Category Archives: Expressive Arts

Expressive Arts

Junk DNA

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Today, the children have been exploring their creativity and imaginative skills through use of Junk DNA! They loved using the book as a stimulus.  We put our thinking caps on to create lots of little stories and creations using different resources.

 

Junk DNA can be whatever you want it to be! Some of the children made weights “to do press-ups”, and some children made some letters from their names.

 

“I need 3 lines to make an E. That’s my name!”

Some of the children were very interested in making small world using the junk, and made a little home.

They even made a little garden and a vegetable patch!

 

“Look I’ve made a little vegetable patch. And that’s the conservatory, look there’s a little doorbell!”.

Some children loved making robots too, and even some space robots with “moon boots”.

 

 

“He’s got moon boots so he can walk in space”

Junk DNA is a really fun way to develop our creativity skills, and the great thing is you can use anything at all. Have a look and see what else you can find in your homes or garages, and see what your littles ones can create from them. It’s also a good way for us adults to use our imaginations too and think outside the (tool) box! Good luck everyone!!!

Expressive Arts, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

A Day at the Beach!

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The recent sunny weather made the children think of summer days at the beach! They set up an area of the garden and made their very own beach! They used the big blue blanket as the sea and the yellow blanket was the sand!

First the children went for a swim in the sea and they gave me the very important job of being the lifeguard!

“I can swim so fast!”      “Ah, a shark is coming!”

The children then collected shells from the sea and took them to the beach for a closer look!

“My shell is so soft!”    “Look, I can hear the sea in mine!”

The children then decided it would be good fun to jump into the sea!
“Look how high I jump!”
We made big splash noises when we landed in the sea!

Using the crates the children pretended they were in pirate ships bouncing on the sea! “Ahoy captain!” They had someone standing on lookout! “Watch out for the tornado!!”, “It’s coming!!”

The children could see pirates coming so decided to build a bigger boat for themselves!   “We can hide in this!”,  “This boat is awesome!”

What great imaginations the children at Cart Mill have. They had great fun through role play and made up a whole story about their time at the beach! They really had great fun whilst developing their communication and  language skills. Role play allows the children to act out and make sense of real life situations which they really enjoyed doing.

Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, Literacy, Technologies

Water Xylophone

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This week is Science Week and we will be exploring science themed experiences throughout all the different areas in each of the playrooms.

Today in our music area we made a water xylophone using some glass jars and food colouring.

We were developing our fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as we used a pipette to pour the food colouring in to the jar after which, we added some water.

Once the children had added the water, they lined up all the jars and noticed that each jar had a different volume of water.

”that one is filled right to the top”

”the red one has just a little bit”

We used a beater on the jars to listen to the sounds it made.

”The blue one sounds really low and the red one sounds really high”

I asked if the children knew what made the sounds but they were unsure.

After searching the internet we learned that when we use the beater to tap the jar it causes sound waves which are vibrations that travel through the water to make the sound. When there is less water the pitch is higher.

We listened to the different pitches as we played our own music, we are going to collect some more jars to add lots of different sounds.

Expressive Arts

Magic backpack adventure

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Good morning adventurers, it’s time for another adventure. Let’s make our map and find out where our adventure will be today.

Today we will be going over the high, snowy mountains. Across the wavy river filled with sharks, snakes and grumpy fish. Into the Forest with tall trees and long grass, but watch out for those cheeky monkeys. Then finally we need to search for X marks the spot.

Our magic backpack will help us along the way. It will provide us with all the tools we need, but it’s not always what we ask for that we get. Let’s pop on our backpacks and get ready.

Off we go to find the mountains, we checked the map to make sure we were going the right direction. When we arrived we couldn’t climb the third mountain, it was too high. We reached inside our magic backpack saying the magic words “magic backpack, magic backpack have you got a ladder.” And it did. Up the ladder we climbed and on to the next spot on our map.

We asked the magic backpack for a boat to help us cross the river, but instead we got rope, wood and a hammer. So we got to work to build our own boat. We have to be quiet and not wake up those sharks as we sail past.

Time to check the map. Where to next, the forest. We had to ask magic backpack for help to climb the high trees and we got spiky shoes and binoculars. Once we got over the tree and into the long grass we had to crawl past to hide from the cheeky moneys.


We made it past, and finally it was time to hunt for the X marks the spot!
We are such great adventurers we found it, hidden in the garden. We went back to our backpack to ask for a spade to help us dig up our treasure.

Once we collected our treasure it was time to go back and tell each other what treasure we found.
“I found a chocolate sauce.” “I found golden coins.” “I found a monster biscuit.”
Time to hang up our magic backpack now, till the next adventure.  Maybe you can make your own map and take your magic back pack on an adventure at home.

Expressive Arts

3D number fun!

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Today we had lots of fun exploring the loose parts and creating our own 3D numbers. The children loved using resources throughout the room to help them write our number board out, and help with numbers that were a little tricky.

 

The children were very creative, using different loose parts to express their own interpretation of numbers. We spoke about the different shapes in numbers, and how we could display it on our board.

“I need two lines for number 11”

”I need a circle shape for number 10”

Some of the children then extended their learning even further by suggesting finding the corresponding  numbers to match their 3D creations. What a fabulous idea 💡

Have a look at some of our creations we made. Well done everyone!!

The children loved using their imagination and being creative with the loose parts, I wonder what we can create next?

Expressive Arts

Clay exploration

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Today we have been enjoying exploring the clay table.

The children decided to use some natural resources to make different models, we used some mini lollipop sticks, sea shells, sticks, little wooden slices, etc to create them.

The children found it tough to roll the clay out. So i asked them what they think clay is and what they think they could use to roll the clay.

“It’s play dough”

” It’s not Play dough its too hard”

” We could use a rolling pin”

The children used the rolling pin to roll out the clay.

“We can use our hands to roll it in a ball like this”

Clay helps to develop fine  motor skills as the children are using their hand muscles to manipulate the clay as they roll, stretch, squeeze it. They are also  using their gross motor skills as they use their large muscles to press down on the clay as it is tougher than play dough.

“look at the shell it looks like it is on my clay now”

We have been making different patterns too.

 

“I made some pretty biscuits, have one with your tea”

The children have been using their imagination to come up with different things to make with the clay.

Expressive Arts

Today in the studio we were Marble painting.

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Today some of the children wanted to try out marble painting. This activity allowed the children to express their creativity whilst strengthening fine motor skills and developing their hand eye coordination.

”First we need water”

We used special paint called marbling paint which contained oil. We learnt that oil and water don’t mix and because the paint has oil in it, it sits on the surface of the water.

“I want the red paint”

“when you mix the yellow and the red it makes orange ”


”Let me add the black to see what happens, Oh it’s turned brown”

The children soon realised if we stirred the colours together too much they would all mix together to make one colour so they were very careful just to swirl the paint in the water. The children noticed that the paint was lying on top of the water and that it looked shiny. They took a piece of paper and laid it gently on top of the paint to make prints of the patterns they had made. Everybody commented on how smelly the paint was but that it did make pretty pictures. The children demonstrated some excellent turn taking skills and were able to show off their knowledge of colour theory.

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Dough Disco!

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Welcome to the Dough Disco.

The dough disco is a fun way for our children to combine play dough and a series of hand and finger exercises designed to improve fine muscle control.  These exercises help prepare for writing  and pencil control.

Today the children chose Let It Go for our disco song.
Our first move was “squeeze”. We used each hand one at a time to warm up our hands.

Next move was “ball it” we had to use the palm of our hands to roll the playdough into a ball.

Next was “smack it”. We had to use our hands to smack the playdough flat into our other hand.

Up next was “single fingers” we had to take each of our fingers one by one and press them onto the playdough.

Lastly we made a “sausage” we had to roll the playdough  between our hands.

Each dough disco move was in time to our music and the experience lasts as long as the song does. It’s a quick fun way to strengthen our finger muscles. It’s harder than it looks!
Why don’t you have a go at your very own Dough Disco at home.

Expressive Arts, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Nature walk between showers!!

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Today we had a very interesting nature walk! Our mission was to collect leaves and acorns of all different shapes and sizes.
However,  the first thing we spotted on our walk was was two little ducks! We thought this was very exciting as they were running around so close to our nursery!

The children noticed the ducks were different colours and spotted a duck pond for them! (A very large puddle!!)

“They are shouting quack, quack!”    “They are so cute!”
“I love the ducks!”     “They came to our nursery!”

We continued on our walk and the children managed to find lots of leaves and pine cones.  They found both green leaves and brown leaves. They climbed small hills to reach the leaves they wanted.

When we were walking back to nursery  the children spotted a big muddy puddle which, of course, they just had to jump in!! They had so much fun seeing how high they could jump and how big a splash they could make!

”I made a great big splash!”      “The water feels so cold on me!”

Once we got back to nursery we did some printing with our leaves using different coloured paint. The children noticed that the different leaves made different patterns on the paper! We also dipped our pine cones in paint and rolled them across the paper to create some nice patterns.

Whilst making some amazing pictures with the materials we gathered, the children were developing their gross motor skills and had great conversations about their outing! What a fun morning we had!

Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, Social Studies

Team work makes the dream work

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Today the children have been developing their team working skills during a variety of different experiences.

We played ‘Feed the Teddy’ on the Promethean Board and worked together as a team to count up to 5 cakes to feed the teddy.

“That’s number 5 like my fingers, I have 5 fingers”

“Teddy is eating 5 cakes”

Next some of the children worked on a new painting technique, they had lots of fun mixing different colours in the shaving foam, and printing it on to the paper. The children made their own individual pieces and also worked together making larger prints.

“hold this side, I’ll get that one”

“1,2,3 down”

Finally some of the children were working together to build a garage for the cars. They built ramps for the cars to go up and down, and roads for the cars to drive on.

“Can you put that long plank up there so the cars can drive down”

“I put this one up here to stop the ramp falling”

Children develop very important life skills when working as part of a team such as problem solving, leadership and communication skills which they will need as they grow into adults.