When we returned after the holidays we were discussing the winter weather and the children asked how to make snowy pictures, so here in the studio for the last couple of weeks the children have been trying out several techniques to add snow to their wonderful works of art.

The first technique we tried was to use chalk, which made for great snow! The children used their fingers and sometimes hands to smudge the chalk all over making it look like a blizzard, helping to develop their fine motor skills.

“I’m using my finger to smudge it”

Next we experimented with different ways of applying paint to our snowy pictures. We used paint brushes which were great for splatting the paint then we tried flicking the paint using toothbrushes but this proved a little tricky for the younger children so we tried a different method.

“The paint splatted everywhere”

This time we used glue to stick  cotton wool to create snowy collage pictures.

Today we stuck some bubble wrap round different sizes of rollers and created a blizzard on some cardboard and paper

“it looks all bumpy”

Just look at all the wonderful Winter wonderlands we have created!

We thought we would share with you today what we have been exploring in our literacy corner, lines!  We began our journey of exploration looking at a story called A Line Can Be…..

We loved using our fingers to follow the lines in the book, developing our descriptive language to describe the different kinds of lines we could see.

We began to explore lines further. We started by using pens and acetate paper to explore what kind of lines we could make. Some of our younger children used their knowledge of shapes whilst mark making.

Some of our older children explored drawing fast and slow, sharing with each other what happened as their pen made lines across the paper.

Others enjoyed exploring the different types of lines they could make.

We even discovered that we could turn our lines  into different shapes to create pictures!

We had so much fun making lines with pens, we decided to explore a different way of making lines, playdough! This time the children were using their knowledge of the different types of lines, using descriptive words to share what they had made with each other. Some children used line templates to imprint into the playdough and some rolled the playdough into different familiar lines.

I wonder what lines we can explore next…..