleasure that we’re now beginning to welcome children as young as just 9 months of age for free childcare hours at the Chorley setting.
From September 2024 (so already active), eligible children aged from 9 months to 3 years of age can access 570 hours and eligible children aged 3 and 4 can access 1140 hours of free childcare support per year. The free hours are usually taken over the course of 38 weeks (equating to 15 and 30 hours per week respectively). However, some childcare providers may allow the hours to be spread over more weeks of the year by reducing the number of hours per week. Speak directly to your specific childcare provider about the availability of this more flexible option.
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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.
