Category Archives: Expressive Arts

Expressive Arts

Cars and ramps

Leave a comment


Today the children have  been super busy making ramps for their cars using the blocks. They decided to make their own ramps. The toddlers self selected their own paint colours and then dipped their cars into the paint and set them off down the ramp. The children noticed that some of the cars went further than others, some went down fast, some slow and that the tyres all made different marks.  They added some textured balls to see what different marks they left. “ That’s left a bumpy mark”  They learned some new concepts including stop, go, up, down, fast, slow developing their language skills and learning about cause and effect.

When asked what they would like to do next with the cars L said “ make a garage “ So they set about creating one. H said “we should use these boxes”. L said “ I’m painting it green, it needs to have a tunnel and space for the fire engine”. The children demonstrated great team work when planning together to create their garage. They were proud of their finished result and had great fun playing together.

Expressive Arts

It’s Autumn !!!

Leave a comment

The children in the studio are noticing the change in the weather. “There are lots of leaves on the ground”. We decided to look at some leaves and see if we could find them on our leaf ID Dial. The children pointed out the different sizes, colours and shapes of the leaves. This helps us discover the name of the tree that  the leaf came from. We then read a story about autumn time and the change this makes to our trees. “We like to kick the leaves in the park”

We then had some fun drawing and tracing the leaves some of the leaves were “bumpy” to draw over. The children chose autumn colours of pencils and crayons to make their 🍁 look real.  The children decided to hang the leaves from the white board so they could copy and draw round the shape of the leaf.

We have enjoyed learning about leaves today and, if you are out and about during autumn, we would welcome any leaves, pine cones and conkers that you find so we can use them for art work in our studio. Thank you.

Expressive Arts

Playdough Experts!

Leave a comment

In the home room the children have been particularly enjoying using the playdough in different ways.


They have been following our playdough recipe and are now very confident at making it themselves.

Once the children had made the playdough they used their imagination and turned the playdough into space rockets.

”3..2..1.. blast off”

“My rocket is going to the sky”

What else could we do with our playdough? Well some of the children even decided to open their own sweet shop and sell the best chocolates!

“ Here’s your chocolate, that’s five pounds please “

 

Expressive Arts

Colourful Fingers

Leave a comment

The children in the Toddler Room are always very expressive and creative so when we found some very colourful finger paints in one of the cupboards in the playroom they were keen to try them out.

At first they were very careful, using only one finger, testing out each colour.

They experimented with different colours, making swirls on their paper.

Very quickly they started to use their whole hands, feeling the paint between their fingers.

Its cold and squishy
Blue paint.

Small swirls with one finger became huge swirls and mark making with a whole hand.

Oh look at my colourful hands too
Pink hands

All the children had loads of fun painting with their fingers and hands and were very excited to see their finished artwork hanging up drying ready to take home.

Expressive Arts

Painting with Magnets

Leave a comment

Today in the studio we decided to paint using magnets.  We moved metal objects around the paper and over the paint to make patterns. The children chose the colours of paint they would like to use and practised their pouring skills to fill the paint trays.

The children were creative and used the magnets to draw paper clips and screws across the paint and make some lovely designs. This then expanded to making paint patterns on the spoons which were very effective. The children combined different colours to make different shades “This looks like a river” and “I have a pond for ducks”. The children also enjoyed discussing there techniques which improves their language and social skills.

We are looking forward to exploring lots of different methods of using paint in the new term.

Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Let’s get Creative!

Leave a comment

At Cart Mill we love to explore our creativity in many ways.

We explored with paints on the ground and logs creating different patterns and pictures.

Then we mixed the paint to create our own colours and painted our hands!

Rainbow puddles! Using chalk and water we made lovely rainbows 🌈

When we finished painting we got the hose and scrubbing brushes to clean up the logs and the rain helped wash the rest away.

During this the children learned different ways to be creative, explored making their own colours and becoming more confident in their mark making skills.

How do you be creative?

Expressive Arts

Some of Marvellous Monday’s toddler learning experiences 🥰

Leave a comment

Today some of the toddlers decided to explore mark making and colour. They used their fingers to push the paint around and make patterns. “I made orange with red and yellow” “This is squashy and squishy” “I can make purple with blue and red”

We also engaged our five senses playing in our very own orange sensory water scooping, pouring, mixing stirring filling and emptying.  The toddlers were able to answer my open ended questions exposing them to new vocabulary.  “The flesh feels soft, but the skin is bumpy” ”Orange juice, I like it” They were all able to take turns and play cooperatively.

Expressive Arts

Where is Mr Golden Sun?

Leave a comment

The boys and girls have been discussing the change in the weather. We all had so much fun playing in the sun but now the grey clouds are out and we think a thunder storm is coming for a visit!

The children decided to have a look at our weather board and pick out their favourite weather and what the weather was doing today.

 

“ the grey clouds mean rain “

”  I eat ice cream when it is sunny “

“ I love snow the best “

After discussing the different weather, the children decided to create their own weather pictures of their favourite weather!

Expressive Arts

Our future Artists.

Leave a comment

Today in the Studio Room we were using our creative skills to make our massive art piece.
First we selected the colours we wanted to use.

Then we picked our paper and used the floor as our canvas.

We picked the tools we wanted to experiment with and got our paint ready to use.

All the children had so much fun having the large space to express their creative arts, we used our mark making skills to make unique and wonderful marks. We used both our fine and gross motor skills to complete our masterpiece.

The children decided to use their hands and feet to gain a whole sensory experience.
We have very happy children in our Studio Room, engaging fully in their learning.
Maybe we have some future artists here in our Studio.

 

Expressive Arts, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Transient Art

Leave a comment

This week the children in the Home Room have been creating their own fabulous pictures with transient art.

‘Transient art is simply moveable art’. The children are getting creative using loose parts such as stones, shells, buttons etc, to create pictures using their imagination.

Transient art allows children to make a picture 100 different ways, rather than having 1 end product when gluing and sticking.

The children added blue playdough to their pictures and pretended they were at the seaside and the playdough was the sea.

“Look at the waves in the sea, they are very big”

They even made 3D pictures. “Look the bird is sticking out of the picture”

This experience can be explored indoors and outdoors and can often lead from collecting sticks, stones, leaves etc. when out a local walk.

The children had lots of fun creating their own pictures, why dont you have a turn at home, when at the park or out a walk?