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Shining Stars childminding, Crawley (2026)

30/11/2023

The last few weeks before going on maternity leave, we focused on babies and designed our own baby vests using sticking and colouring. We also then coloured in baby vests to take home. We also read ‘there’s a house inside our mummy’ and designed our own baby food using fruit.

We would also like to share with you all Alex had her baby boy Finley on 12th November and Natalie had her baby girl Layla on 17th November. We have been loving the new born bubble and settling in as families of four.

We are now unavailable on our work phone, however are still available on our email if you have any queries or need to get hold of us.

We want to say thank you to you all for becoming part of our shining stars family and we miss all the children and their lovely families!

28/09/2023

- letters and numbers -

Over the last two weeks we have continued with our letter and number recognition. The children have really enjoyed exploring letters and numbers in different sensory activities, we’ve had letters hidden in cornflour and shaving foam where the children had to find them and they were very good at being able
To state what letter or number they found! We also had the children use different tools to free the letters stuck in the ice! They used their problem solving skills as they thought of different ways to melt or break the ice using spoons, hammers, forks and even melting it by pouring warm water over the ice!

We have looked at different media that uses letters and numbers such as magazines, newspapers and also food labels. The children practiced cutting out the different letters and then we all did a number and letter collages where they stuck down what they had cut out.

At circle time we focused a lot on different books and read some of the children’s favourites as well as books children have brought in from home to show everyone. Children were very excited to find the different letters during the story and are getting very confident in showing us where they were in the book!

We have also incorporated ICT with children practicing their writing of letters and numbers as well as doing number and letter puzzles and games in the leap pad book. Children were great at sharing and turn taking to make sure everyone got a turn with the book.

14/09/2023

-Numbers and letters-

The older children at Shining Stars have enjoyed starting to recognise letters in their name and letters in other words. They have also started to recognise numbers while out and about on walks for example on houses, on the bins and at the park. Afew of our older children also started preschool this month which is why this month we focused on letters and numbers. For the younger children, we decided to focus on different sensory experiences.

Over the last couple of weeks during circle time, we enjoyed doing the weather board which included the time, date, month, weather, day of the week and the season. The children enjoyed taking in turns to join in and loved singing along to the days of the week song. The children sign in on the sign in board at circle time too where they can begin to recognise their name and the letters in their name. During circle time, we also enjoyed using flash cards with different letters, numbers and pictures on so that we can include everyone and take it in turns to pick one out joining in together. The younger children picked between two objects to start recognising what different animals are called... continued on next post

14/09/2023

The children have enjoyed number printing using paint and using number shapes during play dough using their fine motor skills and enhancing their sensory experiences. We have enjoyed practising recognising the way our name is spelt. We used post it notes to write each letter of our name down. The children then stuck this in the right order to spell out their name and copied writing their name underneath practising pencil control. They have also enjoyed sticking using glue and tissue paper onto the first letter of their name.

This week, we have enjoyed playing number bingo using numbers 1-20. Alex called out a number and the children had counters to put over the numbers which were called out if they had them on their board. For the younger children, Alex showed the children the number so they could match it on their board.

Outside in the garden, the children have enjoyed finding letters in the water and matching these with the first letter of their name or an animal during water play where the children had fun splashing too! Over the next couple of weeks, we are going to continue focusing on numbers and letters and for the younger children sensory experiences.

31/08/2023

-fairytales-

-little red riding hood-

This week at Shining Stars, we have been learning about little red riding hood. During circle time, we enjoyed reading the story, talking about healthy and unhealthy food to put in granny’s basket. We also spoke about talking to strangers and the dangers while out and about.

The children at Shining Stars enjoyed practising their cutting skills using scissors to cut around the fruit, sandwich and the cupcake. The children spoke about healthy and unhealthy food while completing this activity and discussed what the wolf did in the story. They then used glue and glue sticks to stick the food onto the granny’s basket and coloured it in using different pens.

The children also enjoyed making wolf masks. They mixed black and white paint to make grey and painted their paper plate. They used toothbrushes and paint brushes for the effect of the fur. The children then used tissue paper for the nose and paint for the ears. The wolf had very sharp teeth too!

We also enjoyed walking to the shops where we bought ingredients to make biscuits for granny’s basket. We spoke about what ingredients we needed and each child helped to scan the ingredients ready to buy. When we got home, we made shortbread biscuits and iced gingerbread man biscuits. We weighed out the ingredients for the shortbread biscuits, mixed the ingredients together, rolled out the dough and cut it out into the shapes.

28/08/2023

-Fairy tales-

-The gingerbread man-

The children at Shining Stars enjoyed learning about the gingerbread man. During circle time, we read through the gingerbread man and watched a short video on the story. The children discussed what happened and tried to use their memory to remember what animals there were in the story.

The children enjoyed decorating their own gingerbread man using blue and white icing and were excited to take these home to enjoy!

We enjoyed designing our own ginger bread man colouring it in, using our mathematical skills to count how many buttons go on our gingerbread man. The children also talked about emotions and whether they wanted their gingerbread man to be happy and sad practising drawing faces using their fine motor skills.

-The three little pigs-

The children at Shining Stars enjoyed learning about the three little pigs. At circle time, the children enjoyed listening to the story, joining in with ‘and I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down.’ The children then enjoyed watching a short video on the story where they discussed what happened and talked about the strong house and what happened to the straw and stick house.

The children then enjoyed making their own pig or wolf using colouring pens practising their fine motor skills. They then used a lollipop stick to make their own mask. The children then used different role play equipment to act out the story.

We also enjoyed going on a nature hunt looking for sticks for our next activity! The children enjoyed running around on the field making up their own games and using their imagination. We then enjoyed making our own houses made out of straw, sticks or bricks. The children then tried to blow over each others houses and used the pigs out of our animals to see whether they fit in the house talking about size.

13/08/2023

-Three billy goats gruff-

This week at Shining Stars childminding, we enjoyed reading the story three billy goats gruff. We also watched a short video on this story and retold the story in a discussion afterwards using open questions to encourage language and communication.

We also enjoyed colouring in our own plant pot and planting cress to grow the ‘long, green grass.’ The children used a water spray bottle to spray water onto the cotton wool and then used their pincer grip to put the seeds on top of the cotton wool in the plant pot. Over the next week, we are going to observe the cress growing and learning all about how plants and seeds grow as well learning about another fairytale!

The children also enjoyed painting their own goat. They experimented using different colours to make brown paint and then used cotton wool and googly eyes to finish their art.

03/08/2023

-Fairytale month-

-Goldilocks and the three bears-

This month is learning all about different fairytales! This week, we have been learning all about Goldilocks and the three bears. In circle time, the children have enjoyed listening to Goldilocks and the three bears talking about sizes and exploring what happens in the story talking about what happens next. We then practised our counting individual objects such as the chairs or beds up to three.

The children have also enjoyed decorating their own bear whether this be daddy bear, mummy bear or baby bear. They either drew eyes, used googly eyes or both. They also coloured it in using pens and pencils and were very excited to take it home.

We also enjoyed messy play using porridge and water, cups for pouring and spoons for scooping. The children were then encouraged to make the porridge just right. The children loved getting messy and starting to use their language to describe what they were doing such as ‘mix’ or ‘I’m scooping the porridge oats.’

The children have also enjoyed looking at size and using their imagination by reinacting the story. We used three different sized chairs and three different sized beds and asked the children ‘what happened next in the story?’ The children then tried each of the chairs and beds to see which was their perfect fit.

01/08/2023

This month at Shining Stars, we have been focusing on our pre writing skills. Throughout the day at Shining Stars, we encourage children to take part in messy play or using different writing equipment to practise their fine motor skills.

During circle time, we encourage the children to sign in to recognise letters in their name. We also take part in using the weather board where we look at the date, time and month as well as the weather.

We have enjoyed practising writing our letters using a pen and looking at capital letters and lower case letters in our names. We have been practising how to hold a pencil and using this control to join up our marks we make.

The children enjoyed making their own shopping list for childminding and talking about healthy and unhealthy food. The children told myself what food they wanted to add so I wrote it down. The children then copied the letters and made their own marks to represent the words. We then discussed whether it was healthy or unhealthy.

The children used different writing tools to make marks such as chalks, pens, pencils or crayons. The older children then told us what marks they made.

All of the children enjoyed using the whiteboard this week to make marks and practised their imagination drawing different objects. With one of the children, we was practising drawing different shapes. With another one of the children, we was practising writing the first letter of her name and with the other children we was practising drawing faces or practicing the beginning of making marks.

19/05/2023

-Emotions-

These last couple of weeks we have enjoyed learning about emotions. During circle time, we have enjoyed talking about how we’re feeling using sign language including happy and sad. To develop our language, we have also talked about why we feel different emotions and what makes us happy. We have also enjoyed reading Miss Rabbit’s day off where Miss Rabbit hurts herself which makes her sad. The children have followed the story and talked about how we can help Miss Rabbit feel happy again and discussed what happened in the story.

The children also enjoyed practising their mark making drawing different faces including happy, sad, shocked, worried and angry. The children practised drawing circles and dots for the eyes and nose. They then decided what expression they was going to draw and showed us their different facial expressions.

The children enjoyed making pitta pizza faces this week. They spread the tomato purée onto the pizza using a knife and sprinkled the cheese. They then used the pepper for the eyes, nose and mouth.

04/05/2023

-The King’s Coronation-

This week, we have enjoyed learning about the coronation. In circle time, we have enjoyed reading the king’s coronation learning about what happens and learning about different London landmarks.

We have enjoyed colouring in a picture of the crown and making our own crowns using pens, glue and tissue paper. The children proudly wore their crowns and were excited to take them home to show their families.

We have also enjoyed lots of baking this week including making banana cake and flapjacks. The children enjoyed cracking the eggs, measuring, mixing, scooping and pouring.

We hope everyone has a lovely weekend! 🙂

Shining Stars childminding

30/11/2023

28/09/2023

14/09/2023

14/09/2023

31/08/2023

28/08/2023

13/08/2023

03/08/2023

01/08/2023

19/05/2023

04/05/2023

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Tuesday	7:30am - 6am
Wednesday	7:30am - 6am
Thursday	7:30am - 6am