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.
Bees are amazing little helpers, whether in gardens, parks or the countryside — but they need our help too! World Bee Day is a chance for children to discover the magic of these fascinating creatures, learn more about the natural world, and start to build early environmental awareness. They can get proactive too. Whether by planting wildflowers, spotting bees in the garden, or creating bee-inspired arts and crafts, even our tiniest learners can join in the buzz. Read on to learn more about this fun, educational, and hugely worthwhile event, which takes place each May.
World Bee Day
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.
People around the world mark the day by learning more about bees, planting flowers, protecting wild habitats, and sharing ways to care for the environment. Under appropriate supervision, there are lots of ways even the youngest children can join in too!
2025’s World Bee Day Theme:
“Bee inspired by nature to nourish us all”
“Bee inspired by nature to nourish us all”2025’s theme is all about how bees help feed the world, and how we can look after them by taking inspiration from nature. Without bees and pollinators, there would be no fruit, vegetables, crops, and nuts to keep us healthy. The message is simple: if we care for bees and their habitats, they’ll continue to care for us too by helping our plants grow and keeping the planet blooming.
Learn more about World Bee Day, its background and its aims here.
How World Bee Day Supports Early Years Learning
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:
- Understanding the World: Through bee-related activities, children will learn about living things, the environment, and how everything in nature is connected. Exploring bees and their role in pollination helps little learners begin to understand the world around them — and how they can help look after it.
- Communication and Language: Talking about bees, asking questions, listening to stories and learning new words (like ‘pollination’, ‘nectar’ and ‘hive’) builds vocabulary and encourages curiosity.
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.- Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Caring for nature supports empathy and kindness. Group activities like planting or creating a bee garden also build teamwork and a sense of shared responsibility.
- Physical Development: Activities like planting seeds, cutting out bee shapes, or painting flower petals develop fine and gross motor skills through playful, purposeful movement.
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.In short, World Bee Day is a brilliant opportunity for young children to explore the wonders of the natural world in a way that supports their learning across multiple areas, is fun, and makes a difference!
Bee-Themed Activities for Under-Fives
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.
Plant a Pollinator Patch
Children can help plant bee-friendly flowers such as lavender, sunflowers, or wildflowers in a pot, bed or border. This not only encourages responsibility and care as they water and watch the plants grow but also supports the EYFS’s Understanding the World, Personal, Social & Emotional Development, and Physical Development goals.
Make Buzzy Bee Crafts
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.
Bee-Themed Storytime
Snuggle up with stories that introduce bees in a child-friendly way. Great choices include The Very Greedy Bee by Steve Smallman and Jack Tickle, Bee: Nature’s Tiny Miracle by Patricia Hegarty, and What if There Were No Bees? by Suzanne Slade. Even better, encourage children to create their own stories involving bees! After storytime, don’t forget to talk about what bees do with your child and ensure they understand why they’re important. These are great activities to boost the EYFS’s Communication & Language, Literacy and Understanding the World focus areas.
Sing and Dance Like a Bee
Do you or your child know about the bee Waggle Dance? It’s a real dance that honey bees do to communicate the direction, distance, and quality of a food source to the rest of the bee colony. Click the video thumbnail to learn more — it’s absolutely fascinating! It’s also a great piece of knowledge to inspire children to buzz around the room with bee-themed songs, dances, and movement games. What’s more, it will help children in their EYFS goals including Physical Development and Expressive Arts & Design.
Go Bee-Spotting
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.
Honey Tasting and Talk
If age-appropriate (never feed to babies under 12 months) and there is no allergy to it, let children try a small taste of honey. Then talk about how bees make it, and discuss where it comes from. You could even take this a step further by helping your child make a simple honey-based snack. For example, honey drizzled over pancakes or porridge oats — delicious! Such activities can help children focus on EYFS areas including Understanding the World, Communication & Language, and Physical Development.
These activities are designed to feel like play but, underneath, they’re packed with learning opportunities. What’s more, they help children build positive associations with the natural world and start to understand that even small actions can make a big difference.
Let’s Celebrate Bees on World Bee Day
World Bee Day is a chance to slow down and take a closer look at the tiny creatures that do such big jobs for our planet. It’s also a fantastic opportunity to help young children connect with nature, ask questions, and start to develop a sense of care for the world around them. Through simple, enjoyable activities, families can help raise awareness of the challenges bees and other pollinators face — from habitat loss to climate change. It’ll show children that even small actions, like planting flowers or spotting bees in the garden, can make a difference. So, get them buzzing while they explore nature, grow in confidence and curiosity, and learn that they too can help protect bees along with the wonderful world they’re a part of.
Nursery Places in Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley
With our own gardens and outdoor spaces close by, children have lots of opportunities to explore and learn from nature at Little Acorns Nursery in Clayton-le-Woods. We know just how important nature is to children and it’s one of the many reasons we love introducing them to nature-based events, themes, and activities like those suggested in today’s post.
At Little Acorns Nursery, children have a wonderful start in life in a warm, caring, home-from-home environment where they feel safe, nurtured, and valued. Free childcare is available for eligible children from just 9 months of age. If you’d like to explore the possibility of sending your baby, toddler, or preschool child under five to this wonderful nursery and preschool in Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley, get in touch today. We’d love to answer any questions, tell you more, and show you and your child around the setting.
Contact Little Acorns Nursery
Families living nearby in Clayton Brook, Clayton Green, Thorpe Green, Pippin Street, Buckshaw Village, Whittle-le-Woods, Farington, Bamber Bridge, Lostock Hall, Euxton, Leyland and Penwortham may also find our nursery conveniently close.
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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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.
In the world of child development and early education, there is a simple yet profound truth: children learn best when they are learning through play. Play is the universal language of childhood and, indeed, it transcends both borders and cultures. Whether it’s building sand castles on a sunny beach or arranging blocks on the floor at home, play is the gateway through which children explore, discover, and grow.
As adults, we often associate learning with classrooms, textbooks, and structured lessons. However, for children, the process of learning is a dynamic and ever-evolving adventure, with play being their very best companion during the journey.
Do babies benefit from play? Absolutely. Play is the first way through which infants start understanding their world. They use their senses to explore toys, grasp objects, and make sense of the environment around them. Sensory play, such as touching different textures or listening to soothing sounds, stimulates their developing senses and lays the groundwork for future learning.
During the run-up to the age of 5, play is integral to children’s development. During this phase, children are like little sponges, soaking up information from their surroundings. Play allows them to experiment, make connections, and refine their cognitive and many other skills. Skills enhanced through play include:
Creating playful environments — we understand the importance of a conducive environment for learning through play. With that in mind, we provide carefully designed play spaces that are rich in stimulating materials and resources. These spaces allow children to engage in various types of play, from imaginative to sensory, in a safe and supportive setting.
While listening to music has a unique way of resonating with the human spirit, actually creating it on a musical instrument elevates that connection to entirely new levels. What’s more, learning to play an instrument leads to a whole host of multifaceted benefits. Whether tinkling piano keys, strumming guitar strings, or playing a wind instrument, children who learn to play a musical instrument will soon discover a whole world of opportunities and advantages that extend far beyond the realm of melody and harmony. With that in mind, today’s article explores the myriad of sometimes surprising benefits that learning to play music will bring to children, even at a very young age. Take a look below and discover how musicianship could benefit your child, extend their skills and potentially enrich their life profoundly.
The influence of music on brain development is nothing short of remarkable. Learning to play an instrument engages various parts of the brain simultaneously and is like a 360-degree workout for the mind! As such, its cognitive benefits are profound. Children who take up musical instruments therefore tend to excel in memory, problem-solving, and mathematical skills. Indeed, studies have shown that musical training can lead to improved academic performance, enhancing children’s abilities, particularly in subjects like mathematics and science. So, when your child learns to play a violin, piano, guitar or even a simple recorder, they’re not just making music; they’re also fine-tuning their cognitive abilities.
Learning an instrument represents a real journey of creativity and imagination. Children explore melodies, experiment with harmonies, and may often progress to compose their own tunes. This creative process nurtures their imagination and encourages them to think in new and alternative ways. Making music really is a powerful tool for unlocking children’s artistic potential.
Music is often a collaborative endeavour and that, in itself, will bring additional benefits to children. As well as simply being enjoyable, group music lessons and ensemble playing will teach children valuable social and teamwork skills. Through music-making, they will learn to listen, cooperate, and communicate effectively with others at appropriate times — and even to make more friends. Such skills go well beyond the world of music and are fundamental in importance and positive impact.
For infants and toddlers, musical exploration can start with simple activities like singing lullabies, clapping to a rhythm, or playing with simple musical or percussive toys. These activities introduce them to the world of sound and rhythm in a playful and engaging way.
Children and parents, let’s go minibeast spotting! Whether you have a garden, neighbourhood park, or just a few potted plants, there are bound to be minibeasts visiting or living there. What’s more, summer is the perfect time to spot them. Spending time in 
Today’s flower-growing children’s activity follows on nicely from last month’s 
It’s possible to sow wildflower seeds from March right through to mid-October or, at a push, early November so long as snow or frost is not forecast. Those sown closer to March and April will generally flower in late spring/early summer. Those sown very late in the year will flower the following year, from spring onwards. Any sown up to and including the middle period, for example during July, should still flower in the same year — wildflowers usually bloom some 60 to 80 or so days later if they’re timed to grow in the same year as they’re sown.
There are several ways for children and families to source wildflower seeds. The most obvious way is to buy them commercially, in seed packets. These are available from any number of different outlets including nurseries, supermarkets, 
If you buy your child commercially-available wildflower seeds, the information on the packet will often say if the resulting flowers are bee-friendly, butterfly-friendly, good for pollinators, and so on. So, if you’re sourcing seeds that way, much of the decision-making criteria around which actual flowers to grow is made clear and therefore the choice is easy.
By their very nature, wildflowers are generally not very picky in regard to the type of soil they are happy to grow in. Therefore you/your child will have a greater choice of where to sow the wildflower seeds. A fairly clear sunny area is good, whether that’s garden beds, flower pots, window boxes, grow bags on a balcony, or even the lawn itself if you want a wild ‘meadow’ type lawn. Whatever the choice, it’s best if it’s somewhere that won’t be disturbed by you/the family though, as you wouldn’t want the wildflowers trampled once they do arrive.
With regard to sowing the seeds, follow any seed-specific instructions on packets in relation to timing and spacing. If you’re using self-harvested seeds or there are no instructions, simply sprinkle the seeds so they’re spaced, fairly evenly, i.e. not too densely sown. This will avoid the wildflower plants having to compete with one another once they start growing. A tip is to sprinkle from a height as this will naturally scatter them more widely. Once scattered, your child can help* to pat the soil surface down, either by hand or using the back of a tool like a spade or a trowel, so that the seeds are secured in the soil. Children can even ‘walk’ them in if they prefer. Once complete, ensure that you/your child keep the soil damp over the coming weeks. The preparation stage really is as simple as that!
Many will have heard of the Big Garden Birdwatch that takes place every year in January. However, fewer are aware of a similar activity called The Big Butterfly Count that takes place in July and early August. As well as being extremely worthwhile, it’s a wonderful activity for both children and adults to get involved in as citizen scientists. The activity helps with butterfly conservation, is educational for those taking part, and encourages families to get outdoors, closer to nature. And, as we know, 
Are you looking for a fun and educational activity for your children? Why not encourage them to do some bird spotting? Not only is it a great way to spend time outdoors, but it’s also a wonderful opportunity for them to learn about nature and develop observation skills. As we know, 
