Category Archives: Expressive Arts

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.

Expressive Arts

Inspiring creations with playdough

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Today in the Home room we have enjoyed spending time at the playdough station.  We have learned lots of different skills while we manipulate the dough into wonderful creations. We used a variety of loose parts to inspire our creative thought and design processes.

First we made the playdough. The children asked for purple playdough. We decided to use our colour mixing skills to make purple by mixing red and blue paint together.

“First we need blue”

“Then red”


“Look what’s happened when we mixed them together. It’s purple”

After we had made our playdough, we began to let out our imaginations flow, creating our playdough masterpieces.


“I made a sun”

“

”Look it’s a unicorn”

“It’s a star wars alien space ship with lasers that are flying”

“It’s a face and the dark purple is the hair”

“I’m using the stones to make a happy face”.

We have been engaging fully with our learning today, building new skills are proud to show everyone what we created.

I wonder what we will make tomorrow with the playdough?

Expressive Arts

An introduction to rhythm sticks 🎼

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Today the children enjoyed expressing themselves musically using rhythm sticks and their bodies.

They were able to tap their sticks to the beat softly, quietly, loudly, up high and down low.

We decided which of our favourite songs and rhymes we would like to sing together and tapped our sticks to the beat of the rhyme.

“ I want to sing 1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive”

“Let’s sing the wheels on the bus with our sticks”

The children asked if they could tap their sticks to music on the promethean board.  We listened to some different music and chose Beethoven’s 5th symphony. We listened really carefully to see what  instruments we could hear.

“I can hear the violin ”

“I can tap my sticks to the drum”

We then tapped our sticks in time to the music.

We decided to play a game  called guess who tapped. The children were able to listen to where the sound was coming from.

“I think I know who it was!”

“That was fun”

Well done boys and girls.

 

Expressive Arts

Junk modelling robot

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We have been enjoying exploring the junk modelling area since moving in to the Studio room last week. The children discussed what they would like to make and made a plan to make a robot but what would they need, they decided to list all the things they would need.

”We need glue”
”and Cellotape”
“and of course, junk!”

The children used their imagination and problem solving skills to figure out how to make the parts stay together.

“You need to leave the glue to dry so it sticks”


The children worked together as a team making sure they followed their design so that everything was in the right places.

“paint it yellow like a bumble bee”

To finish off they decided to paint it yellow and add some cardboard tubes for arms.

The yellow paint didn’t cover the box as well as we thought, so the children improvised and used yellow tissue paper instead.

We are always looking for cardboard boxes (big and small), bottle lids, cartons, cereal boxes etc. to add to our collection so save your recycling and instead of putting it all in your blue bins, bring it in to us!

Expressive Arts

Let’s Sew 🧵

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Recently we have had a sewing table added to our room, The Studio. This has sparked the children’s interest and they have begun to show great creativity whilst using a needle and thread.

The children have being learning the names of all the equipment we use to sew.  A needle (this can be jaggy) some thread and scissors (watch out they can be sharp !). The children have been developing their fine motor skills along with their hand and eye coordination when practising using the needle and thread on our sewing table.

As the children’s skills have improved we thought we could try to sew on a button .  First we chose our button and reminded ourselves about the jaggy needle. We then tried to thread our needle – this was quite tricky and sometimes we needed a little bit of help. Some of the children chose more than one button and used their creative skills to make a pattern with the buttons. We then sewed on the button and cut the thread off at the end.
The children worked carefully and took time to make sure the needle went in the correct place.  Concentration skills were very well used today and the children were very pleased with their buttons.  The material and buttons were then used as placemats, parachutes and purses. Great imagination and hard work .

What will we sew next time ?