Through our fundraising efforts and the successful application for grants, Little Acorns has invested heavily in new equipment since 2002.  In 2006, we spent £2,200 on new IT hardware and software programmes for the children.  We are fortunate to have a large storage area at Kelsey Hall which allows us to keep a wide variety of large equipment and smaller toys.  Some of these include:

ICT - laptop computer with child friendly mouse, preschool software suitable for ages 2 to 5, torches, tape recorder, remote control toys, digital camera

Construction - Lego, Mobilo, sticklebricks, Brio, magnetic bricks, nuts & bolts

Imaginitive - farm, zoo, garage, airport, dolls house, puppets, ranch

Mathematics - Duplo, Aximo, scales, numbers & pegs, shape lotto

Malleable - playdough, bread dough, cornflour, wool/rope/string, clay

Small motor skills - threading beads, lacing board, knot tying, magnetic shapes, puzzles

Large motor skills - bikes, scooter, cars, climbing frame, hoops, quoits, basketball, parachute, skipping ropes, balance beams, stilts, caterpillar

Markmaking - colouring, stencils, rubbings, sandtray, tracing, shopping lists

Role play - dressing up clothes, kitchen, shop, post office, workshop, fire station, washing line, food, dolls, telephone, typewriter, till, ironing boards

'Messy activities' - art & craft making, lentils, water, sand, earth, bubbles, ice, planting seeds/bulbs, waterwheels, funnels, sieves, rakes

Circle activities - story books, musical instruments, microphone

Our Premises   

Sessions are held at Kelsey Hall, a community hall in Ifold.  The main hall is large, bright and airy and big enough for us to be able to section off an area for physical play, such as the climbing frame, from quieter activities like the reading corner, puzzles, painting etc.  The hall has it's own large car park so that chilfren can be brought to and collected from the preschool safely.

When the weather allows, we make use of the area in front of the hall to ride bikes, do experiments or nature led activities in the grassed area and flower border

Children at play inside Kelsey Hall

We were successful in our application for a grant in August 2004 to redevelop a small area at the rear of hall where we plant flowers, have marked out games such as hopscotch.  The area allows us to have more water based play too.  We have fitted safety matting on the ground to minimise accidents and awnings to protect the children on the sunniest days.

Here are the before and after pictures of our lovely new play area!