Category Archives: Creativity

Creativity, Outdoor Learning

Our Local Landmarks

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Last week the children were creating bridges and castles. We looked up the squinty bridge ( Clyde Arc) and Stirling Castle. Quite a few of the children recognised the bridge.


So this week we decided we would go and explore our own local environment.
We had a think about what we needed to do to keep us safe when we are out a walk.

“ we need to hold hand & listen”

”watch the roads”

” walk nice”

” have fun”
First of all we passed the spider park and continued towards the forest where we could hear the water so we went to explore and we found our very own bridge! “can we pick up sticks and watch them go under bridge?”

The children had fun playing Pooh sticks – throwing their sticks and running to the other side to watch for their stick coming. We then walked further along and found an even bigger bridge.

“ it’s so big I can’t see over”

“The cars go over this one”

“I can hear the train”

“My house is up there and there’s another bridge”

It was now getting close to lunch time and it was time to head back the children were using great listening skills and road safety and  we spotted lsome more familiar landmarks Williamwood high school  and  Bonnyton House. They were also intrigued by the black and white cat.

Today the children have been busy using their gross motor skills and imaginations to build bridges similar to those they have seen in our local  environment.  The children shared their thoughts and ideas, and used mathematical language to describe how their towers were going to look. They had great concentration and problem solving skills  to ensure they would stay up and connect.

children working together as a team


“We are making the one we were on yesterday, Lots of people can walk over it .”

”mine is going to be so long”

Some of the children chose to create their own bridge.

“I am going to make a bridge for cars”

”Look how high it is”

“I have 6 cars on mine”

”“I will make one for people”

” I am putting signs on my bridge”

Creativity

Creative with Clay

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The children have shown fantastic curiosity in the clay area this week, and have been expressing themselves in lots of different ways.

Some children investigated the clay tools, exploring what different designs and patterns they could make…

Other children enjoyed showing off their writing skills…

“I can do H for Hulk!”

Others explored their problem solving skills, paying close attention to the different shapes of the resources to capture their ideas…

”that can make the eyes because it’s round”

“I’m making a holiday park. The big round shell is the pool. This tall one is like a palm tree”

“These pretty buttons can make the petals. It’s a button flower!”

Clay is a fantastic canvas for children’s learning as it is such a holistic experience. Children develop their little fine motor muscles through all the rolling, moulding and squishing as well as engage their imagination and problem solving skills too when creating their models. It can be as educational or as fun as you want it to be! Great work everyone 😁👍

 

 

 

 

 

Creativity

At the car wash 🧼🫧🚙🫧

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Our children have been showing an interest in washing the cars in the water tray. We set up a tray to drive the cars through the mud. The children had great fun running their car’s though the shaving foam, exploring the different track marks their car made before dipping it into the water to wash with soap and sponges. We discussed if anyone had been though a car wash and decided to watch a short video of a car going though one.

After some of the children helped to make a car wash for the cars to drive though. Marking some lines on the wash cloth, the children were  encouraged to cut along the lines. Then we stapled it onto the wooden frame.

“look at my track marks”

 

“My cars so dirty I need to give it a wash”

With the use of the sponges and soap dispensers, the children are developing all their muscle and co ordinations in their hand. The soap dispenser was tricky to use at first, but after a quick demonstration,  they soon got the hang of it!

All are cars a sparkly clean, but I’m sure it won’t be long before they get all muddy again. 💦

Article 31 – I have the right to relax and play

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Creating The Cart Mill Scarecrow!

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In our garden adventures on Wednesday, we dove into the beloved story of “The Scarecrows Wedding” by Julia Donaldson.  Inspired by the tale, one of our little minds proposed an exciting idea – let’s make our own scarecrow to protect our plants from hungry birds!

”The birds like to eat fruit so they maybe will eat our seeds”



Excitement bubbled as we brainstormed what we’d need, just like in the story we got to work and wrote some lists. These included:

  • Straw
  • Clothes
  • Hat
  • Scarf
  • Head 
  • Legs
  • Face

With our list in hand, we turned to the internet for guidance. Click the link to try building a scarecrow at home.  How to build a scarecrow

Today was the big day! We gathered our supplies and got busy.

First, we stuffed some old clothes with straw to make our scarecrow’s body. We made sure everything was nice and secure.

Next came the fun part – creating the face! We discussed facial features together and gave it some eyes, a nose and a big friendly smile. We also gave it some lovely Cart Mill branding. 

 

Once the body and face were ready, we used sticks from our willow tree to give our scarecrow a strong frame. Then, we proudly placed it in the garden to stand guard over our precious veggies.

As we admired our handiwork, one question remained: What should we name our new friend? Suggestions flew around, each more imaginative than the last. It came to a vote and we decided on Harry!

With our scarecrow watching over the garden, we wrapped up another day of fun and learning in our outdoor classroom. 😀

Article 13 (freedom of expression)

Article 31 (leisure, play and culture)

Article 28 (right to education)

Creativity, Digital Technology, Expressive Arts

Play dough shapes and numbers….

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At the play dough table our children are always very busy . This week we have tried forming the dough into shapes, numbers and patterns. The children drew some patterns that we could use with the play dough.

Play dough gives the children an excellent opportunity to develop fine motor skills and strengthen the muscles in their fingers and hands.

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We used our hands ,fingers and rolling pins to help make the shapes for the numbers. “It’s very soft”  “ mine is nearly long, now it might fit”.

Some of the children could recognise the numbers that were written and  some of the children filled the circles  with play dough to count to the number . “I have two circles it’s the number 2 “

The children were able to recognise most of the shapes “it’s a circle” “ now it’s a purple circle”. Our children were very pleased when they completed a shape . “I need four pieces for a square”.

The children also enjoy taking photos of their hard work and record them in  their learning journals. This reminds us all of how creative the Cart Mill children are.

 

 

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Using our fabulous imaginations, the children  enjoyed creating their own patterns and designs!  We had lovely rainbows, cherry pies and so much more!   We are looking forward to many more play dough creations.

Article- You have the right to development and participation.

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Literacy, Social Studies

Story time 📖📚

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This morning the children had transferred some of our stories and story puppets to the home corner.

They brought some of our dolls over and pretended they were going to read them a story.  First of all they picked out “A squash and a squeeze” then showed the ‘babies’ the matching puppets and named them.

“This one is the pig, the pig says oink”

” This is cow, he says Moooo!”

” The hen goes cluck, cluck”

Using the pictures the children showed their understanding of what was happening in the story and ‘read’ to the babies, using the puppets as they went along and imitating the ways that adults round about them would read a story.

“The hen knocked the jug over”

“Lady pushes pig in house”

“and the cow, its getting too busy in there”

The children had so much fun using their imagination to re-enact real life situations in the home corner.

Article 31 (leisure, play and culture) Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Literacy

Fun with words 💡🖌

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The children have been experimenting with mark making in the clay area today using a variety of interesting materials, and demonstrated fabulous letter recognition while investigating the resources. Some children created their own names…

Other children enjoyed copying the letters themselves using the clay tools…

Some children recognised familiar letters from their friends and families names…

“How do I make Mummy? I need an M”

The children had lots of fun exploring the different sounds the letters make, and learning how they work together to create new and fun words.

“what does this say?”

”lots of words!”

“E for elephant.”

“no that’s an e”

”No it’s a big letter so it’s E! A big  capital E”

The children have shown wonderful creativity while developing their literacy skills at the clay table, and most importantly had lots of fun doing it. They have even suggested we try shapes next time!

Article 29 – I have the right to an education that develops my personality.

 

Block building, Creativity

Creative Cement Constructions

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Today we had a discussion how we could ensure our towers did not fall down.

“Don’t move from it”

”cellotape”

“Glue”

What do you think builders use to keep bricks together.

“Cement”

We deceived to make our own cement so  we got a bowl and added our two ingredients sand and shaving foam. We used our gross motor skills to stir and combine them together.

”it looks crunchy”

”it looks sticky”

”it looks like real cement”

We then began making our creations using a variety of tools to spread the cement on the blocks. The children used their fine motor skills and hand and eye coordinating  to help secure the blocks together. The children had great  imaginations and communication skills sharing their thoughts, ideas and creations.The children used mathematical language.while building their structures

“Mine is so high”

“ it have lots of bricks

“mine is big an getting bigger and bigger”

”mine is going to be very tall”

” I have made a castle”

“Look at my bridge, the troll lives under it”

” I have made a big tower”

” I have made a big house”

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?

Creativity, Literacy

Blasting off to Space!

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The children at Cart Mill absolutely love junk modelling. The bigger the box the better! There has been a keen interest in aliens and space lately. Last week the children made their very own big alien robot and have also enjoyed making alien robot helmets for themselves.

Today we found a very tall, thin box which instantly reminded the children of a rocket blasting off into space so that is what we made! Junk modelling offers children great opportunities to develop their creativity as well as their fine and gross motor skills. They develop their imaginations, making their creations their own whilst  feeling a sense of freedom. We discussed what our rocket should look like and decided it definitely needed fire at the bottom for take off!

The children found some paper which looked like flames but as it was white they used a red pen to create the effect of fire!
“I need to make it red for the flames for the rocket to blast off high in the sky!”

The rocket needed a window so we used a clear plastic tub! The children stuck a box on the front which was the control panel to make the rocket go faster!  They showed fantastic teamwork with some children holding the rocket still for others to tape parts on.
“Look! It’s even bigger than me!”

Next we needed a door. Confidently using scissors, the children cut out a door! After realising that they could not fit into the rocket themselves they used their problem solving skills and decided to put some little figures inside to go on a space adventure!
“Get ready! 3, 2, 1 blast off! Whoooooooosh!!”

This amazing rocket inspired other children to create some space ships to travel with the rocket!

Junk modelling also helps to develop a child’s language and communication skills. They are always sharing their ideas with their peers and learning new vocabulary.
“Do you like my space ship? It has princess chairs and flies so fast!”

“Look mine has two bits, one for sleeping and one for flying, mine is the very fastest, zooooooom!”

Children make social connections through junk modelling. They have to work with others and learn turn taking, something we are very good at here at Cartmill. The children are great at sharing the resources and taking turns of the glue and cellotape!

What a fun time we had exploring space rockets and space ships. Who knows, we might just have the inventors and space engineers of the future here at Cartmill!

Article 13:  Freedom of Expression

Please keep sending in all your old boxes and recycling. It might seem like junk to you but to the children it can open up a whole new world!