The Little Den Day Nursery - Chesterton

🌊🐠 World Ocean Day 2026 🐠🌊

Today we have been celebrating World Ocean Day and taking time to learn about the amazing oceans that cover much of our planet.

At The Little Den, we believe it is important for children to develop an understanding of the world around them and how they can help to care for it. Through discussions, stories, sensory experiences, creative activities, and exploring sea life, children can begin to learn about the importance of our oceans and the role they play in supporting life on Earth.

Teaching children about sustainability from an early age helps them to develop respect for nature and understand that even small actions can make a big difference. By learning about reducing waste, recycling, and protecting marine habitats, children begin to recognise how we can all help to keep our oceans clean and healthy for future generations. 🌍♻️

Today we will be exploring the wonders of the ocean, discovering fascinating sea creatures, and talking about simple ways we can help protect our blue planet. 🌊🐢🐙

Together, we can inspire the next generation to care for our environment and become champions for a more sustainable future. 💚

✨ Exploring Textures ✨

This morning our little explorers had a wonderful time discovering a variety of textures in our sensory tray!

The children enjoyed investigating smooth, shiny CDs, bumpy pasta, fluffy pom-poms, soft feathers, and sensory rice. They loved swishing their hands and even their feet through the different materials, experiencing how each texture felt and sounded.

There were lots of smiles and giggles as we gently tickled our friends with feathers, squeezed fluffy pom-poms, and explored the tray together. The children also used a range of tools to collect and transport their favourite items, developing their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

As we played, we practised sorting, counting, filling and emptying containers, and listened carefully to the different sounds we could create. These sensory experiences help to encourage curiosity, communication, problem-solving, and early mathematical skills while supporting children to learn through play.

Exciting news!!

✨ We’re expanding! ✨

We are delighted to share some very exciting news…

We have added a beautiful new building to our Little Den portfolio, just 32 steps away from our existing thriving Newcastle nursery.

From 7th September 2026, we will have the opportunity to care for our youngest children in our Baby Den, while our older children continue their learning journey in our Big Den.

Our Newcastle nursery will be extending its Ofsted registration to enable us to provide this wonderful new provision.

Both nurseries have their very own private gardens.

Our new building also has extensive natural grounds, where over time we will be creating our very own Little Den Forest School. This will give all of our Little Den children across all of our settings the opportunity to play, explore and learn in a rich natural outdoor environment.

Should you wish for your child to join us on this exciting new journey and you would like to book a visit to come and have a look around, please email [email protected] or call 01782 472092.

We can’t wait to meet lots of new families! 💛

🐞 Mini-Beast Sand & Water Exploration 🐞

Our Bouncing Bears had a fantastic time exploring the wonderful world of mini beasts through sensory sand and water play!

Using a variety of tools and utensils, the children searched for hidden mini beasts, scooping through the water and digging through the sand to discover their tiny creatures.

This hands-on activity encouraged curiosity, exploration, and problem-solving while supporting the development of fine motor skills and coordination. The children enjoyed sharing their discoveries and talking about the different mini beasts they found!

Pea Soup 🥣🌱

In our special story, Oliver’s Vegetables, Oliver makes pea soup with his grandpa for lunch!

Today, we explored our very own green sensory tray and enjoyed role playing making “pea soup” using pom poms, sprinkle rice, and buttons.

The children loved tipping, pouring, stirring, and mixing while using lots of wonderful language with their friends. What a lovely extension of our story and learning! 📖✨

Would you like to join our lovely Chesterton Team?
If so we would love to meet you…
We have an opening for a Qualified Level 3 Senior Early Practitioner or an Early Practitioner..
We have a wide range of shift patterns and options of 4 or 5 days of work that can be discussed.
Please see our advert via Indeed to apply.
It will be lovely to meet some new faces to find and add another wonderful Early Years Professional to our team.
Hopefully we will meet you soon!

𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝐿𝒾𝓉𝓉𝓁𝑒 𝒟𝑒𝓃 𝒟𝓇𝒾𝓃𝓀𝓈 𝒫𝒶𝓇𝓁𝑜𝓊𝓇 🌿🍋🥤

Our wonderful team of practitioners followed and extended on our Bouncing Bears and Bears interest in our new wooden house and transformed it into a Drinks Parlour 🍊🥒🍋

The children took on different roles, serving and “selling” a variety of refreshing drinks made from coloured water, alongside real fruit such as lemons, oranges and cucumber. This created a rich, hands-on sensory experience while encouraging imaginative play.

To enhance the role play, we introduced handbags and purses filled with pennies, allowing the children to practice real life experiences such as handling money, making choices and engaging in simple transactions. They showed great confidence taking orders, preparing drinks and interacting with their friends and staff as customers.

It was wonderful to observe their creativity come to life as they fully immersed themselves in their own little drinks business! ✨

🚧Diggers, Discoveries &
Outdoor Adventures! 🚧

Today our Bears set off on a little adventure to watch the diggers in action in our local community! Along the way, we spotted beautiful flowers and leaves, and even looked up to see aeroplanes flying high in the sky ✈️

It was so lovely hearing the children chatting together, sharing everything they could see and notice around them.

The highlight of the walk was when a digger came close to the fence and showed us how it operates by scooping and moving rocks! The children really enjoyed observing the rocks move around and hearing the loud beeping horn 🚜

Back at nursery, we continued the fun in the garden, using our own diggers to scoop rocks and push sand. We explored counting, filling containers, and watching sand trickle through sieves. The Bears also enjoyed mark making with lolly sticks and transporting their materials in the big truck 🪨🛻

A fantastic day full of exploration, communication and hands on learning! ✨

Happy Easter from The Little Den Day Nursery Chesterton 🐣

We’ve had a wonderful week filled with exciting Easter activities, laughter and lots of smiles! From creative crafts to sensory play and Easter-themed fun, the children have truly enjoyed every moment.

Thank you to all our children and families for being part of such a special week, we hope you have a lovely Easter together. 🐰

🐣 EASTER HOME LEARNING TREAT! 🐣

We’re so excited to share a special little Easter treat with all of our children and families! 💛

Each child has been given the opportunity to take a handmade Easter Egg Hanger to take home and decorate. 🎨✨ Using paints, pens, stickers or anything they love, children can get creative and make their very own colourful Easter design.

It’s a lovely activity for the children and their families together over the Easter break and a beautiful keepsake to display at home.

We look forward to seeing the creations. ⭐️