Category Archives: Creative movement

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Street Art Garden. 🌼🌸🌺

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Some of our children have been commenting on the wonderful, colourful flowers we have growing in our garden.

This was the inspiration for our next street art creation in our gross motor art area in our garden.
We chose colours that we thought were like the ones we had seen on our flowers. One of the children wanted pink. Using our colour mixing skills, we mixed our red and white to make a pastel pink colour. We also mixed red and blue together with a little white to create a wonderful deep purple colour.

We made some flowers on our ground in chalk as the start of our street art creation and got our paints and brushes ready to use.  As we were using the ground as our canvas, we made sure we put on our welly boots and aprons to protect our clothes.

Now for the fun part. To get creating and using our gross motor art skills.

Some of our children wanted to use the paints to colour in the chalk outlines.

Some of our children wanted to design their own flowers using lots of different colours to create a rainbow flower.

We were enjoying having the freedom to create and use the paints in our design process on a larger scale.

We spoke about what kind of flowers we were making for our street art garden. We had Daffodils, Tulips, Sunflowers and even a Spider-Man flower.

Some children were finding their own spontaneous inspiration and created different shapes.

We even made numbers and fruits as well with one child creating a green apple and a yellow banana.

We had so much fun painting our street art garden in the sun and letting our creative thinking shine.

I think our street art garden looks as wonderful and as colourful as the real flowers in our garden.

Article 21 – “Your education should help you use and develop your talents and abilities. It should also help you to learn to live peacefully, protect the environment and respect other people.”

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Perfectly Patterned Pictures

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We have really enjoyed making patterns in our gross motor art area. We have investigated making marks with a variety of resources. We’ve used plungers to make circle prints.

We have used a selection of different types and sizes of brushes to see what marks and patterns we can create with them, such as large paint bushes, rollers, sweeping brushes and scrubbing brushes.

After we used our tyres to make large patterns  we wondered what we could use next?

Luckily we got a special delivery. A new gross motor art tool to help us further develop our gross motor art skills.
We got brand new large pattern rollers.  We couldn’t wait to get a turn of them and try them out.
First we tried putting a large sheet of paper down to see what marks we could make.

We enjoyed rolling the large rollers in the paint then pushing them over the paper, but it soon got filled up and we couldn’t see which patterns we had made. We decided to make it even more fun by taking the paper away. To have a larger area to explore our patterns and progress our skills even more.

By using the ground as our canvas, we could go further, see our marks more clearly and change direction.

We needed lots of paint to extend our marks, we rolled our roller in the paint and set off.

On one roller we had stripes.

And on the other we had spots.


We created a wonderful pattern picture in our gross motor art area for every one to admire.

We all were engaged and enjoyed this experience. Everyone was keen to have a turn. We were able to wait our turn and share.

Now that we have investigated patterns in our gross motor art area next we will be looking at “Street Art.” We have added some pictures of local murals that are around Glasgow to inspire our children to create their own.

I wonder what Street Art we will be creating next?

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Terrific tyre treads and painty patterns in the puddles

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In our gross motor art area in the garden we have been exploring art on a large scale.  So far we have used large brushes, mops, spray bottles and plungers. Today however we decided to make our art even bigger.

We decided to use the tyres to roll in the paint and see the patterns it made. We popped on our wellies and puddlesuits due to the rain showers we had this morning, and got to work creating our massive masterpiece.

It was interesting to see the different patterns the tyre made depending on where it rolled.

We had long tread marks and circles prints where it landed.

Because of the rain our patterns washed away quickly so we just had to make more.

It was a bit tricky at first to roll the tyre all the way across on our own ,we problem solved and thought,  how about making it a team effort.

So we worked together to roll the tyres back and forward to each other.  Team work made the art work!

We investigated who could push it the furthest and what kind of patterns did we make if we pushed it faster or slower.

We had so much fun with this large scale art outdoor experience. It was funny when the tyre splatted in the paint in the middle.

We tried different colours of powder paint to see which colours made the best pattern.

The rain got a little heavy at one point, but it mixed in with the powder paint and made our paint mix together and create much more paint puddles to roll our tyre into.

This was a great experience for our children of all ages to expand and inspire their creative designs, while also developing their gross motor skills.

We had our gross motor art tools beside us incase any one wanted to choose a different way to create art, but the tyre was the winner today.

Creative movement, Creativity, Social Studies

Looking after the babies

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Over the past week the children have enjoyed playing with the babies In the home corner.

They decided that the babies needed a bath because they were all dirty so we looked out the little baby bath.

“My baby brother has a tiny bath like that, but it isn’t purple”

“I’m going to be a big brother soon”

We added warm water to the bath with a sponge for cleaning the babies and discussed how to keep the babies safe when in the bath.

“The water can’t be too hot or it will be burny”

“you need to hold the babies head so it doesn’t fall”

The children carefully lifted the baby out the bath when they were all clean and lay them on a towel to dry before getting ready.

“My baby even has hair, I need to brush it”


They picked out clothes for the babies and dressed them ready for the day.

“First we need to put the babies nappy on”

“The baby won’t keep her socks on”

I asked the children what they think babies eat.

“They drink milk”

“and when they get big they eat mushy food, my mum uses a blender for making my baby’s dinner”

They fed the babies and then put them down for a nap.

“My babies eaten too much, it wants to go to the cot now”

Creative movement, Creativity, Outdoor Learning

Gross motor fun

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This week in the garden we have revisited the balance and coordination skills we have been practicing but also now introducing games to develop our hand/feet/eye coordination.

The children set up their own obstacle course using tyres and crates after talking about the football class they attended at the weekend.

“I was at football and made an obstacle course like nursery but we kicked a ball”

“Let’s get a ball and add X marks the spot”

They made a starting point by adding ‘X’ and drew a trail round the obstacles with chalk. They began by rolling the ball round with their hands. “It’s tricky to kick”

Then when they felt confident they began practicing kicking the ball round the objects developing their concentration as they tried to stick to the line keeping the ball under control.

“Dont go too fast or the ball will go far away”

They marked another ‘X’ at the end of the course so they knew where to stop and added a tyre “ 3 Large steps away “I’m going to throw the ball in to the tyre”.

The younger children enjoyed kicking the ball about the garden “football” so set up their goals and practiced kicking the ball.

Today we had to Improvise because of the change in weather so the children suggested we make an obstacle course inside. We practiced our balance and coordination on the balance beam, Hand/feet eye coordination by dribbling the ball and a throwing the ball in the baskets and using our large muscles to jump over obstacles.

“That was so easy, we need to make it harder next time”. The children are setting their own challenges and making new goals and targets for their learning. The next job is to sit together and make a plan on how we will make it more challenging.

Creative movement, Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, music, Special Event

Christmas Music and Dancing 💃

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As this is the last week before the Christmas holidays the children are full of excitement and energy. To help with the energy levels we decided to do some Christmas 🎄 dancing.

The children requested “Danny Go” as he has a lot of great Christmas moves

We enjoyed a dance with the Gingerbread man and the children were able to listen and follow the actions. This helps the children understand how their bodies can move and that  exercise is a good way to help keep their bodies healthy.

Our next dance was a penguin March we stood up tall and were able to waddle like penguins 🐧 making sure we could keep our balance when hopping on one leg.

After all the dancing it was time to help our bodies relax . We all enjoyed some rainbow relaxation.
The children followed the instructions to make a rainbow using their arms. Some of the children could name the colours and even knew that the rainbow 🌈 has indigo and violet .

We hope you all enjoy celebrating Christmas with us on Wednesday and you have happy and healthy holiday .

 

Article 29   You have the right to learn new things to the best of your abilities.

 

Creative movement, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Puddle Play!

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For most children puddles have a magnetic effect! Today in the garden the children were delighted to find so many big puddles had appeared after all the rain. They were desperate to get their wellies on and start jumping! We wanted to see who could splash the most water out of the puddles!

We used one of the crates to jump off to see if that created a bigger splash! The children very cleverly observed that the higher they jumped from, the bigger the splash!

”Wow, that was big, I got more wet!”

After all their jumping, the children decided to roll the tyres through the puddles to see if they made big splashes.

“1, 2, 3 Push!!!”

I asked the children if they could see anything else in the garden that could make a splash in the puddles! They found the football and had great fun kicking it and throwing it to make big splashes!

The children found a puddle in our big tray and decided to throw the ball to each other across the tray! This created big splashes which caused great hilarity when they got their faces splashed!

“Ah, it’s very cold on my face!”

“When  life gives you a rainy day, play in the puddles!”

Article 31 ~ You have the right to play

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning, Social Studies, Special Event

Diwali Celebrations!

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Diwali is a Hindu festival celebrated with much excitement and light. It usually involves the lighting of lamps or diyas, symbolizing the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil. People also exchange gifts, clean and decorate their homes, and participate in various cultural and religious activities during this festival.

Take a look at some of the activities we have been doing as we learn about Diwali.

Today in the garden we used power paint to create our own rangoli patterns. It was a great gross motor art activity that got our bodies moving.  Using bright colours the children selected their painting tools and got busy. Rangoli patterns are traditional Indian art created on the ground usually during festivals and special occasions. Rangoli involves using coloured powders, rice, flour, or flower petals to make intricate and vibrant designs. Rangoli is believed to bring good luck and positive energy to the surroundings.

 

On Friday we had a camp fire in the garden with Val. We helped to make some pakora and cooked them on the fire.  Outdoor cooking with a fire is great fun and our children at Cart Mill love to take part. The crackling flames create an exciting setting as the children prepare simple recipes connecting them with nature and basic cooking methods. Whether it’s toasting marshmallows, baking bread on sticks, or cooking pakora the open fire becomes an engaging tool for learning teamwork, patience, safety and an appreciation for the environment.

UNCRC

ARTICLE 2 – Non- discrimination.

ARTICLE 31 – Leisure, play and culture

 

Creative movement, emotional literacy, Expressive Arts

Creative movement

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Creative movement is a fabulous way  for children to express their feelings, thoughts and ideas.  Touch and movement are the earliest senses we develop.  Children explore the world around them through these senses and they may provide rich learning experiences that can influence our health and well-being (Reynolds. S. 2023).

Energetic play is an excellent way which supports children to progress their movement in different forms.  Creating their own obstacle course provided a wealth of opportunities to climb, balance, jump or crawl!

Taking turns, our children created the movement they would like to perform, and their friends took great delight in copying! Whether it be running, side stepping, rolling (which was a definite favourite), rotating or frog jumps, each movement provided the opportunity to travel through our space, develop our co-ordination and strengthen our gross motor skills.

Children enact repeated patterns of behaviour in play, known as Schemas, allowing them the freedom to explore their thoughts and ideas, which is an important part of their brain development.   Performing action songs with simple patterns such as head, shoulders, knees and toes and Grand old duke of York during Bookbug is the ideal opportunity to connect with our bodies and each other by creating tunnels, and improve our flexibility!


What better way to express our creative movements than to clear some space, pop on  favourite songs and dance our hearts out! This provides the opportunity to move freely, perform spontaneous movements and have lots of fun!

Article 29 – your education should help you use and develop you talents and abilities.