Category Archives: Creativity

Blasting off to Space!

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!

Froebel Friends

We were delighted to be part of East Renfrewshire’s Froebel Friends first exhibition at Netherlee Pavilion on Saturday, where we had the opportunity to showcase our children’s wonderful woodwork creations.

Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) was the inventor of kindergartens and a pioneer of early education and care.  Froebel’s work and writing changed the way we think about and value early childhood. His principles of unity and connectedness, autonomous learners, value of childhood in its own right, relationships matter, creativity and the power of symbols, the central importance of play, engaging with nature and knowledgeable and nurturing educators were considered revolutionary in the 1850’s (Froebel Trust, 2021).  At Cart Mill we firmly believe Froebel’s principles continue to be so relevant and we strive to adopt them into our everyday practice.

Our Cart Mill children just love our tinker table where they have the freedom to “learn through doing”.   It is truly magical to observe our children exploring their creativity by creating their own unique and marvellous models using a wide range of natural and manufactured materials.  Simply giving children freedom to spend time discussing, planning, designing and investigating resulted in this amazing box bursting in creativity, with each model having its own unique story.

”Woodwork is active learning at its best” (Bruce 2004:109). It is such  a rich learning experience to explore creative and critical thinking skills through problem solving , trying new ideas and building on previous learning experiences.   Our children have formed unity and connectedness by exploring where wood comes from and experimenting with its different natural forms of wood, shavings, sawdust, sticks, cardboard and even recycling from home!

It was an amazing opportunity to meet like minded Froebelian friends and form new connections and relationships.  We  had such a lovely day and were so proud to share our children’s work and experiences with our Froebelian colleagues.

Please feel free to speak to our Froebelian experts Ana, Fiona H and Emma if you would like any further information or pop in anytime to see how we put Froebelian principles into practice. We are so excited to see where our Froebelian journey takes us next!

Article 13 – you have the right to find out new things and share what you have learned with others.

The great Cart Mill bake off🧁

Today the children wanted to make muffins for snack. They each washed their hands and put aprons on before starting as we spoke about the importance of hand hygiene especially before and after preparing food. We looked out all the ingredients and pre heated the oven.

Ingredients:

  • 3 scoops of gluten free flour
  • 1/2 scoop of sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of Xanthan gum
  • 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 100 ml Soya milk

“Can I add raisins?”

“me too”

The children measured all the ingredients out and carefully added them to their bowl, giving them a good mix using their gross motor skills.



“it’s so hard to mix now, it’s not soft”

Now they are ready for the oven. We discussed our rules about using the oven.

“It’s very hot, only adults allowed”

“You need oven gloves, so you don’t burn yourself”


When they were ready we let them cool down in the kitchen. Next we gathered chopping boards and knifes to cut up the muffins and we cut them up and shared them equally between 3 plates to have for our afternoon snack. They even had a wee sneaky taste test for all their hard work.

“hmmm yummy our friends are going to love these”

Article 29 – I have the right to an education which develops my personality, talents and abilities. 

 

Endless imaginative play in our water tray!

The children have been using their imagination and coming up with suggestions about what they would like to explore and play with in the water tray. The majority of the suggestions have been about dinosaurs, so we have created various water tray experiences to allow the children to explore their imaginations and lead their own role play and characterisation within the water tray.

The children suggested using green paint to mix into the water to create a dinosaur swamp, we used various equipment and objects to bath our dinosaurs and used bowls as water for them to drink out of after a busy day of roaring!

Then, the children decided they wanted to add more materials for role play and small world exploration into the water tray. We gathered natural resources such as rattan balls and mini tree logs and we even found some green shredded paper that absorbed in the water to make some swampy mush for the dinosaurs to eat.

”It feels a bit yucky”

”its so squishy the green stuff, my dinosaur is eating it yum yum”

The children decided on blue water for our underwater animals, they even wanted to add some bubbles to it…the bubbles made it smell like lemons!

We used the jugs to explore pouring and filling, using different sized apparatus to explore different ways to fill our containers such as spoons, mini ladles, tea pots and a mini gravy boat!

”I’m making you a frothy coffee, the bubbles are all the froth”

”its full up to the top”

Water play provides many benefits for children in their early years. By exploring different objects in the water, it allows children to practice their hand eye coordination, their ability to hold and grasp objects which develops the fine motor movements in their hands and fingers.

We have also been exploring early measurement through water play. By adding a variety of different sized containers, children are able to explore volume, even if they aren’t quite aware of it yet. They are able to observe which container fills up with water the fastest and to provide challenge, count how many containers it takes to fill up another.

 

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

Article 15 – I have the right to meet with friends

Terrific tyre treads and painty patterns in the puddles

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.

Safety First at Cart Mill construction site!

Today in our construction area we had a discussion on Health and Safety and why we wear protective clothing along with some important signs we may see in our local environment.

The children took turns within the conversations with their peers and  listened to each others ideas. Then they took turns trying on the protective clothing. Good sharing everyone!

Why do we wear helmets?

”they might fall”

”too keep there head good”

“something might fall on your head”

”you might bash into a pole”

“we also wear helmets on our bicycle”

Why do we wear high vis jackets?

”So everyone can see you”

“It’s bright”

”Keeps you safe”

”We wear them when we go out walks at nursery”

Why do we wear goggles?

”It stops something going in your eye”

”It looks after your eyes”

”Something might fly in it”

We then looked at a few signs and the children were very good at identifying each of them and talking about what they mean.

They were then keen to create their own poster to put up in our construction area to make sure all our friends know how to be safe.

We talked about what safety rules we could have in our Cart Mill construction site. These will keep us safe when building with the blocks.

”Share with your friends”

”Not too high”

”Carry them carefully”

”Help my friends”

Article 28 – I have the right to an education 

Article 32 – I should not be made to do dangerous work

 

 

Wonderful Woodwork

It’s been a very creative few weeks in our woodwork area! We decided we would focus on independence and free choice and let our creativity and imagination flow!
By choosing which materials and tools we would like to use, we demonstrated the ability to make a choice.  Through discussions with others, we shared reasons for making our choices.

“I’m using the elastic bands.  I like to stretch them and I like the different colours.  I can show it to my brother”.

”I like this one.  We use it so we don’t hurt our fingers”.

”I like the beads.  I choosed rainbow colours”.

”I’m making a taxi like this one.  We need a big bit and a wee bit for the top.  And we need an orange light on the top like a real taxi.”

Working both independently and with others, we used our curiosity and imagination and shared our thoughts and ideas.

“I’m making a helicopter.  It has a big bit at the top that makes it fly.  You need to use the big nails cos the wee ones don’t go through the wood and it will fall off”.
“I’m making a plane.  What are you making?”  “A plane too. A red one”. “You need a big bit at the bottom and a wee bit on the top for the wings.  Look like me”.  “Ok this bit?” “Yes. And you need to put the big nails in.”
As we grow in confidence, we are sharing our knowledge and experience with our friends and supporting and encouraging them when they are making their models. We are beginning to assess risk when using the tools and can discuss how to use them safely.

“I want to make the same as you”. “Ok I’ll show you.  We use this, you need to watch you don’t squash your fingers!.  “Is this the right bit”. “Yes look it’s the same size”.  “Then you use this and put it on the end so it’s smooth and you don’t get a skelf”. “I got a skelf one time.  It was really sore and my mummy putted a plaster on it”. “You need to use this hammer for this bit.  You need to hit it hard. Like this”. “Ok. It’s noisy”. “Watch you don’t hit your fingers cos it will be sore”.

At Cart Mill we are very creative,  imaginative and love to plan, design, and construct fabulous models! We are able to apply our knowledge and experience across a wide range of learning experiences adding breadth, depth and challenge to our learning!

Some of us are able to plan our models in advance, while others prefer to use our models to draw afterwards.  We do this in our design book so that we can keep a record of what we have made and to share our ideas and fabulous models with our friends!   Aren’t we creative being able to plan, design and create our wonderful models!

Please come and have a look through our book anytime!

Play dough patterns and Creations

This week at the play dough area we are looking at patterns we can make in the play dough using resources and natural materials. As always our children can confidently make their play dough.

The girls and boys then chose which resources they would like to use. We picked lovely patterned rolling pines, some leaves and sticks .

The boys and girls had to use all their muscles to pull off the leaves 🍃 and the break up some sticks . We made sure there was no jaggy edges on the sticks that might hurt us.

We then began to use our rolling pins across the leaves so that we could see the print  it left in the play dough. We learnt that the harder your roll the better the print.

As we have very creative children  the children started to explore what else they could do. Look my tree stands up high . Some of the children could demonstrate problem solving techniques and perseverance. “ Look I made my tree stand up using more play dough at the bottom “.

The girls and boys worked well together helping each other make their prints and admiring each other’s work.

We had great fun making prints with the leaves and rolling pin . We made holes with the sticks and of course we made chicken wraps,pancakes,plants, jack and the beanstalk.
We look forward to discovering what else we can make patterns with in our play dough.

Article – I have the right to explore my strengths and creativity .

Looking after the babies

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”

Pop a little Pancake

Today we were talking about Pancake Tuesday and decided we could make our own pancakes with the playdough. We got our bowls and measured each ingredient  and used our gross motor skills to stir all the ingredients together. We added some vanilla essence  to make them smell yummy too.

“My mum makes pancakes”

“ I have pancakes in my house”

We then began creating our own pancakes  using the rolling pins and cutters  of our choice.

“ mine is going to be round”

”I am using the circle one”

 

When  we were ready we popped them into the frying pan some of the children like using the cooker  to bake them. The children then flipped their pancakes . While we didt this we sang pop a little pancake into the pan.

We then used a variety of resources sequins, pom poms to decorate our pancakes pretending they were various toppings.

“Nutella”

”Jam”

“Bananas”

“Strawberry”

Look at our delicious pancakes.