Category Archives: Creative movement

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, nature, Outdoor Learning

Our Exciting Garden 🪴

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Our garden has been very busy and we have especially enjoyed the better weather over the last few days. Playing outdoors allows children develop self-confidence, independence and self-esteem. Their physical health improves through exercise and vitamin D, enhanced mental well-being, better sleep quality and increased social interaction and development.
Of course we are just having lots of fun !!
We have enjoyed developing our obstacle course adding on extra challenges ….

”round and round gets me dizzy”

How many steps to get to the bridge ?

The boys and girls had great fun on be a Pirate day ….

We used our creativity and problem solving skills to build a pirate ship …..

Ooh arrrgh if the pirates caught you they would make you walk the plank into shark infested waters

In the water tray the water had turned red “my hands are red when they are under the water. We did lots of poring and filling to get rid of our Red Sea 🌊

Finally we have been enjoying some theatre shows on the Cartmill stage showing off our creativity, imagination and acting skills along with some great singing .

After such a busy few days we are all ready for our holiday weekend which we hope you all enjoy.

Article – Children have the right to play and explore their outdoor environment.

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, life cycles, Mindful moments, nature, Outdoor Learning

Days in the Garden 🪴

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In the garden this week during sunshine and showers we have been very busy.

The girls and boys have expressed their artistic skills with some great art work on our giant easel. They picked colours of paint , mixed some colours and had lots of fun  creating giant pieces of art.  This type of play  will help the children develop large muscle use as well as co ordination and balance.

At the obstacle course the girls and boys were developing their balancing skills. It was lovely to see the children offering to help each other when they had a bit of a wobble  !  They were also encouraging each other “ put your arms out it will help”.

During the wet days we ask the children to put on their wellies and puddle suits “with a little help” to help them develop their independence. When all suited up we have great fun running and jumping into the puddles. Some of the children were keen to make bigger puddles and cleverly notice if they collected the rain water from the pipes they could add it to their puddles .

In the garden we have been looking at the Life Cycle of the sun flower. In spring the children had planted seeds and watched them grow learning that they required to be watered and also grew more in the sunshine. As the sunflowers have now finished flowering  we have picked them and started harvesting the seeds ready for re planting next spring. Pulling out the seeds gives the children an opportunity to develop their fine motor skills and hand eye co-ordination skills.

Finally this week we decided just to have fun with the soil . This gives us the opportunity to  explore using our senses “ it’s softer than sand”  I think it “feels cold” well it smells like “a farm”. It can make mud pie castles and I will squash mine down !. Being in the garden  helps reduce stress levels, improve mood and enhance self esteem whilst also being a good form of exercise.

We are looking forward to next week in the garden as we explore our outdoors.

Article – We have a  right to learn and explore outdoors.

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Froebel, Imaginative thinking

Project Picasso 🧑‍🎨

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After the success of learning about the art styles of Jackson Pollock we looked at another artist who uses “ faces” as part of their art work. We discovered “Picasso”. He used different shapes and designs to create his art work.

We learned about Picasso, first by looking at how he used vibrant colours to design each part of the face. The faces were a bit funny everything was in different places! But we learned this was called “abstract art”.

Next we tried to see if we could make a “Picasso face” using faces we cut up from magazines. To se if we could create an abstract face.

It was fun selecting different parts of the face to piece together and seeing how it looked at the end. Very Picasso inspired.

To challenge the thinking of some of our older children we added pictures of other types of objects to see if they could make a Picasso face with things that aren’t facial features.  Some of our children thought using pictures of pens as hair was a great idea!

The next step on our Project Picasso learning journey was to see if we could draw our very own “Picasso face” using coloured pencils.

We used some Picasso prints as inspiration and let our creative minds design our own interpretation of Picassos work.

The last stop of our Project Picasso was painting (the best part) we used our colour mixing skills to create our very own abstract face in the style of Picasso using our creative design skills.

We have been such successful learners in our art area, leaning about the art styles of famous artists. We might have the future “Picasso” here at Cart Mill.

As Picasso used lots of vibrant colours we found another artist who used vibrant colours and grids to create his art…. “Piet Mondrian”. This is the next artist we will be leaving about in our art areas both inside and sharing our learning out into the large outdoor art area. I am very excited to see how it turns out.

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Fun with Gross Motor Art!

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Recently in the garden we have been enjoying ourselves at the gross motor art area. We have been experimenting with ways in which we can create pictures using many different resources.

One of our favourite activities was dipping balloons in paint to create a very colourful picture! We tied string to the balloons and had great fun bouncing them in the paint and then on to the paper.

“Ha, it bounced on my nose, I have a red rudolf nose!”

”The balloons are all the colours now!”

We then got the big brushes out and used them on the shower curtain to further develop our gross motor skills.

“Look, I’ve made a pretty rainbow!”

The rain made all the colours run together, we had fun brushing the puddles and guessing what colours it would make!

”Its pink now!”

The children always enjoy when the spray bottles come out! This time we filled them with watery paint. We hung the shower curtain up and used the spray bottles to design a picture!

“It looks so pretty now!”

The children also really enjoy the large rollers we have for painting in the garden. They love rolling them in the paint and seeing what patterns they can create when rolled on the paper.

“Wow, it looks like a train track!”

Finally today in the garden we tied paper cups to sting and hung them from a stick. The cups had holes in the bottom to allow paint to come out when the children were swinging them. This proved to be messy but super fun!

“Ahhh, the paint nearly got me!”

There are so many ways to enjoy outdoor art whilst developing the children’s gross motor skills. This is enhancing their coordination, balance and body control. These activities encourage the children to use larger muscle groups and helps with their physical development.

Article 31 – you have the right to play.

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Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Froebel, Imaginative thinking, Literacy

X marks the Spots

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This week in the creative area we have been exploring patterns. We have been using different utensils to create these patterns. Today we used different circular resources from our junk modelling area. We used tubes, corks and lids dipped in paint to make our spotty prints.

We noticed the paper was in the shape of an X. “X marks the spots.”

Meanwhile In our Junk modelling area we were gifted a large box.

We didn’t know what we could do with it. Could we fit inside?

Yes we could it was so big! If X marks the spot maybe we could make a pirate ship! We soon got to work. We used our technology skills to look for ideas for our ship on the iPad.
We decided we needed a pirate flag. We worked together to problem solve how to attach it to our ship.

Once we had secured it with tape and ribbon, we got to work making the windows and shape of the boat.

We used our safety skills to cut the box with scissors.

We needed to paint it next. It was such a huge box it took lots of us to paint it.

One of our children spotted that we can’t have a pirate ship without a steering wheel!

We used paper straws to make “the jaggy bits the pirate captain holds to drive the boat.” We tried lots of different ways to attach the wheel so we could still turn it. Luckily we tried pipe cleaners and it worked!

It was time to set sail on the seas to hunt for pirate treasure! At the writing table, we had the fantastic idea of creating a telescope for our adventures!

At group time today we found a book in the story area about pirates and decided tomorrow we will make a treasure map to give us directions to the treasure.

Our learning experience and ideas went on a journey and crossed all over the nursery today using different areas to add to our initial idea.

We can’t wait to see how our treasure maps turnout and if x really did mark the spot!

Creative movement, Creativity, Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, Literacy, Mindful moments, nature, Outdoor Learning, Social Studies, Special Event

Garden roundup

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It’s been a busy week for us in the garden. We are developing our motor skills in a variety of ways.


This simple but effective experience enabled the children to experiment with colour mixing as well as developing their fine motor and early writing skills as they made marks on the foil using different  tools.

“ The blue got on the yellow and now the yellow looks a bit green”.

“I making fireworks”


The fireworks have really grabbed the children’s attention and been the topic of conversation. Throwing the powder paint on the ground sparked an idea. “The ground is black like the sky at night”

They threw lots of different colours on the ground and used small and large items to move and redirect the paint in different shapes and patterns.


Learning how to move our bodies in different ways to develop our gross motor skills and mark making skills has been so much fun.

We filled some tights with different materials such as sponges, pasta, pom poms and balls and used them to create a piece of art. This allowed the children to explore descriptive language as they figured out how to make marks on the foil.

“The pasta is spikey”

“ This one is really heavy I had to spin round and round to get the paint up there”

“ I want to get it to the top so I have to stretch my legs and stand on my tiptoes and do a big jump”

To end the week we thought it would be a good idea to begin learning about Remembrance Day and why we mark this as a special day. We watched a short child friendly video about the Poppy and decided to create our own.
The children used cut up potatoes and loose parts to make marks on the paper to create a lovely picture.

“ My dad wears a poppy for all the soldiers”

“ We can put purple on it too to remember the Animals”

Creative movement, Creativity, Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Halloween splat painting

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Some of the children were chatting about Halloween this morning. Following their interest,  we thought it would be a good idea to search the internet to look for some activities that we could do in our Gross motor art/mark making area in the garden.

We came across splat painting and thought this looked like it would be lots of fun.  We chose some Halloween characters and  printed them out and stuck them on to a large piece of card.  Then it was time to choose our favourite colours of paint!
“I like the pumpkin, my mum said I can get one at the shop.”

“Can I choose the paint?”
“I like red paint.”

“ This is so heavy.”

“I’m using my big muscles to push the blue paint out.”

Next we went outside to the garden and found a good spot to hang our pictures up. Using different sized paint brushes, we dipped them into the paint and tried out lots of large movements to splat the card until it was covered in lots of different colours of paint.  Forming a queue, we were able to take turns to move our bodies in different ways and  splat the paint in different directions.

“I’m going to run so fast like Sonic.”

“Me too!”

When the card was covered in paint, we peeled the Halloween pictures off to see what we had created.

“Look, I can see the witches cat.”

“The witches cat is wearing a hat, oh that rhymes!”

“and the pumpkin.”

We had so much fun using  large body movements to create a piece of art, while developing our gross motor skills.

Creative movement, Expressive Arts, Froebel

Let’s all go to the dough disco

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We have been working hard in our playdough area to make the area fully self-service for our children. We have used visual aids to help our children know where all the ingredients are and what they are called.

We also have created a visual recipe board to give our children step by step instructions on how to make our playdough, to provide them with independence and a sense of ownership.

Even our younger children are enjoying this opportunity and learning the recipe.

Now that we have mastered our playdough making skills it’s time to work on our fine manipulative skills.
The “dough disco” is a fun way to move our fingers and extend our fine manipulative skills.
The dough disco teaches us some key moves such as,
“Squeeze it”

“Ball it”

“Pat it”

“Fingers dance”

Put all these moves together along with some fun music and it’s time to go to the dough disco, and get those fingers moving….

This is a great way to incorporate our fine manipulative skills while having fun with our playdough.

Theses key moves also help us when we are create models with our dough.

There are lots of dough disco videos on you tube if you would like to try it at home.
I wonder what we will do at the dough disco tomorrow.

Article 31 – “you have the right to play and rest” 

Baking, Creative movement, Creativity, Imaginative thinking, Outdoor Learning, Snack

Time flies when you’re having fun 😃

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We can’t believe its the end of week 4 of our summer term!  Time definitely flies when you’re having fun 🤩

This week we have had home made cupcakes and flapjacks for a delicious snack along with some lovely fruit. Our star bakers have been very busy learning how to measure in weight rather than scoops. They used the scales to measure the ingredients looking at the numbers as they go up.

“It’s a 2 and an 8 and a 5”

“What does the ‘g’ mean?”

“I know, it means grams”.

Check out our fabulous clay pictures! We are using our hand muscles to manipulate the clay into different shapes and create our own ideas, while developing our fine motor and early writing skills.

“I made letters with clay”.
“Mines is a spidey web”.


The sun did make an appearance for a little while, just enough time to  observe the clouds using our imagination and find different shapes in the sky.  It was quite tricky and we soon discovered that everyone had different ideas. We took some pictures and printed them out.  Then we outlined the shapes that we could see to create our pictures.

“Mine looks like a monster”.

”It looks like a rabbit”.

Water play is always a favourite in Cart Mill. This week we  have been engineers by working together to investigate how to connect the pipes and move the water from one place to another.  We decided to construct a huge water slide and explored sending different volumes of water down the big slide to see who can make the biggest splash!

“This is going to be the biggest slide”

“The pipes need to go this way to catch the water”

Yet again we have had an exciting, fun filled week with lots of learning experiences. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for us next week. We hope you all have a lovely weekend🥳.

Block building, Creative movement, Creativity, Imaginative thinking

All aboard the Cart Mill train!

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“All aboard the Cart Mill train”, has been the cry throughout another fun filled week!  Holidays have been a hot topic of conversation, with much discussion over where we are going on holiday and how we are going to get there! This has led to a natural progression of our interest in forces through using personal experiences to explore different ways of travelling from one place to another!

In our garden “the floor is lava!”.  Using our problem solving skills we worked together to design our own obstacle course so that we could travel across the “lava without getting on fire” by climbing, balancing and jumping! It was lots of fun to explore balance further through using our “wobble” board to move from sided to side and up and down! Using our knowledge of forces, we explored different ways to transport water to “put out the lava” using hoses, pipes and funnels!

In our discovery room and studio we have demonstrated wonderful creativity through designing our own mode of transport on our interactive board and constructing  planes, trains, cars and boats using junk modelling and a fabulous kit donated by one of our families.

“It’s a boat.  I’m going on holiday to Ireland on a boat with my family”. “I maked a train. I love trains. I go’d on a train”.

Trains have been a firm favourite and we have been so busy in our block area constructing our own “Cart Mill station”  and “trains”which have been picking up passengers and dropping them at exciting destinations! “The train leaving platform 3 is for Spain”.


“I maked a bridge for the trains to go under”.  “My train is East Kilbride”.

Role play is another favourite activity! This week we have made our very own “bus” which took us on a journey full of fun, laughter and much excitement “to school”.

“I drived the bus. To school”. “I readed  a book”. “Beep beep”.

Of course one of our favourite ways to travel around Cart Mill is by bike! Lots of us have bikes and scooters at home. Gail very kindly brought us some bikes in and we had so much fun investigating how they work and using real tools to take them apart and using our problem skills to try and put them back together again!

Of course we had to bring out our Cart Mill bikes so that we could race each other round our garden!  What a fun filled, action packed week! We can’t wait for more adventures next week.

Article 13 – Freedom of expression

Artice 28 – Right to an education

Article 31 – Leisure, play and culture