Category Archives: Creativity

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking

Creative Cars and Crafts

Leave a comment

This week in the junk modelling the children have continued to use their imagination to create their own creations. They have been using a variety of materials  and glue and cellotape to connect the different resources together. The children have helped each other and shared resources and ideas with each other.

” I am making a car”

”oh I want to make a car”

” we can make a car we both can go in”

” cellotape is stronger”

” glue is easier , but sometimes doesn’t stay on”

some of the children were making boxes for jewellery, making trains & decorating their boxes with lots of different colours.. they were able to use the glue and pick their own resources

A few of the other children had so much fun creating their own cars. They talked to each other on  what they would need for the cars and got to work. A few of the children added great detail to their cars.

“ 4 wheels”

” steering wheel”

” I need a coffee cup & cup holder”

” oh I want a coffee cup too”

I am putting a horn on my wheel”

” I need lights on mine”

Th children then had lots of fun in the cars, some then turned into choo choo trains.

“ we are going a shopping & taking the baby”

“ I am going to the beach”

” I am going to the park”

The children continued their play in the or cars and shared  them with their friends so everyone could have a turn.

Creativity, Expressive Arts

Different stages of clay

Leave a comment

At Cart Mill this week the younger children have been exploring the clay in the new 2-3 room called the pond.

We started off with a big block of clay and discussed what clay is. The children describe it as playdough. Yes, it’s very like playdough but clay comes from the earth. It’s cold and messy in your hands. As the children start to feel the clay. We encourage them to talk about how it feels and what do they notice about the clay.

“Hard”

“Good”

”Stuck on my fingers”

The children used their hands to pull the clay off they then explored the clay further by squeezing, rolling and piling up the clay.

“I’m getting a big bit”

”I’m rolling it”

We will continue to offer opportunity for the toddlers to use all their sense to explore the clay learning different techniques to manipulate the clay with our hands. Ie pinch, squeeze, roll and how to stick it together.

Our 3-5 children have been exploring our clay further by making clay models. With the change in season and frosty weather outside the children have been interested in making snowmen with the clay.

Recently the children have been making clay model and painting them but find the clay is fragile and can break easily. We started to discuss how we can make it stronger. The children suggested things like we need to be careful with it, not rolling it to thin and make it bigger.  I suggested to make the clay hold  together we could add some small sticks in the middle of the clay to hold the snowman’s body together.   While making the snowmen we challenged the older children to split their clay into 3 parts using the language of quality such as ‘some’ ‘a bit’ and ‘equal’

while we waited for our clay snowmen to dry. We set about making a winter wonderland town backdrop to play with our snowmen. This involved drawing some houses on cardboard  and cutting it out to create our sky line.

With the clay taking a long time to dry. The children have been enjoying lots of role play with the stone people and are excited to see there snowmen dry to paint and play with.

Our snowmen have been a huge hit with the children. Some children have started to create a whole family of snowmen. ☃️⛄️☃️⛄️

Creativity, Imaginative thinking, Literacy, nature, Snack

Super Soup

Leave a comment

As part of celebrating all things autumnal, the children have been experimenting in making soup using seasonal vegetables.

During this activity the children were developing their gross motor skills when peeling and chopping the vegetables.

Firstly, the children peeled the carrots and parsnips.  The children are using their problem solving skills when using the peeler.

“This is white and this orange”

Then they chopped the vegetables into small chunks, so that we could cook them.  The children are developing their confidence when using the knife.

“I did it!”

Once the vegetable mix was chopped and washed, we added it to the soup pot with stock cubes and boiling water to cook.

The children were able to sample the soup at snack time and we discussed the taste, temperature, and texture of the soup.  Children learn with their senses and during this activity, they were able to enhance their communication, language and social skills.


“It’s good”.  “It’s hot”. “Yummy”.  “I don’t like it”

This cooking activity allowed the children to develop a healthy relationship with food and be more adventurous by sampling different tastes.

The children were able to feel competent and were proud of their ability to get involved in preparing the soup mix.  This also benefits the children from a nutrition, growth and development perspective.

The soup making allowed the children to explore their curiosity about the vegetables they were preparing (carrots, parsnips, butternut squash) and ask questions.

UNCRC Article 27 children have the right to food.

 

 

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

Garden roundup

Leave a comment

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”

Creativity, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Welcome to our potion station today 🎃🎃🎃

Leave a comment

Today in the garden we welcomed all the witches and wizards to our potion station …..

This developed our pouring and measuring skills, filling and emptying containers or cauldrons. Encouraging mathematical language how much do we need, do we need more or less?

Decision making….creating their own potions and deciding what they choose to go in.

Enjoying the outdoor sensory experience,  the different smells and textures.

Working together and supporting each other’s learning.

Potions were for lions and unicorns fingers crossed some of these come true…. What potions can you make at home?

Article 28  Children have the right to an education

Creativity, nature

Autumn treasure in the Clay area

Leave a comment

Here at Cart Mill we know our children like to find little treasures when out and about. This week we have asked the children to collect some autumn treasure.  This could be from a local park, woods or simply in your garden.

Our children have not disappointed us and have come in with bags full of leaves, sticks and twigs. These will be used as we explore the changing seasons through a variety of different experiences.

Today at the clay area we started off using the sticks and conkers to make marks in the clay.   We discovered the conkers were smooth and some were very shiny. As we presses the conkers into the clay some of the children discovered that they looked like eyes. This naturally followed onto making some spooky faces.

As the children explore the clay they discussed their own experiences and shared their knowledge of autumn.

“My mummy and I went on a autumn hunt and I found an acorn it had a little top on it”

“It’s autumn today and all the leaves are falling off, falling down, falling down”

”There’s a seedling in the ground”

”it’s smooth”

The conker shell and the pine cone made lot of little holes when we rolled it over the clay. We also discovered some of the branches of the tree had little spikes. One child decided to use as vampire teeth.

“I’m using the stick to mark the blood on his face”

“My monster’s got 5 eyes”

We hope you like our spooky faces. There are still plenty of time to collect some autumn treasure. So please collect a bag from the main door before you come into the playroom. We would love to see you treasure. 🍁🍂

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

Halloween splat painting

Leave a comment

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.

Creativity

Building a Zoo

Leave a comment

In the clay area we have been exploring different animals shapes and sizes while creating our own animals.

Will reading Dear Zoo we talking about the different features of the animals. We noticed some had long necks, big ears, 4 legs or even no legs.

We introduce some animal shape models for the children to explore. The children had fun experimenting with different sized leaf’s and sticks and were able to create there own unique animal.

Once they were able to select their own leafs and sticks to create their chosen animal. The next step was to model the clay and transfer the sticks and leafs to create their very own animal to take home.

Here are some of the children’s creations along with their comments while making them.


“I’m making a giraffe this is its long neck”


“Its a horse”

“These little flower are for the eyes”

“He need a tail I’m going to cut it smaller”


“I’m making a rabbit”

”It’s got big ears”

 

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, nature

The wonder of Wood 🪵

Leave a comment

As our new term begins we are introducing our tinker table and tools to our new children . To help develop fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination we are starting with hammers, pool noodles and golf tees this gives the children a opportunity to hammer 🔨 successfully and improve their cofidence

We also explore different types of wooden resources such as pegs,cork, craft sticks,wood shavings and many more. This gives our children the chance to be creative using nails or glue to make their own models.

The tinker table loose parts can be used to help plan what our older children can make using wood,nails,screws,hammers. “ I am going to make a house “

Our “big girls and boys” enjoy the challenge of creating their own recognisable model, they are confident to explore and experiment with a variety of materials,  demonstrate  problem solving skills and complete tasks.  They have made boats,ferries, spider man cars,houses the list goes on……..

The children are very keen to continue with their wood work projects and” wood “be very grateful if we have or know of anyone who could donate them some wood off cuts. Thank you.

Article 13 – you have the right to explore and share new experiences.

Baking, Creativity, Snack

Snacktastic!

Leave a comment

Over the last couple of weeks, the children have been settling into the new nursery term and we have welcomed back our term time children as well as welcoming our new children.

At the snack and baking table, we have been refreshing our baking skills when making muffins. The children have been experimenting with different ingredients including bananas, raisins, blueberries and dairy free cheese.


“one”                                                     “two scoops”

The children have been demonstrating their hygiene knowledge by remembering to wash their hands before and after baking and to wear an apron.

The children are developing many skills during this activity including fine motor skills and independence.

“It needs more milk”

The children have been learning to get the muffin mix right by adding more milk or flour, which is developing their science knowledge and how ingredients interact together.

The children are enjoying sampling the muffins during afternoon snack, along with some fruit.

Article 28 – You have the right to education.
Article 24 – you have the right to be healthy