Shooting Stars Nursery & Preschool Kings Norton

🫐🍓 Berry Good Exploring at Kings Norton! 🍓🫐
The children hand-picked their own berries from our garden, carefully selecting the berries they wanted to explore and use. They have then taken their natural treasures into their learning, using them to create beautiful artwork and investigate their different colours, shapes, textures and properties.
🔢 Developing mathematical thinking
The berries have also provided a wonderful, hands-on way to develop mathematical skills by:
Sorting berries by colour, size and type | Comparing and noticing similarities and differences | Counting and grouping | Using tweezers to pick up and transfer individual berries | Exploring quantity and developing one-to-one correspondence | Making predictions and talking about what they notice.
Using tweezers and other tools adds another layer of learning too. The children have to carefully coordinate what their eyes see with how their hands move, developing hand-eye coordination, precision, control and fine motor strength. These skills support future independence and the foundations needed for writing, cutting and other everyday tasks.
🍓 Learning through real experiences
The berries then became ingredients for some delicious creations! The children have been developing their independence by using age-appropriate tools to cut and prepare berries, making:
🍓 Frozen yoghurt
🫐 Smoothies
🍓 Berry Rice Krispie cups
These experiences provide meaningful opportunities to explore where food comes from, healthy choices, taste, smell, texture and the processes involved in preparing food.
The children have also been developing their understanding of the world by experiencing berries from garden to plate. This helps children begin to understand connections between nature, growing and food.
💜 Home-to-nursery connection!
Our learning inspired one of our Preschool children to go berry picking at home! They brought in a whole bag of blackberries for Violetta, who then used them to make delicious frozen yoghurt for the whole nursery! 🫐💜
What a wonderful example of how children's interests can travel between home and nursery, inspiring further learning and creating shared experiences for everyone. 🌿🫐✨

🍋✨ When life gives you lemons✨🍋

Our youngest children in the Baby and Pre-Toddler rooms at Kings Norton have been exploring lemon-scented playdough, combining both fresh and dried lemons for a wonderfully rich sensory, open-ended experience. The children could press, push and squash the lemons down into the soft playdough, feeling the resistance as they manipulated the materials and discovering how their actions changed their creations.
The scent of the fresh lemons added another layer to the experience, encouraging children to notice, explore and respond to a strong, familiar smell. The fresh and dried lemons offered different textures, shapes and sensations to investigate, creating a wonderful opportunity for sensory exploration through touch, smell and, with the older children, taste.
To extend the possibilities, the team added pipe cleaners, pom poms and other open-ended resources, encouraging children to push, press, poke, decorate and create. The variety of wonderful creations we saw was fantastic!
Meanwhile, our older children were developing their independence and practical skills as they carefully chopped and collected lemons to create their very own refreshing lemon water drinks. 🍋💧 This gave them opportunities to explore the taste and smell of lemon, make choices about their drinks and develop confidence in practical, everyday skills.
There was so much learning happening through this simple, zesty experience; strengthening little hands and fingers through pressing and pushing, developing fine motor control, exploring sensory properties, noticing changes, building vocabulary, encouraging creativity and supporting independence.
We loved watching the children touch, smell, squeeze, press, taste, investigate and create, following their own curiosity and discovering just how much learning can come from a simple lemon! 🍋

At Shooting Stars, we believe our amazing team deserve to be recognised and celebrated for the care, dedication and passion they bring every day.

✨ G.E.M (Going the Extra Mile) Award – How can families get involved? ✨
We would love our families to join us in celebrating our incredible team! Our G.E.M Award gives you the opportunity to let us know which team members are shining brightly in your eyes. Perhaps someone has gone above and beyond, supported your child, made you feel welcomed, or created a special moment for your family.
Each month, our chosen team member will receive a certificate and gift as a thank you for their commitment and hard work. Our team are at the heart of everything we do, and your feedback helps us recognise the amazing people who make a difference every day. Your words are truly valued and appreciated.

To nominate a team member for our G.E.M Award, please click the link in bio/vote here:
🔗 https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/VTtSdWSHWq
Thank you for helping us celebrate our Shooting Stars superstars!

✨ Staff Choice Star of the Month ✨
Each month, our team will have the opportunity to vote for a colleague who they feel is truly shining bright! We are delighted to announce our very first Star of the Month is… 🌟 Annie – Senior Nursery Nurse in Babies! 🌟 Annie has been recognised by her colleagues for the kindness, dedication and wonderful care she brings to our babies every day. We are so proud to celebrate her achievement. We’d also like to highlight that Annie has been promoted to Senior Nursery Nurse having only joined Shooting Stars in January this year, which just shows what a super team member she really is.

✨ Potty & Toilet Training Support for Families.

There comes a time for all of our families to begin thinking about toilet training. Perhaps you’re considering when to start, thinking ahead to the future, or you’ve already started and your child is finding it a little tricky.

Are you unsure when the right time is to begin? Not quite sure how to get started? Or would you simply like some extra guidance and reassurance along the way? Please know that you don’t have to do it alone!

This fantastic resource from ERIC – The Children’s Bowel & Bladder Charity provides lots of practical advice and support: 🔗 Link in BIO or click https://eric.org.uk/potty-training/
Every child is different, and toilet training can take time, patience and plenty of encouragement.

We will work closely with you at nursery to provide consistent support, routines and encouragement, helping your child to feel confident and comfortable as they develop their toileting independence.

If you have started toilet training and your child is struggling, please don’t worry. We can work together to understand what they may be finding difficult and agree on strategies that we can use consistently at nursery and at home. If you would like some additional support, advice or simply want to talk things through, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

We would be very happy to arrange a meeting with you to discuss your child’s individual needs and how we can support you. We’re here to support you and your child every step of the way! 💕

🤝 KN x TT Leadership Collab! 🤝

The Baby Room leadership team from Shooting Stars Kings Norton, Chloe and Annie, enjoyed a fantastic visit to Shooting Stars Tettenhall to spend time with Baby Room leader, Maddie

The visit was a brilliant opportunity to explore the learning environment, share ideas, reflect on practice, and celebrate the inspiring experiences being created for our youngest children. Collaborating across our nurseries allows our leaders to learn from one another, exchange best practice, and gather fresh inspiration to continually enhance the experiences we provide for every baby in our care.

These opportunities are an important part of our commitment to continuous improvement, strengthening leadership, developing practice, and ensuring our children benefit from the very best care and learning experiences.

A huge thank you to Maddie and the rest of the Tettenhall team for such a warm welcome, for sharing your ideas so openly, and for inspiring Chloe and Annie. We can’t wait to see some of the wonderful ideas influencing both settings✨

🎉 Congratulations, Chloe! 🎉
We are delighted to congratulate Chloe H from our Pre-Toddlers team on successfully achieving her Level 3 Early Years Educator Qualification, passing with an incredible DISTINCTION and the most incredible feedback from her assessor! ✨ Since joining Shooting Stars Kings Norton in November 2022, Chloe has worked towards both her Level 2 and now her Level 3 qualification, demonstrating commitment to developing her knowledge and skills throughout her apprenticeship. We are pleased to support our educators through workplace qualifications, helping them to grow professionally while continuing to provide quality care and learning experiences for the children in our nursery. Chloe’s assessment feedback highlights the progress she has made during her apprenticeship and the strengths she has demonstrated throughout her qualification. Well done, Chloe, on reaching this important milestone. We wish you every success as you continue your career in Early Years, and please join us in congratulating her on this fantastic achievement!