Category Archives: Expressive Arts

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Froebel, Imaginative thinking, Literacy

X marks the Spots

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This week in the creative area we have been exploring patterns. We have been using different utensils to create these patterns. Today we used different circular resources from our junk modelling area. We used tubes, corks and lids dipped in paint to make our spotty prints.

We noticed the paper was in the shape of an X. “X marks the spots.”

Meanwhile In our Junk modelling area we were gifted a large box.

We didn’t know what we could do with it. Could we fit inside?

Yes we could it was so big! If X marks the spot maybe we could make a pirate ship! We soon got to work. We used our technology skills to look for ideas for our ship on the iPad.
We decided we needed a pirate flag. We worked together to problem solve how to attach it to our ship.

Once we had secured it with tape and ribbon, we got to work making the windows and shape of the boat.

We used our safety skills to cut the box with scissors.

We needed to paint it next. It was such a huge box it took lots of us to paint it.

One of our children spotted that we can’t have a pirate ship without a steering wheel!

We used paper straws to make “the jaggy bits the pirate captain holds to drive the boat.” We tried lots of different ways to attach the wheel so we could still turn it. Luckily we tried pipe cleaners and it worked!

It was time to set sail on the seas to hunt for pirate treasure! At the writing table, we had the fantastic idea of creating a telescope for our adventures!

At group time today we found a book in the story area about pirates and decided tomorrow we will make a treasure map to give us directions to the treasure.

Our learning experience and ideas went on a journey and crossed all over the nursery today using different areas to add to our initial idea.

We can’t wait to see how our treasure maps turnout and if x really did mark the spot!

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, Special Event, Woodwork

Christmas at the tinker table….🌲

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This month we have introduced a new tool. We talked about the safety rules and the best way to use our saw. This can be a tricky tool to master but with lots of practise we were able to start sawing different materials. This will help strengthen hand and arm muscles and also develop hand and eye coordination skills.

As we have wooden craft sticks at the tinker table some of the children wanted to make a Christmas tree 🎄. The children discussed the best way of making the shape and decided to draw it out first then using glue they followed the line they had made and pressed the sticks on. “ it does look like a tree”. The girls and boys were able to then self select their own materials to decorate the tree.

We also had some coloured craft sticks which we were able to stick together ,decorate and hang on our tree . “Beautiful “.

We had a very frosty week and the boys and girls were excited to see the ice 🧊. “Maybe it will snow and we can make snow men”. Our clever children talked about what they could use to make a snow man at the tinker table. We had white card board tubes but they were quite long “so we can cut them” a very good idea to get some sawing practise !. We decorated our snowmen and used our fine motor skills to thread through our pipe cleaner arms.

The craft sticks were brought back out this week. We made some different shapes with them and then the girls and boys decided the favourite was a Christmas star ⭐️ and a snow flake. They stuck the craft sticks together with wood glue and the have used very “sparkly “ resources to make them shine bight. The children have hung them on our Christmas tree and they look great and they might “ twinkle” when it gets

dark.

Here is a collection of the childrens great work . You maybe able to spot all the boys and girls hard work for Christmas in all our rooms when you are visiting the nursery.

Article 13 .. we have the right to play and explore.

Creativity, emotional literacy, Expressive Arts, Froebel, Imaginative thinking, Literacy, nature

Superworm at Book Week Scotland 2024

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Last week in our playdough area we were celebrating Book Week Scotland by reading “Superworm”.

Engaging with our favourite stories and finding joy in reading helps to strengthen our children’s literacy skills and comprehension abilities whilst having fun. Reading books with our children also helps them to enhance their cognitive abilities such as memory retention, critical thinking and problem solving.

Today we had the curiosity cube in our playdough area and who was inside? Our very own Superworm!

We made pink playdough and had a go at creating our very own Superworm. We used some of our dough disco moves we have been practicing to help us roll the playdough into a sausage to make our Superworm .

We found some googly eyes and some sticky stickers to add to our Playdough just like the real Superworm .

We enjoyed making our Superworm and some of our children even wanted to make lots of friends for Superworm.

We counted them as we made them, promoting our numeracy learning through our play experiences.

Our older children wanted to make different characters from the story. Some children chose their favourite baby toad to create.

We decided to retell the story of Superworm using our playdough creations.  Some of us decided to change the story and create their own.

We had Super worm with his friends, Superworm saving the princess in the castle, Superworm with the zoo animals and Superworm the flying worm.

We shared our ideas with our friends and discussed different characters and events in our story. Storytelling provokes conversations between our children of different ages and stages of development.

Here is a look at some of our own Superworms.

We read the story of Superworm and used Superworm and one of our playdough toads to help retell the story.

“Superworm is super long.”

”Superworm is super strong.”

“watch him wiggle.”

”see him squirm.”

”Hip hip hooray for Superworm.”

I wonder what characters from our favourite stories will be in our curiosity cube tomorrow?  Don’t forget to help yourself to a book at our front door to share with your children at home as part of our Book week Scotland.

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking

Creative Cars and Crafts

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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

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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. ☃️⛄️☃️⛄️

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

Garden roundup

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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”

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

Halloween splat painting

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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.

Creative movement, Expressive Arts, Froebel

Let’s all go to the dough disco

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We have been working hard in our playdough area to make the area fully self-service for our children. We have used visual aids to help our children know where all the ingredients are and what they are called.

We also have created a visual recipe board to give our children step by step instructions on how to make our playdough, to provide them with independence and a sense of ownership.

Even our younger children are enjoying this opportunity and learning the recipe.

Now that we have mastered our playdough making skills it’s time to work on our fine manipulative skills.
The “dough disco” is a fun way to move our fingers and extend our fine manipulative skills.
The dough disco teaches us some key moves such as,
“Squeeze it”

“Ball it”

“Pat it”

“Fingers dance”

Put all these moves together along with some fun music and it’s time to go to the dough disco, and get those fingers moving….

This is a great way to incorporate our fine manipulative skills while having fun with our playdough.

Theses key moves also help us when we are create models with our dough.

There are lots of dough disco videos on you tube if you would like to try it at home.
I wonder what we will do at the dough disco tomorrow.

Article 31 – “you have the right to play and rest” 

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, nature

The wonder of Wood 🪵

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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.

Creative movement, Creativity, Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning, Snack, Technologies

This weeks summer learning at a Cart Mill!

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This week at Cart Mill, we explored a wide variety of activities across all our rooms. Take a look at what we’ve been up to!

In the discovery room it’s been an exciting week exploring forces. We were highly engaged with an activity using balloons attached to cars. It was lots of fun using our observation skills to identify if the air coming out of the balloon was strong enough to move the car back and forth, enhancing our understanding of motion and forces.

In the garden the weather has been kinder this week, allowing us to enjoy the outdoors more. With Wimbledon underway, we decided to have our own tennis tournament and learn all about this exciting racket game. Exploring our technology skills we watched a game of tennis on the smart board, discussed the rules, and then took turns playing on our makeshift court. This fantastic activity kept our bodies active and helped develop our motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination. No Wimbledon experience is complete without strawberries! Our children in the Home Room were busy chopping them up for us to enjoy. Yum!

Lots of fun was had creating enormous bubbles in our garden! Everyone enjoyed this sensory experience immensely. Using washing-up liquid and water, we mixed our own bubble solution and used our fine and gross motor skills to create fantastic bubbles. We then explored cause and effect by blowing the bubbles and popping them with our fingers.

In the home room at the playdough table, we have been experimenting with our playdough recipe and created some delightful chocolate playdough. By adding vegan drinking chocolate to the playdough mixture, we crafted a fantastic sensory experience to explore. The rich scent and smooth texture of the chocolate playdough added an extra layer of excitement to our play. Using loose parts, we created imaginative models, enhancing our creativity and fine motor skills. We also enjoyed spreading the playdough to see how thin we could get it.

In the studio we engaged in mark-making using a variety of paints and tools, providing a rich and creative environment for us to express ourselves artistically. Lots of fun was had through exploring patterns using rollers, discovering how different pressures and movements could create a wide range of textures and designs. Using sponges, we experimented with shapes, learning how to manipulate the tools to form circles and squares. Paintbrushes allowed us to delve into our own unique styles, mixing colours and creating beautiful creations. This activity not only enhanced our fine motor skills but also encouraged us to think creatively and express our emotions and ideas through art.

We ventured outside the nursery to visit the park and explore the large field behind us. At the park, we enjoyed playing on the swings, developing our balance on the wooden beams, and building our confidence on the large slide. The field provided ample space for running and playing games. We participated in running and crawling races with our peers, promoting physical fitness and teamwork. These outdoor activities were fantastic opportunities for us to develop our motor skills and enhance our social interactions whilst enjoying the fresh air and sunshine.

Come back next Friday to see what fun learning activities we get up to next week!

UNCRC Articles: Our activities this week align with several articles from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC):

  • Article 13: Freedom of expression
  • Article 31: Leisure, play, and culture
  • Article 28: Right to education