Expressive Arts

Some of our Piet Mondrian inspired Art work 🎨😃

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In the studio we are studying artists that used pattern in their art work. Piet Mondrian was a Dutch painter he specialised in geometric abstract art works using primary colours.  We looked at images of Mondrians paintings using red, blue and yellow shapes. Some of the children were able to identify the shapes and colours.  
The children were encouraged to use a range of materials and ways to represent their ideas involving simple shapes and primary colours. Some were able to use Duplo to recreate a 3D version of a painting. “ I’m using red, yellow, blue and white blocks but I don’t have any black , They are rectangle and square shapes” She then moved on to printing with the Duplo using primary colours.

Another child made a collage and cut out red yellow white blue and black felt. “It’s hard to cut the shapes out but I can do it myself, I think it looks really good“

The children were all deeply engaged in creating their master pieces and I think you will agree they all look amazing.  Well done everyone 😍

Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Splat!!!

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Today we have enjoyed using our gross motor skills to explore how far we can make paint travel. We filled bowls with paint and whisked it up with a little bit of water. Then we had a brilliant, if a little messy, time bouncing balls into the paint and watching how far it spread.

We needed to step back when we made a huge splash!


“It went off the paper!”

We discovered that the heavier the ball and the harder you throw it, the bigger the splash. This lead to some of the boys taking a run up before throwing to get more force. Great thinking!

All this splashing created some beautiful pictures, well done boys and girls!

One of the children even decided to experiment with using the whisk to splat the paint rather than the balls. It made a lovely pattern on the paper, “like rain.”

Next week we will continue to experiment with more ways to combine using our gross motor skills with our creative skills.

 

Expressive Arts

Terrific Threading!

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We have been so busy in our sewing corner this week as we continue to focus on developing our fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination.
As we grow in confidence, we can use scissors safely to self select and prepare our own materials and we demonstrated fabulous concentration and perseverance when threading our own needles as “it can be a wee bit tricky!”.


“It’s a wee bit hard to cut the wool”

”I’ll hold it and you cut it”

“I’m choosing blue. My mummy likes blue”

To develop our threading skills further, we decided to see how many tubes of pasta we could thread onto our wool.
How did we do this?

”we putted the thread on the needle”.

”we had to tie a knot so it didn’t fall off”

”I putted the needle through the pasta and pulled it down. Then I did another one”

”you need to tie the bottom so the pasta doesn’t fall off”


It was a “a wee bit tricky” to push the needle through the pasta but we used our problem solving skills and discovered it was easier “if we hold it up cos it slides down”.

When we had finished our terrific threading we decided to work as a team and measure our creations to see which one was the longest, and practised our brilliant counting skills to see how many pasta tubes were on each “snake, wiggly worm and necklace”.

“Look I makes a wiggly worm”

”mine is a snake”

”mines a snake too!”

”my snake is bigger than yours. I’ve got 15 pastas”

”yours is the smallest and mines is the biggest”

Using our knowledge and experience, we have been able to demonstrate a good understanding of our safety rules and share this with our new friends, listen to and follow instructions and work both as a team and independently.

We have decided to have a meeting tomorrow to discuss what we would like to create next week!

Article 31~ I have the right to relax and play.

 

 

 

Expressive Arts

Introducing woodwork safety 🛠🪵 & creating sculptures

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Today over at our woodwork area the children have been learning about the safety rules of our tinker table and how to properly handle basic tools, learning to make judgements, avoid hazards and managing risks.


“You must wear goggles.” “Always have an adult with you.”

We came together as a group and had a look at the tools we’d be using, one by one the children selected each tool and placed it in the middle for all children to hold and have a look at. We discussed which each tool was used for and how to safely handle them.


“I have a hammer at home, I use with dad.” “You use the screwdriver to unscrew the nails.”

The children had lots of fun engaging in discussions with one another about the safety rules and looking at the tools, now we are able to use the tools to create our own designs, how exciting! Stay tuned to see what the children create.


“Thumbs up if you know the safety rules and are ready to use the tools.”

Some of our younger children have been busy gluing different shapes of wood and loose parts together, creating three dimensional objects for our wooden 3D sculpture.


“I build it high.” “I make a tower.”

Here is the children’s fabulous work, great job! 👍

Expressive Arts

Creative Art inspired by famous artists 🥰

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Today we studied some artists that use repetition and pattern in their art work.  For example Gustav Klimt, The tree of life,  Andy Warhol, and his Marilyn Monroe print. Yayoi Kusama is one of the most famous pattern artists of today she used semi circle brushstrokes to create  lace like patterns  to cover her canvas and imply an expansion into infinity. Looking and talking about these amazing artists inspired  some of the children to create their very own works of art using pattern.  The children self selected their own paint and resources we even tried acrylic paint which  we found out can be very messy. 😂

“I know the names of all these shapes, Im going to put the colours and shapes into the pattern” ”Mine is like a lace pattern “ “ I think the colours on my painting are lovely “


“I’m going to make a shape pattern “ “ I’m choosing a star to start “ I’m going to paint with the pom-poms” “ They make circle marks”

Some of the children chose to stick their shapes down to make a pattern and then paint over the top others did free style patterns and prints.

“ The string is tricky to get off” “ I’m cutting the ribbon to make stripes on my canvas” “I love my painting “

“ I’m wrapping string around mine to make it stripy” “ I’m putting lots of different sized circles on my canvas, like Kandinsky “
The children’s canvas paintings are beautiful well done everyone I think they are so good that we should display them in the studio.

Baking, Snack

Homemade banana muffins for snack 😋😋😋

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Today the children made banana muffins for snack to share with their friends. This is helping develop their sense of responsibility and the pride they feel in looking after others.

First aprons on and hands washed, table cleaned ready to start..

Then we mashed up the bananas helping develop our fine motor muscles

Then we measured our ingredients helping develop our numeracy and problem solving skills..3 scoops of gluten free flour

We carefully put our mixture into the cases

Then we shared the muffins with all our friends….delicious 😋😋😋

Article 28 I have the right to an education.

Digital Technology, Social Studies, Technologies

Our emotions😀😢🤪😱🫣🥱😡😳

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This week at the malleable area the children have been using their creative imaginations to mould our play dough into different things.

“I made a big worm, I rolled it with my hands”
“look I made my ear in the play dough, I lied down like this”

”I made a smiley face”

The smiley face sparked a conversation about the different faces we could make.

”can I show you my silly face”

The children used the iPad to take a picture of the different faces they could make, they even took a picture of Carly’s silly face but we won’t bore you with that.

Each child made a different face and we discussed what they were and why we might feel these ways. Using facial expressions we can begin to learn and recognise different feelings and emotions that we can feel and find solutions to understanding and dealing with them.

”some of the new boys and girls get sad faces when they just come to nursery, now they have happy faces”

We will continue exploring emotions in different ways at the malleable table, it is a very important way of communication especially for children as they don’t often understand their feelings.

Outdoor Learning

Muddy movers for everyone.

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Today we have had lots of fun exploring our balancing skills.

To do this we set up our muddy movers obstacle course using the loose parts in the garden.

Today we started with lying the planks of wood on the floor to allow our younger children time to practice and develop their confidence in walking along the plank without falling off.

After a few times around the course we made great progress and became more confident in ourselves.

As more of our older children joined the obstacle course we needed to make it a bit more challenging. The children helped choose a different layout to help further develop their balancing skills. We found a plank that was flat on one side and round on the top, which made it a bit tricky to walk along. We had to stretch our arms out wide to help us gain our balance. It was very tricky but with lots of practice and a little help from our friends we did it!

To challenge our balance skills even further, we added two planks of wood onto the tyres. This supported the planks but gave it a bit of movement and made it bouncy.

“Its a bit wobbly”

The obstacle course is a great way to challenge gross motor skills and to demonstrate how to use the equipment safely, share space and take turns.

Article 29 – Your education should help you use and develop your talents and abilities. It should help you learn to live peacefully, protect the environment and respect other people.

 

Article 31 – you have the right to play and rest.

 

Block building, Social Studies

Welcome to our block play! 🧱

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Today in the block area the children have been exploring the first two stages of block play, carrying and stacking. These stages allow children to carry the blocks around and use their senses to feel different shapes and weights and begin to explore building by stacking blocks vertically to create towers and horizontally to form rows.

Froebel block play has 7 stages, the children are starting at the beginning as for some of our children we are exploring the block area for the first time. For our older children, this gives us the opportunity to become role models and share our previous knowledge and skills.

The children worked together to carry the blocks to where they wanted to go, great teamwork everyone!

Then we used our knowledge and problem solving skills to create our stacking towers, some children used large blocks, some used small blocks. We remembered our safety rules and didn’t build our towers any higher than our necks.

  

Block play helps children to learn to take turns and share materials, develop new friendships and co operate with others. It also allows children to develop their special awareness and develop their risk assessment skills.

Expressive Arts, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Exploring the Cart Mill Garden

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This week in the garden we have had lots of learning experiences to take part in. Take a look at what we have been up to.

Duplo Rockets

We used Duplo blocks to build our own space rocket.  First we planned out our rocket on paper and got ready to build. Once we had built it we used different lengths of rulers to measure how tall our rockets were.  We have been learning different mathematical language such as centimetres, tall, short, tallest and shortest.  We were also practicing counting up to and back from 10 ready for blast off!!

Sunflower Harvest

The sunflowers that the children have grown this summer have come to an end. We decided to harvest the seeds and dry them out ready to plant next week. We looked at different parts of the plant and studied the head.  The children used the tweezers developing their fine motor skills to pull out the seeds from each head.  We will place them somewhere safe to try and store them for next years planting.

Chalk Mark Making

The children have been using the chalk to write and draw on the ground. They have created everything form spiders webs to beetles with 10 legs!  We even drew round our friends and looked to see who was the biggest and who was the smallest. Some of our children have also practiced writing their letters.

Obstacle Course

The children have helped to build different layouts using our loose parts this week. The obstacle courses help to challenge our gross motor skills. We have also been learning to manage our risk and ask for help on the more difficult parts.

What another fabulous week in the Cart Mill garden. I wonder what we will get up to next week?

 

Article 12 – Respect for the views of the child

Article 31 – Leisure, play and culture

Article 29 – Goals of education

 

 

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