Category Archives: Expressive Arts

Getting busy in the garden!

Today in the garden  we had great fun enjoying some September sunshine! We were very busy developing our gross motor skills in many different ways.

Some children got messy in the paint using big arm strokes to create an art masterpiece. They were using mops, brushes and roller cars to make different patterns.

We enjoyed water play and particularly had fun pouring water down the gutters  and catching it at the bottom.. Rolling the balls down with the water was great, the children realised that the more water they poured the quicker the balls travelled!
Jumping in the very large puddle in the garden was as always loved by the children! They enjoyed getting their suits on and making a big splash! The higher the jump the bigger the splash!

Let’s hope the sun keeps shining down on our garden!

Al fresco Bookbug 😁

As the sun came out on this beautiful Friday, Bookbug came to visit us to share some songs stories….

We all said ‘Hallo’ to Bookbug with a great big hug followed by

The Wheels On The Bus, our wipers were swooshing

The children jumping up and down on the bus

Sticking out our tongues being a Little Green Frog

We all enjoyed our interactive touchy freely story about a teddy bear

Finishing off with Little Bunnies!!!

The children love when Bookbug comes to visit and if you fancy joining us he’ll visit once a month morning and afternoon and you can come and join in the fun 😁

 

Creativity and Imagination

Today the children were presented with a tray of interesting resources to explore and design their own models.
With the natural feathers and pieces of wood the children decided to make some animals.  I will make a owl with feathers. The children chatted about owls they have seen at the animal park and what noise they make.

Some of the children chose to make people using pegs for the legs. This is my mummy she is at work.

Todays activity has involved developing fine motor skills such as using scissors and glue sticks also picking up smaller parts especially when they stick to your fingers !

Todays fun at the tinker table has let the children ask and answer questions, talk to each other sharing experiences and ideas. We have extended our knowledge and understanding of how to use a variety of materials.

We have some great animals and models to admire . Well done 👍

Mark making masterpiece

We have been developing our mark making skills in the Studio room.
Our children enjoy exploring their mark making skills in a variety of fun, unique ways. Some of the ways we have been extending our mark making skills been using pastels, water paints and we experimented with marbling inks.

Mark making is a very important skill for our children to learn, but what is mark making? Mark making is a term used for the creation of different pattens, lines, textures and shapes. This can be done on a piece of paper, floor, outside in the garden or on an object or surface.

Mark making is a sensory and physical experience which can be enjoyed by all ages and abilities.
Today in the Studio we extended our mark making skills by using cardboard and a selection of mark making tools to create pictures of our favourite things.

We made race cars, ice creams, our family and our toys.

We enjoyed showing each other what we made, discussing what our favourite things were.  We were proud of the work we created. We like to be responsible to the environment and reuse and recycle our cardboard.

Some of the children enjoyed using the easel to mark make using pens and chalks.

We have opportunities to mark make across each of the playrooms, through arts and crafts, shaving foam, mud kitchen, and playdough to name just a few. What mark making do you like to do at home?

Apple and Potato Printing!

Today the children used some of the potatoes we had grown to make pictures printing with paint. They also used some old apples to make different patterns and shapes.
First we cut the apples in half using our safe knives. Even our younger children were very careful and sensible using the knives and displayed great cutting skills. This helps develop their fine motor  skills. Controlling the knife will help prepare them to master other skills like holding a pencil.

The children then used the chopped fruit and veg to create lovely pictures. They chose paint colours and got printing. Some children made different patterns using both shape and colour!

“I’ve made a colour rocket with apple and potato!”

“The apple print looks like a love heart! I love hearts!”

We had great fun in the garden with this activity and created lots of lovely art work too!

Let’s make music!

Today in the noisy quiet room the children got creative with the musical instruments. In a small group we started by singing songs and playing our chosen instrument together.  We began to explore beat and tried to copy the beat played by Derek and follow along wile we sang. We all played beautifully and made an excellent band.

“Let’s do old MacDonald had a cat”

“Sing twinkle twinkle”

We then explored how to use the instruments to make different sounds. Learning new words like high pitch and low pitch, and learning how to make the instruments sound noisy or quiet.

“Twinkle twinkle is a quiet song play it just a little”

Then the group got creative and invented their own songs. We had “it’s time to go to bed song”,  “The snake in the hat song” and the “bumped the head song”.  They were superb!

We all demonstrated good turn taking and swapped our instruments  in the group so that everyone got a turn at playing something different. We all had lots of fun and can’t wait till we can do it again.

Snail trail

This morning one of the boys brought in a snail from his garden to show all his friends. We built him a little home with grass, pine cones, shells, a log to climb on and also gave him some cucumber to eat.


“I give him shells.”

One of the boys decided to build him an extra home using the 3D modelling materials from the studio.

“There’s a space at the top for the big snails and a secret bit at the bottom for the baby snails.”

We investigated the snail’s shell and noticed there were lots of spirals on it.

We created our own spirals using loose parts and drawing on the mirrors.


“It goes round and round and round.”

Look out for snails in your garden and you could have some super slimy fun too!

Experimenting with Loose Parts and Clay

Today in the studio the children have been creative with clay and Loose parts. We have been busy adding a variety loose parts to clay, this enriches and expands the children’s creativity, imagination and learning in lots of different ways.

Loose parts create endless possibilities and invites creativity. When a child picks up a rock and starts to play, most likely that rock can become anything the child wants it to be. Imagination, creativity, curiosity, desire, and need are the motivation of loose  parts play helps kids develop creative and critical thinking skills by encouraging them to use their imagination and experiment with new ideas freely.

“ It was a pizza now it is a birthday cake with nine candles on it”

 

“I am making my mummy”

“I am a making pizza,  these are my toppings  on top Rice, ham and pineapple”


“ my pizza has cheese and mushrooms on it “

“ Look i have made a owl”

       

“ I am making a rainbow forest with lots of shining jewels “

The children were able to arrange and rearrange, sort, match and create their own images whilst Improving their fine motor skills by rolling, pressing and moulding whilst using their problem solving skills and developing their  hand -eye co-ordination .

Why  not have a look around  your own house or garden for some  loose parts and see what you can be creative with !

 

Having a splashing time in the Studio

We had a special donation of some huge cardboard to our Studio Room. Our children enjoy using cardboard for lots of creative creations in our Junk model area. But today we had a idea of something else we could use the large cardboard for.

Splash painting.
There was different bottles, syringes, droppers and different colours of paints. It was very exciting picking which one we were going to use.

Because it was such a big piece of cardboard we could even sit in the middle to create our art work.

 

 

 

 

 

We mixed a little bit of paint and water to help our paint splat, spray, drop and squeeze.

We are very independent in our Studio Room and can pick and put on our own paint aprons when we want to paint or get messy.

We loved how far we could squeeze and spray the paint that was inside the syringe.

Good job our cardboard was so big.

It was interesting watching all the colour mix together to see what different colours we created.

We were learning different techniques of making art by using our spay bottles, droppers and syringes to mark make in creative ways.

We think it looks really nice. We all worked really hard together creating our large scale art.
We really did have a splashing time.

Playful pom poms

 

Today the children decided they would like to make something for themselves.  We had a discussions and thought we could make our own Pom Poms.

We had lots of different ideas as to what we could use pom poms for. Some children thought they would make nice decorations ,some thought they would be good to use for ball games or as a honeypot for Mr.Bear ! 🧸

I demonstrated how to make our Pom poms using wool and a  Pom Pom maker. The children listened well to my instructions and began  by choosing what  colour of wool they wanted to make their pom poms:

We talked about how their Pom poms will look and the different sizes they will be.

“ mine is going to be big”

“I like my pink colour”

Now it was time to cut our wool to create our pom pom the children began to cut with a little support needed. We weaved the wool in and out and around our maker until we had several layers This took lots of concentration and patience!

 

Once we had our makers covered we then wrapped a piece of wool round the middle of the pom pom and tied a knot..

Carefully we then separated our pom pom from the maker.

Now we could see our own creations!  A beautiful ;colourful ;fluffy pom pom!

“ it’s like a ball”

“It’s fluffy”

“Mine is big and blue”

“So soft”