Category Archives: Expressive Arts

Loose Parts

Did you know, Loose Parts have no specific function or goal?

They can be moved, arranged, designed, taken apart and more!

Using loose parts the children explored patterns, building, and teamwork. By using the blocks, small cuts of wood, guttering and some cardboard boxes, they were able to build a house with a chimney and talk to each other about the placement of the resources!

There are a variety of resources lying around within your home that can be utilised as loose parts such as:

  • Pots and pans
  • Spoons, sieves and mashers
  • Tin foil
  • Sheets
  • Sticks, leaves
  • Plastic bottles, bottle tops

Check out the poster for more ideas!

When children interact with loose parts, they enter a world of “what if” that promotes the type of thinking that leads to problem solving and theoretical reasoning. Loose parts enhance children’s ability to think imaginatively and see solutions… the use of loose parts is open ended and limitless!

Happy Diwali

We have been exploring the festival of Diwali.

Diwali is the five-day Festival of Lights, celebrated by millions of Hindus, Sikhs and Jains across the world.

The children have been busy creating ‘Rangoli’ pictures, making lanterns and reading books about the festival and why it is celebrated!

“These Patterns are nice, I’m going to make one” CW

“I can copy this one I think. Actually no,  I will do it myself” LW

“Pattern” FM

“My pattern has loads of colours just like the book”. AK

“We are making rangoli pictures and cutting them out” AB

“I like the one in the book with the glitter, that’s what I want to make” LM

 

Volcano Fun!

Over the past few weeks, the children have been investigating dinosaurs and where they lived.

After using different reference books the children decided that the dinosaurs must have lived with a volcano.

We used the internet to investigate what makes volcanos erupt.

We decided to make our own volcano using a plastic bottle and paper mache. We used bicarbonate of soda, washing up liquid and vinegar to make lava.

“Can you make dinosaur land?” Sorley

“Look at the lava, it looks hot and dangerous.” Fraser

“The dinosaurs lived along time ago, they are now extinct.” Zachary

“Will it explode?” Scott “No it will erupt, because the lava gets very hot, you know.” Maria

    

Remote Learning- Sunflowers and other plants

Mrs Brown writes-
I have been keeping a close watch on my sunflowers since I planted my seeds and I am delighted with how much they are growing. I had to replant them into bigger plant pots and I have now planted them in a sunny part of my garden near a wall for protection from the wind. Every few weeks I measure their height. In the beginning I  used a ruler to measure their height but now they have grown a bit taller I need to use a measuring tape. I  record their height on a growth chart.
Perhaps you have been measuring the height of your sunflowers. Are they taller than Mrs Brown’s? We would love to see how tall they have grown.
While in my garden I  got a bit annoyed because I spotted some weeds growing. Then I remembered weeds are just wild flowers growing in the wrong place and I recalled the fun I had as a child with wild flowers …..

Buttercups As a child I loved picking buttercups and holding them under the chin of friends and families. If you could see yellow under their chin it meant they liked butter. Why not try it to see if your family like butter.

Daisies Everyone loves making daisy chains. Not only are they very pretty, making daisy chains is great for hand eye co-ordination and fine motor skills.

Dandelions Although dandelions make me a bit cross when they grow on my lawn, they really are fascinating. You can see their life cycle over a short period of time as they change from yellow flowers to dandelion clocks with their fairy-like seeds. As a child  I liked to pick the yellow flowers and flick their heads off, saying, “Mary, Queen of Scots, got her head chopped off!” (although we all know what they say about picking dandelions…) I also recall counting “one o’clock, two o’clock, three o’clock…..“ as I blew the seeds into the air and watched them fly away in the wind, ready to find a new place to grow.

I love this transient art idea ‘borrowed’ from Carlibar nursery, for making a dande lion picture. Why not try making a picture with items you find in your garden.

Designing our new nursery

We are very excited about the building work going on for our new nursery. We have been looking at the plans and created our own 3D model of our new centre.

I made the grass for the playground. I made furniture for outside too.
I cut the grass and glued the grass on.
I am painting the walls.
This is the outside walls we are painting.
We added classrooms and a sand pit.

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

We love to hear stories and we have been listening to one of our favourites read to us by the author. Michael Rosen is the author of “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” and we can join in with the actions as he reads this story.

We loved this story so much we decided to make props and puppets to retell it. We made a big bear puppet and some long swishy grass.

I wonder what else we will need to make to tell this story?