A Simple, Nature-Based Activity for Kids — with a Free Poster!
Summer and autumn are particularly good seasons for children to get outdoors, breathe in fresh air, and enjoy all the benefits of the natural world. Nature is incredibly important to children, and it’s one reason why Little Acorns Nursery runs Forest School sessions as part of its childcare provision. With all that in mind, today’s suggested activity is a leaf scavenger hunt for little ones — and it comes with a free ‘leaves’ poster for families to download. Featuring 16 different types of tree leaves commonly found in England, the poster will serve as an excellent visual reference to inspire children in their search. It also presents children and families with a challenge — how many can they find and identify? Such an activity will encourage children to get outside, closer to nature, and learn about Britain’s trees as they go. Take a look and grab your free poster below.
Download Your Child’s Free ‘Leaves’ Poster
Shown below is a preview of the free poster that we’ve put together for children and families to get them started on their leaf hunt. Simply click the image to open/save the poster in Acrobat PDF format. Then, choose your printer’s highest-quality settings and paper. Print the poster in full colour for the best results. Choose high resolution printing and select A3, A4 or A5 scaling as desired. A3 and A4 are great for displaying on children’s bedroom walls, while A5 may be best suited for children to take with them on their leaf hunt. They can use the little tick boxes provided to tick off each type of leaf as they discover them. See how many of the 16 you and your child can find — enjoy the outdoor adventure together!
Enjoy the outdoor adventure together!
Types of Leaves for Children to Look Out For
Children may already be familiar with some of the leaves featured on the poster. They may be able to identify oak leaves, for example, especially when acorns are growing amongst them. They may also be able to identify ‘conker tree’ leaves from horse chestnut trees, and perhaps even those from their close relatives, sweet chestnuts — but ensure they’re careful of the spikey sweet chestnut cases! Sycamore leaves, ivy leaves, and hawthorn leaves may also be fairly easy for children to recognise — or soon get to know.
This activity is a great way to teach children to look more closely at the natural world, learn to name different types of trees, and to discover things they’d never taken time to notice before. Nature is full of incredible things and is immensely varied, and today’s activity will help open their eyes to more of its magic!
This activity will help to open children’s eyes to more of nature’s magic!
How Many Different Leaves Can Your Child Find?
Some types of leaves may be more challenging for children to differentiate between than others. However, that’s all part of the fun and the educational challenge. Hazel and Lime leaves are similar to each other, for example, although unlike hazel leaves, lime leaves have a sheen and the incredibly beautiful seed fronds that you can see on the poster in the third row. Elder and Ash leaves are also similar to one another, although the quite different number of leaves per stem will help children identify which is which (see the first row). Acers (a.k.a. Maples) are often found growing in gardens and parks. Their leaves are very pretty and come in a variety of colours, from deep burgundy or bright green to golden yellow depending on the variety and time of year. Our acer example in the first row should give children a good idea of what kind of shape to look out for in the main, although some acers are even more fancy!
Nature is Hugely Beneficial to Children
Nature is incredibly important to human beings. Both children and adults experience an incredible array of benefits through spending time in and around the natural world — which is why we have Forest School at Little Acorns Nursery in Clayton-le-Woods. The benefits of nature are holistic and hugely impactful. Just a few examples of nature’s benefits include improving mental well-being, reducing stress, helping to improve sleep, boosting Vitamin D production, enhancing creativity, improving social skills, encouraging creativity, boosting knowledge about the world, and even improving academic grades. Time spent outdoors close to nature also encourages outdoor play and exercise, and thereby helps improve fitness, coordination, and motor skills. That’s all so important for little ones. Learn more about the importance of nature to little ones here.
It’s Why We Have Forest School at Little Acorns Nursery, Chorley
Coming Soon: Creative Activities Using Leaves
In a follow-up to today’s leaf scavenger hunt, and in view of autumn being just around the corner at the time of writing, we’ll soon publish a new post that outlines some fun, highly creative activities that use leaves. From leaf painting and leaf rubbing to leaf collages, leaf pressing, and more, visit again soon for some wonderful activity ideas for your child using leaves. They’ll get your child’s creative juices flowing and, once the leaves have been gathered, it’ll be something different for them to do indoors, yet still involving nature.
More Free Stuff for Children & Families
Today’s leaf scavenger hunt poster is just one in a series of free posters that children and families can download here on the Little Acorns Nursery website. Other free posters involving nature-inspired activities include a summer nature hunt, an autumn scavenger hunt, a winter nature hunt, a spring nature hunt, mammal spotting, bird spotting, minibeast spotting, and butterfly spotting. They’re all great activities as well as coming with interesting and informative posters that are free to download for children. Follow the bold links to learn more and to access the posters.
Nursery Places in Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley
High-Quality, Convenient Childcare for Under-Fives
Do you live in the Chorley area and have a baby or child under five? If so, Little Acorns Nursery in Clayton-le-Woods would be a fabulous setting for their weekday childcare. With excellent facilities for babies and under-fives, a self-contained preschool unit, regular Forest School sessions, a ‘Good’ Ofsted rating, and support for funded childcare places for eligible families, the setting represents a wonderful choice. The nursery is open early too, from 7:30 a.m., also closing later than many at 6:00 p.m., making it even more convenient for working parents, particularly those seeking wraparound childcare.
Get in touch today to book a guided visit, register your child for a place, or to ask any questions. Please choose a button below to get started:
Little Acorns Nursery is located in Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley, so may suit families living nearby in Clayton Brook, Clayton Green, Penwortham, Farington, Bamber Bridge, Whittle-le-Woods, Lostock Hall, Leyland, Pippin Street, Buckshaw Village, Thorpe Green and Euxton.
Safety Note: A responsible and vigilant adult should always accompany children, particularly the very youngest, when they’re exploring outdoors. There are many potential dangers out there, including physical hazards, choking hazards, poisonous or toxic plants, stranger danger, and more. So, always accompany little ones and ensure they learn what to do, what not to do, and the potential dangers to look out for and avoid. Supervising them outdoors and teaching them about safety is also a proactive way to help them learn to assess risk and ultimately learn to keep themselves more safe.
We’re delighted to share some very exciting news: 
Our nursery is surrounded by 
Forest School is a child-centred approach to learning that takes place outdoors and encourages children to explore, investigate, and learn about the natural world through hands-on experiences. Sessions are led by trained practitioners and are carefully planned to be age-appropriate for under-fives. They allow children to learn about nature, build new skills, learn to assess risks, and grow in confidence and independence.
Forest School offers rich opportunities for learning across all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage. As children climb, balance, build, dig, collect and create, they naturally develop physical strength, coordination and problem-solving skills. They learn to communicate with one another, take turns, share ideas and work together, supporting social and emotional development in a meaningful context.
Forest School is not limited to time spent outdoors for children at Little Acorns Nursery. The Forest School approach is also reflected throughout our nursery environment, both indoors and in our garden and grounds. Natural materials, open-ended resources and opportunities for exploration are woven into everyday play, allowing children to continue their connection with nature — whether indoors or outside.
For families already with us, Forest School adds another enriching layer to the care and education your child receives. For those considering joining our nursery, it’s one of the many reasons we believe our setting offers something truly special. Being able to offer Forest School — especially as a nursery that pioneered it locally — reflects our commitment to high-quality, thoughtful early years practice.
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!
National Children’s Gardening Week begins on the 23rd of May for 2026 and runs until the 31st. 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.
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 together for people and the planet”
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.
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 
For many species, population numbers have plummeted over recent decades. Introducing your child to today’s 
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 
By mid-November, autumn is in full swing and leaves are turning a myriad of different colours. Scenes of green, yellow, red and golden trees can be breathtakingly beautiful and the air is often crystal clear at this time of year — that’s great for photos! The autumn season also brings with it a treasure trove of fascinating natural things that children can discover if they take the time to look. Indeed, an autumn nature hunt is the perfect excuse for little ones to spend some time outdoors, where they will also 
Ensure children, particularly the very young, receive appropriate adult supervision at all times. Although fascinating and fun, the outdoors holds many hazards for the unwary. Therefore, children will need to be closely monitored by a responsible adult in order to safeguard their well-being.
