Good morning!
Welcome to another week of play and learning ideas. We are delighted at the abundance of curiosity, imagination and kindness on our Team and look forward to seeing some of you there today.
You will have noted in the newsletter (e-mailed to you on Friday) that we plan to trial a live interaction this week with our Braidbar Nursery Blethers. We hope to see as many of you there as possible but, remember, if you can’t join at your group’s allocated time then you are welcome to join in with another scheduled session.
This week you can also expect a phone call from a member of the team to find out how you are getting on so please do answer if you see an unknown number displayed; it may well be one of us.
To start an active and playful week, we take our inspiration from some famous artists.
A. 
Do you know who an ‘artist’ is and what they do? Can you name any famous artists? Do you know what tools artists use? Maybe you have some paintings, photos or sculptures in your house. Look closely at images and objects in your house and talk about them. Think about the shape, colour, line or form. Describe what you see. Do you like them? Why (not)? Are there any that inspire you to create something similar? We would love to see your images and sculptures on our Team. Remember – you are all artists every time you draw, paint, tear, twist, stick, join or make something new.
B. Now imagine we are going to visit an art gallery with Mrs Harris. This video will show paintings by very famous artists from all over the world. Most of these paintings were painted a long time ago but people still like to look at them today. Sometimes they hang up in places called Art Galleries and people queue up for hours just to look at them. The music that is playing is called classical music, again this music was written a long time ago and sounds quite different from a lot of the music we hear today. I wonder if you will like it?
Look closely. What colours do you see? How many faces are there in each painting? Are there any animals? Which do you like/dislike?
C. Most of the artists in the video above would have used brushes to paint but look at this dance painting!
There are many different ways you can use paint, indoors and out:
- Splat painting
- Sponge painting
- Roller painting
- String painting
- Thumb printing/hand printing
- Fruit painting
- Masher/utensil painting
- Salt/Glue painting
- Create brushes from nature’s bounty
D. 
Jackson Pollock was an artist famous for his splatter paintings! He worked differently from other artists because he put the canvas (or paper) on the floor and walked around it, dripping and splashing the paint all over it. He used his whole body, flicking his arms and hands about to make the splatters. Painting like this is loads of fun but a bit messy so you would need to ask your adult to put down some newspapers or old paper to protect the floor or you could do it outdoors. Use squeezy bottles, water pistols or turkey basters to squirt coloured water onto huge pieces of wallpaper or old bedsheets on the ground or taped to an outside wall. Indoors and on a smaller scale try drizzling paint straight out of the tubes onto paper to make your random patterns. You could put some paint in a tray and roll ball/s around – once you are happy with your design take the balls out and lay some white paper over the paint. When you remove the paper from the tray you will have your very own Pollock! You could also experiment with different items like spoons, forks or sticks as well as paintbrushes to get a similar effect with a little less mess!
E. 
Do you know that our favourite story books have lots of beautiful colourful illustrations in them and these are done by artists?
You may know of this man, his name is Eric Carle. He is famous for books like ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. Perhaps you could make your own colourful caterpillar art?
F. 
Wassily Kandinsky used lots of geometric shapes in his art. How many shapes can you name? Can you go on a shape hunt around your house, identifying circles, squares, triangles and rectangles. Are there any other shape you can describe and name? Recently some of us were talking about hexagons in nursery. Maybe you could photograph some of the shapes you find and share with us.
You might want to create a shape drawing or collage where you think carefully about each individual shape, what they will represent and how they will fit together.
Maybe you would like to play a shape game online:
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/early-years/shape-monsters
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/shape-patterns
G. Join Katie as she adventures into some famous paintings.
Why don’t you try to create your own Starry Night images using pencils, pens and chalks and squiggly lines. Or you could create a loose parts art pictures with gems, coloured stones, or collage materials.
H. A little trickier to find varied natural materials outdoor in winter but why not try some transient art – inside or out?
Coloured bottle tops, costume jewellery, textile scraps, corks or Lego blocks are all great materials to choose from.
