Having previously published guides and useful information here for parents, we thought it was time for a news round-up to highlight some of the wonderful activities that have been taking place with children at Little Acorns Nursery. Both children and staff have been extremely busy indeed, with exciting new initiatives, outings, special visits and extra-curricular activities. Let’s take a look at some of the most recent.
Forest School Sessions to Start the Year
January began the new term with exciting Forest School sessions for our little ones. As well as trips to local countryside, woodland and natural open spaces, the pre-school children and ‘Rising 3s’ at Little Acorns learnt all about fire safety and its importance. (Take a look at the small photographs to see the various activities — click any for a larger view).
The children also enjoyed making some much-needed bird feeders for the local birds, many of whom struggle for food during the winter months. This coincided nicely with the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, which happens during the last week of January each year. During the annual event, both children and adults are asked to spend one hour outdoors to count up how many birds they see and which species they belong to. 
This is important for bird conservation, bearing in mind that the UK bird population has fallen by a staggering 38 million birds in only 50 years. Sadly, even some birds that may have been thought of as common are now in trouble — the starling, for example, is now on the RSPB’s ‘Red List’ — their list of birds whose populations have declined to worrying levels. Such birds need all the help they can get from us, so it’s good for children to be aware of the importance of conservation and caring for wild creatures.
“Not all classrooms have four walls.”
Forest School gives children access to the Great Outdoors so that they can learn all about nature and the natural environment — and also about themselves. As well as being educational and fun, spending time outdoors with nature has many benefits for children and some of these were previously explored here on the blog. Amongst other things, it teaches them new skills and even some they probably didn’t know they had — leadership, teamwork, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, for example. Learn more about Forest School in our comprehensive guide here.
Extra-Curricular Activities & New Skills
Babies and under-five children at Little Acorns Nursery are fortunate to have access to some fun, exciting and educational activities. These are optional but are very popular amongst the little ones. As well as the day-to-day activities and curriculum at the nursery, we also offer:
Preschool Drama Sessions, where children get to act, role-play and entertain each other in fun and beneficial ways.
Baby Farm Animals Visit the Children
During January, the children were delighted when they had a surprise meeting with 2 wonderful twelve-week-old baby cows, called Louise and Jenny. Both calves and children were intrigued to meet each other and it was an opportunity that many children may otherwise not have had access to. Special thanks go to one of our lovely parents, who kindly facilitated this magical event with the loan of their beautiful calves.
Weekly Visits to the Library
One of Little Acorns Nursery’s regular features is our weekly visits to the local library with the children. There, they are able to independently look through their favourite books as well as discovering new ones. Encouraging a love of reading is hugely important as it’ll lead to an understanding of a wider range of topics, it will improve language skills, enhance cognitive development and teach them so much about — well — potentially everything!
The Children Visit a Local Care Home
Children also enjoy their monthly visit to the local care home. It’s a great opportunity to meet and interact with the care home residents, who also really appreciate the youngsters’ company. Children and adults will bond as they talk, sing and even share in craft activities together. It’s a wonderful experience for all parties, teaching children many lessons about life and the importance of community, as well as enhancing communication and social skills. It also really brightens the day for the care home residents.
Gruffalo Crumble in Storytelling Week
As January became early February, toddlers at Little Acorns Nursery had great fun celebrating Storytelling Week in creative ways. Running between 30th January to 5th February, the event saw children doing things like making their own ‘Gruffalo Crumble’ and ‘Gruffalo Woods’ as well as playing in our ‘Blue River’. The accompanying photo (right) illustrates one of the many creative story-themed activities that the children enjoyed.
Vegetable & Fruit Growing at the Nursery
By mid-February, staff and children at the nursery had begun to prepare for another nature-themed activity – the growing of our own vegetables and fruit! So, various seed packets were procured and preparation for sowing the seeds and eventually growing our own produce commenced. The plan is to incorporate this activity into daily nursery life. Children will thereby start to understand the importance of nurturing living plants and the benefits of growing their own food. They’ll learn to be responsible, they’ll learn new things about nature, where food comes from and the importance of tending their own vegetable patch at the nursery. It’s a thoroughly worthwhile and fulfilling activity for them to enjoy too.
We were also delighted when one kind grandmother noticed our Facebook post about this food growing activity and offered us some spare strawberry plants. A huge thanks to her for those and we’re now looking forward to a crop of delicious strawberries too!
An Outstanding Childcare Service & Forest School in Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley
If you have a child under five and are looking for the best childcare in Lancashire, explore the opportunity of sending your baby, toddler or preschooler to our outstanding nursery and pre-school. Please get in touch to register your child for a nursery or pre-school place, request a guided tour of the setting or simply to ask any questions. Our staff are always happy to answer queries and to show families around this wonderful childcare setting. Please choose a button to get started:
Little Acorns Nursery offers award-winning childcare in Central Lancashire. We are a nursery and pre-school located in Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley, also being convenient 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.
Are you are a parent or carer of a child under five? If so, you could learn a lot about childcare, parenting and early years learning and development by following Little Acorns Nursery on social media. We’re active across multiple social channels including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram and share high quality content useful to parents of under-fives. That includes parents of children at Little Acorns although, actually, parents anywhere will find the content educational and useful. Our high quality content includes unusually informative ‘early years’ articles and information. For example, a whole range of guides, the findings from various studies, suggested activities for kids and overviews of things like childcare funding schemes with eligibility guidelines. Also, of course, the social media channels include posts relating to the exciting activities happening at the nursery in Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley.
Follow Little Acorns Nursery on Twitter. There, you’ll see links to some great topics that relate to early years education. You’ll also see regular tweets and posts showing the exciting play and activities that children are taking part in at the nursery.
On Facebook, we share our ‘bigger’ guides and articles from 
We love Pinterest! Its simple, pictorial approach makes it easy to just pick out something that interests you and save it to your own Pinterest pin board, so you can simply save it or share with others. We’ve got lots of pin ‘boards’ on our Pinterest profile, where we’ve pinned images and links to articles that interest us as early years practitioners. We think you’ll like them too. Board topics include nature activities, sensory activities for under-5s, early years parenting, Forest School, outdoor play, preschool, nursery school activities and, of course, Little Acorns Nursery itself.
If you’re on Instagram, check out our photo gallery on our own Instagram profile. It shows images of the children playing and learning at the nursery as well as featured images that link to our highly interesting blog posts.
Little Acorns Nursery is @LittleAcornsNurseryChorley on Google and;
If you have used our childcare service and were pleased, please 
We’re active here on our Little Acorns blog too. Here, you’ll find larger articles that tend to cover the ‘bigger’ topics that parents and carers of children under five will find useful. These are well-researched, detailed and often very educational articles that will keep parents well-informed. For example, we cover topics like 
Today, we look at how early years childcare providers like Little Acorns Nursery can help children under five if they have special educational needs and disabilities. This is often referred to as ‘SEND’ or in longer forms like ‘SEN and disabilities’. Let’s explore the topic to get an overview of some of the help available.
Actually identifying an area of special need or disability is, of course, the first, crucial step in being able to help a child. If an area of special need is suspected, early years providers can work with parents and sometimes other professionals, for example health visitors, speech and language therapists, paediatricians and so on. Involving such professionals will help with any diagnosis.
This is important. Early years providers can create an inclusive environment that welcomes and supports children of all abilities. Encouraging the inclusion of children in social groups and in the making of friends, for example, is of huge benefit to children’s well-being. Childcare settings can also provide special equipment or adapt the environment to make it more accessible for children with specific physical needs.
Early years providers like Little Acorns Nursery adapt the individual learning and development plans and activities to suit each child. In this way, they’re custom-designed to meet the needs of every child individually, including those with special needs. This is done as a matter of course as part of 
Later, each child will similarly have an ‘EYFS profile’ completed during the final term of reception year. However, as we’re focusing this article on children under five, we’ll not go into detail about that here.
It may be useful for parents and carers to note that local authorities have a duty to publish what’s known as a ‘Local Offer’. This outlines the help available in the area for children with SEND, including how to access that support.
One of the first challenges when considering childcare for your little one is how to fund it. If you’re an affluent family, then great. However, if childcare costs will be a more significant hurdle to overcome, the good news is that there are lots of options available. Either way, it will help to be well-informed about the various childcare funding schemes on offer from the Government. There are quite a few of them and some are extremely generous and surprisingly easy to obtain. Today’s Quick Guide to Childcare Funding Options in England will give you an at-a-glance overview of what’s available, the key eligibility criteria and how to apply. Note, though, that they generally fund in-person childcare only from approved providers (like Little Acorns). Take a look at the many options …
You’ve no doubt heard of, or read about, childcare ‘vouchers’. They sound great, but what are they and how do you get them?
Tax-Free Childcare is a great scheme which, in contrast to childcare vouchers, is widely available to working families — even for those with relatively high earnings.
Certain 2-year-olds are eligible for 15 hours of free childcare each week, through another Government scheme. This one is to help primarily those families on benefits.
3 and 4-year-olds in England are very well catered for when it comes to free childcare funding. This is aimed to help them receive that all-important early years education and to help those parents wishing to return to the workplace.
Tax Credits specifically for childcare are only available to existing claimants under the scheme, through ‘Working Tax Credits’. New claimants should instead refer to the ‘Childcare Funding through Universal Credit’ section below.
For those who are eligible, this is quite a generous scheme that allows them to reclaim* as much as 85% of their childcare costs. The maximum available, however, is £646.35* each month for one child, or it’s £1108.04* for more than one.
This is a grant that does not need to be repaid and is in addition to any undergraduate Student Finance.
Learner Support is a type of financial support designed for students who are suffering financial hardship. It can be used to fund childcare for eligible students who are also parents.
Care to Learn may suit if you are a parent who is not yet 20 and are studying on a publicly-funded course, although see caveats below.
As promised in our recent 
Microgreens, also known as micro leaves, are the young shoots of growing plants that are edible. Examples include the seedlings of herbs like basil and coriander, red cabbage micro leaves and the shoots from root vegetables like beetroot. When growing, the seedlings form a thick and rich ‘carpet’ of shoots that, when ready, can be snipped off en masse and used in meals as salads or garnishes. What’s more, they’re delicious, highly nutritious and make meals look amazing. The entire activity can also be accomplished indoors in any home. You do not need to have a garden because a well-lit windowsill or counter top will more than suffice.
Microgreen seeds. These are available inexpensively online or at places like garden centres and even some supermarkets. You can buy microgreen mixed seeds or choose seeds for rocket, beetroot, spinach, red cabbage, fennel, broccoli, radish or mustard. Each has a distinctive look, when growing, and flavour, when eaten. Read the packets for more detail or just have fun and experiment!
Different microgreen seeds grow at different rates but usually a dense carpet of growing shoots and tiny leaves will cover the trays or pots within one or two weeks. Generally speaking, when you can see small, immature leaves at the top of shoots about 1 to 1¼ inches tall, they are about ready to be harvested. For young children in particular, snipping them off is best done by parents, to avoid injury. The carpet of microgreens can be snipped off, using scissors, low down near where the shoots begin. It’s best to snip them off rather than to pull them up by the roots because then they have the chance to regrow and give you/your child a second crop later on. The microgreens can then be washed in a fine colander, under a cold tap, to remove any remnants of soil.
Your child can then continue the fun by helping with meal preparation (with adult supervision for safety). Microgreens make wonderful garnishes, are lovely in salads and sandwiches and can also be added to things like soup, risotto, pasta, baked potatoes and burgers. They are incredibly attractive to look at, jazzing up any meal and also giving children extra nutrients to consume. They are also a great way to encourage children to try new tastes and food textures.
October sees one of the year’s biggest traditions in the form of Halloween, which arrives on the 31st. Halloween, which is short, in effect, for “All Hallows’ Eve”, has it’s historical roots in Christian and, many believe, Celtic, Gaelic and Pagan festivals. Broadly speaking, these festivals were events to remember the dead, including saints (a.k.a. “hallows”). However, for virtually all children these days, it’s simply a traditional time for some themed fun. And what fun it can be! Today we’ll therefore take a look at the activities and opportunities that Halloween has for little ones at this time of year.
Halloween Costumes — Dressing Up Fun!
Edward Scissor Hands is another favourite. Try taping teaspoons or kitchen foil to your little one’s fingers to simulate Edward’s hands — but only if they’re old enough to be able to control movements so they don’t hurt themselves or others.
Halloween Parties
Parents and children can prepare for such parties, or when staying at home for the evening, with a range of Halloween-themed party food. This is also great fun and may even encourage little ones to eat foods they may not normally try (as appropriate for their age, of course). Try baking plain biscuits in Halloween themed shapes. Some can be made to look like pumpkins, bats and ghosts, for example, with suitable icing. Use whichever recipe is your favourite for the actual biscuits. Children will love the theming, which will make the food fun!
Carved pumpkins are, of course, a great tradition for Halloween and one that children will love. For the safety of little ones, though, parents/adults will need to do the carving. Children can get involved in emptying out the pumpkin flesh and perhaps saving seeds, which they can later grow into new pumpkin plants for next year. They can also get involved in decorating outside of the carved pumpkins with paint or Sharpie pens. Red or green food dye can also be used to paint the inside. A good hand wash will be needed after all of this. 
A lit candle (or an LED equivalent) can be placed inside by the adult and this will shine through and illuminate the design or face. Then the finished pumpkin can be placed somewhere safe — where little ones cannot endanger themselves if a real flame is used — for example out in the garden or on the front drive.
Pumpkin Picking Locally
Another pumpkin farm that’s open to families is also in Leyland, again less than 4 miles away from Clayton, at Moss Lane, Farington Moss, Leyland PR26 6QD. To pick your own pumpkin there (weekends only in October), call 07701 082 482 or get 
Trick or treating is the Halloween tradition of knocking on neighbours’ doors, shouting “trick or treat?” and hoping that some sweets or similar will be handed over to children by kindly neighbours. That would be the ‘treat’ element. The ‘trick’ element is more rarely used today, especially with the younger children. However, it still occasionally involves funny tricks being played on those neighbours who didn’t offer sweets. This ‘trick’ element is to be used only with particularly friendly households, though, and perhaps only with those that have been forewarned by the parents involved. If not handled with care, it can backfire and cause terribly bad feeling or even be thought of as antisocial behaviour. For that reason, forewarning neighbourhoods about any group trick or treat sessions is wise, including agreeing a way for them to opt out if they prefer.
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!
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.
Seeds for herbs, vegetables and microgreens are all widely retailed in places like garden centres and even some supermarkets. Each seed packet will usually explain when and how seeds can be planted. This is perhaps the most obvious way for children to grow plants that, if all goes well, result in a healthy crop of food. However, we can be far more adventurous than that! Where is the fun in buying seeds in packets when children can get them for free? Let’s take a look at some cheaper and far more creative ways that children can start things off.
“Free” you say? Well, pretty much! Next time you have some shop-bought tomatoes and/or peppers as part of your ordinary shopping, get your little one to take a few moments to save some of the seeds. These are found within things like tomatoes, before they’re eaten, and are usually discarded in the case of peppers. Such seeds can simply be spaced out on some compost or earth, watered in and a thin layer of soil or compost added on top. If these are left on the windowsill and the earth kept moist by the child over the coming days, little seedlings will soon start to appear. 
The image of the green plant shows our pepper seedling grown in this exact way — and it was incredibly easy to achieve. Ours is about 3 or 4 weeks old and it’s just about ready to be “planted out” outdoors, to mature. Once mature, they should flower then sprout some new peppers! It’s identical for tomatoes. If children have no garden for larger plants to be transferred to, ‘grow bags’ or any kind of suitable container can be used on a patio or balcony. Children will need to keep watering them every day, to keep the soil moist. Flowers will eventually appear and, with a little help from bees and insects, will be pollinated so that they eventually ‘fruit’. If appropriate care and attention continues, your child will eventually end up with vegetables that can eventually ripen and be eaten. That’s free tomatoes and peppers for the family, in our examples. Don’t forget to remind your child to save a few more seeds, though, so they can repeat the whole process again … and again!
Does your little one know that he/she can grow new herb plants totally free of charge? This is done simply by clipping cuttings from your usual shop-bought herbs and leaving them in water to root. It’s incredibly easy so long as the child has some patience (that’s another useful lesson for them). All the child needs to do is to save some small (3 or 4 inch long) cuttings from the tips of herbs like basil or coriander. For safety, parents/carers may need to help with the cutting part if the children are very young. 
The bottom sections of the clipped cuttings should be dangled into a glass, small bottle or other suitable vessel of water and left over a period of days until they sprout roots. See the photo for an example. A clear water vessel, e.g. drinking glass, will allow your child to clearly see the roots. Once suitably long, these new little plants can be transplanted individually into compost/soil in something like flower pots — or indeed a free, recycled alternative like a yoghurt pot. The little ones will need to continue attending to the plants with regular watering so that the herbs grow and mature. This activity can all be done indoors on a windowsill too, so requires minimal space. Growing their own herbs may even make children more inclined to eat them!
Another ridiculously easy way to grow food is to “re-grow” it. A classic example of this is to save the root section from a salad vegetable like iceberg lettuce or celery. This is the part of a shop-bought vegetable that would normally be cut off and discarded. However, in what has to be the easiest food growing activity of all, the child simply needs to keep that root section and leave it root down in water for 1 to 3 weeks. It will eventually grow some roots but, before that, the upper tip will start to sprout new leaves. In our own test using an iceberg lettuce we ended up with loads! That is new, free salad that can be later harvested and eaten. Simple!
(Speaking of iceberg lettuces): Excuse the pun, but the ideas above are just the tip of the iceberg! There are so many other types of vegetable and fruit that children can grow (or re-grow) for next to nothing. For example, they can grow new apple trees from apple pips and new strawberry plants from the outside skin of strawberries. And the whole topic of 
Each year, around 1 million families miss out on thousands of pounds in free childcare funding — despite being eligible through the Government’s Tax-Free Childcare scheme. Are you one of them?
Families, including single parent families, are usually eligible for tax-free childcare scheme if they meet the following criteria:
The Tax-Free Childcare contribution from the Government can only be used to pay for childcare provided by approved childcare providers that have signed up to the scheme. Such providers must be registered with either the Early Years Register, the Childcare Register or Ofsted in order to be approved. However, they can be nurseries, childminders, nannies, play schemes or even after school clubs. Little Acorns Nursery is, of course, such an approved childcare provider and would be happy to assist families to make the most of this very useful, free childcare funding opportunity.
If you are looking for the very best childcare provision for your child in Central Lancashire, there are a multitude of reasons why you should choose Little Acorns Nursery. Put simply, Little Acorns offers the very best possible childcare service for under-fives — but you don’t need to take our word for it. This is independently verified, as you’ll see below. Take a look at our top 20 reasons to choose Little Acorns Nursery and you’ll soon see why it’s virtually impossible to beat when it comes to outstanding childcare provision.
The quality of teaching, learning and assessment at the nursery was also found to be simply outstanding when Ofsted appraised us. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Little Acorns Nursery has received a number of awards for it’s healthy eating policy. These include a Recipe 4 Health Award and accreditation via the Smiling For Life Award. Each recognises the healthy meals and snacks that we provide to children under our care.
It almost goes without saying that, of course, Little Acorns Nursery has a 5-star food hygiene rating. Once again, that’s the topmost rating. Quality and professionalism are, after all, at the heart of everything we do.
Everything we do at the nursery has a purpose, whether it’s a customised approach to learning for a specific child, the choice of a particular activity or game for another, the purchase of a piece of new equipment, or the way we keep parents informed about their child’s progress each day — there is a reason for everything we do. Ultimately, our goal is to give every child the very best start in life and to equip them to achieve their personal best in every area. In this way, they are given the tools to achieve the very best outcomes in their lives.
Our Forest School should be open from Autumn 2022. Children love Forest School and it teaches them so much about nature, the natural world and ultimately about themselves. 
Last year, we wrote a detailed post outlining 
Interestingly, under-five children who came from disadvantaged backgrounds were shown to benefit even more than those who didn’t. For this reason, reading with parents/carers has been proposed as a possible way to close the performance deficit often seen with children from such backgrounds. It may well represent a perfect solution to even up the playing field.
Deeper bonds with parents/carers (after all, this is quality time spent together, one-to-one);
