Category Archives: Expressive Arts

Expressive Arts

Terrific Threading!

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We have been so busy in our sewing corner this week as we continue to focus on developing our fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination.
As we grow in confidence, we can use scissors safely to self select and prepare our own materials and we demonstrated fabulous concentration and perseverance when threading our own needles as “it can be a wee bit tricky!”.


“It’s a wee bit hard to cut the wool”

”I’ll hold it and you cut it”

“I’m choosing blue. My mummy likes blue”

To develop our threading skills further, we decided to see how many tubes of pasta we could thread onto our wool.
How did we do this?

”we putted the thread on the needle”.

”we had to tie a knot so it didn’t fall off”

”I putted the needle through the pasta and pulled it down. Then I did another one”

”you need to tie the bottom so the pasta doesn’t fall off”


It was a “a wee bit tricky” to push the needle through the pasta but we used our problem solving skills and discovered it was easier “if we hold it up cos it slides down”.

When we had finished our terrific threading we decided to work as a team and measure our creations to see which one was the longest, and practised our brilliant counting skills to see how many pasta tubes were on each “snake, wiggly worm and necklace”.

“Look I makes a wiggly worm”

”mine is a snake”

”mines a snake too!”

”my snake is bigger than yours. I’ve got 15 pastas”

”yours is the smallest and mines is the biggest”

Using our knowledge and experience, we have been able to demonstrate a good understanding of our safety rules and share this with our new friends, listen to and follow instructions and work both as a team and independently.

We have decided to have a meeting tomorrow to discuss what we would like to create next week!

Article 31~ I have the right to relax and play.

 

 

 

Expressive Arts

Introducing woodwork safety 🛠🪵 & creating sculptures

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Today over at our woodwork area the children have been learning about the safety rules of our tinker table and how to properly handle basic tools, learning to make judgements, avoid hazards and managing risks.


“You must wear goggles.” “Always have an adult with you.”

We came together as a group and had a look at the tools we’d be using, one by one the children selected each tool and placed it in the middle for all children to hold and have a look at. We discussed which each tool was used for and how to safely handle them.


“I have a hammer at home, I use with dad.” “You use the screwdriver to unscrew the nails.”

The children had lots of fun engaging in discussions with one another about the safety rules and looking at the tools, now we are able to use the tools to create our own designs, how exciting! Stay tuned to see what the children create.


“Thumbs up if you know the safety rules and are ready to use the tools.”

Some of our younger children have been busy gluing different shapes of wood and loose parts together, creating three dimensional objects for our wooden 3D sculpture.


“I build it high.” “I make a tower.”

Here is the children’s fabulous work, great job! 👍

Expressive Arts

Creative Art inspired by famous artists 🥰

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Today we studied some artists that use repetition and pattern in their art work.  For example Gustav Klimt, The tree of life,  Andy Warhol, and his Marilyn Monroe print. Yayoi Kusama is one of the most famous pattern artists of today she used semi circle brushstrokes to create  lace like patterns  to cover her canvas and imply an expansion into infinity. Looking and talking about these amazing artists inspired  some of the children to create their very own works of art using pattern.  The children self selected their own paint and resources we even tried acrylic paint which  we found out can be very messy. 😂

“I know the names of all these shapes, Im going to put the colours and shapes into the pattern” ”Mine is like a lace pattern “ “ I think the colours on my painting are lovely “


“I’m going to make a shape pattern “ “ I’m choosing a star to start “ I’m going to paint with the pom-poms” “ They make circle marks”

Some of the children chose to stick their shapes down to make a pattern and then paint over the top others did free style patterns and prints.

“ The string is tricky to get off” “ I’m cutting the ribbon to make stripes on my canvas” “I love my painting “

“ I’m wrapping string around mine to make it stripy” “ I’m putting lots of different sized circles on my canvas, like Kandinsky “
The children’s canvas paintings are beautiful well done everyone I think they are so good that we should display them in the studio.

Expressive Arts, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Exploring the Cart Mill Garden

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This week in the garden we have had lots of learning experiences to take part in. Take a look at what we have been up to.

Duplo Rockets

We used Duplo blocks to build our own space rocket.  First we planned out our rocket on paper and got ready to build. Once we had built it we used different lengths of rulers to measure how tall our rockets were.  We have been learning different mathematical language such as centimetres, tall, short, tallest and shortest.  We were also practicing counting up to and back from 10 ready for blast off!!

Sunflower Harvest

The sunflowers that the children have grown this summer have come to an end. We decided to harvest the seeds and dry them out ready to plant next week. We looked at different parts of the plant and studied the head.  The children used the tweezers developing their fine motor skills to pull out the seeds from each head.  We will place them somewhere safe to try and store them for next years planting.

Chalk Mark Making

The children have been using the chalk to write and draw on the ground. They have created everything form spiders webs to beetles with 10 legs!  We even drew round our friends and looked to see who was the biggest and who was the smallest. Some of our children have also practiced writing their letters.

Obstacle Course

The children have helped to build different layouts using our loose parts this week. The obstacle courses help to challenge our gross motor skills. We have also been learning to manage our risk and ask for help on the more difficult parts.

What another fabulous week in the Cart Mill garden. I wonder what we will get up to next week?

 

Article 12 – Respect for the views of the child

Article 31 – Leisure, play and culture

Article 29 – Goals of education

 

 

Expressive Arts

Creating movement in the science area

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Today in the science area we tried out a new experiment. How do we make our caterpillars 🐛 move. Firstly we had some small pieces of paper roll and drew on our caterpillar 🐛.

The best way to make a caterpillar shape was to roll the paper round a pencil this was quite tricky to manage !  ( we had a little help). And then with a squish and a squeeze we pushed our caterpillar off the pencil.

We were now ready to create the magic movement. We used our pipettes to drop a few drops of water onto them and they grew bigger, wiggled around and it just “growed so fast”.

The boys and girls noticed they were different sizes and wanted to make their own caterpillar families. They discovered using different sizes of paper towel made mummy,daddy,baby caterpillars. “This looks like the big one”.

Some of the children enjoyed putting colours on the paper towels , then adding water then watched as the shapes and patterns appeared. “ Mine is like the sunset in the sky “.

Who new a piece of kitchen roll could be so much fun . We used our fine motor skills also  named shapes and colours and even did some measuring . Well Done.

Article 13 – You have the right to share and explore through learning experiences.

Expressive Arts

Creative Cloud Dough

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Today in our malleable area the children chose to make cloud dough..  There are two different ways to make cloud dough,  so we decided to try both and see which one works the best  We gathered our bowls and began to take turns to add our first ingredient. First of all it was 2 scoops of cornflour and then 3 squirts of shaving foam or conditioner.

The children then used their gross motor skills to mix the ingredients together. During this time the children described the various textures they good feel.

“It’s so sticky”

“Mine is flakey”

”It gooey”

The children then made some predictions of what ingredient they could add more of to make the texture smooth. We continued to mix and experiment with our ingredients  until it became smooth and mouldable.

“Mine is soft like my teddy”

“I love squashing it”

“It’s like snow”

“Fluffy”

The children came to the conclusion that the cloud dough with conditioner was better.

shaving foam

“it crumbles”

” it’s like snow”

conditioner

”it all stays together”

”it’s smooth”

 

The children began to explore with the cloud dough using their hands. They began creating their own ideas using their imaginations and communicating with each other describing what they were creating. They then added some loose parts to help detail their masterpiece

“pirate Ship”

” a face”

”I made a circle”

” I have made sand and shells”

Expressive Arts

Let’s get sewing 🧵 🪡

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Welcome to our sewing area in the noisy quiet room, let’s have a look and see what the children have been up to today.

Some of the children spent time at the threading station, here we have been focusing on developing our fine motor and hand eye co-ordination.

“ I made a knot”
“I did it.”
“I’m using pink, my favourite colour.”

Over at our sewing table the children have loved being able to self select the different colours and types of wool they’d like and independently cutting it.

”I’m going to use a very long bit of wool.”
”I can do it all by myself.”

The children have been practicing super hard at threading the wool through the needle, the children demonstrated brilliant concentration and hand eye co-ordination, great job! We have been learning to assess and manage risk when using sewing needles.

Now it’s time to get creative! The children had lots of fun working as a pair and independently, creating their own patterns on our sewing table.


“I made a cross.”
”It goes up and down.”
“It looks like a rainbow.”

Sewing is such a valuable skill for children, it is a key way that they can express their creativity, as well developing their concentration, fine manipulative skills and building their self-confidence.

Expressive Arts, Literacy

More than just a box………

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What is a box? Is it just something to keep things in? Not according to our very clever creative children in the junk modelling area.


We have been so pleased with all your donations for our junk modelling area. We love turning an ordinary box into something completely different, creative and unique.

Today our children picked a box and I asked “what would you like to make?

We worked as a team to cut the box in half so we could share with our friend.

We discussed with our friends what we were designing.

One of our children was using his writing skills to paint their name on their box.

Another child was practicing his speed painting wondering how quickly he could paint the box.

One of our children seen a familiar face on one of the boxes. “Look it’s Bookbug can I paint it?”

Some of our children wanted to add things to their box. Using different boxes to create more detailed models.

Some children used the boxes to cut up and use parts of them to add to their masterpieces.

And of course we had to have a high speed chase in the police cars we made. It was the most fun in our studio room.

So as you can see, a box is not just a box.

Expressive Arts

What can we create with clay?

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Today in the clay area, the children enjoyed taking part in various model making, exploring different techniques to mould and design and also being kind and sharing with one another.

At cart mill we value the opportunities we have to make friends and be part of group experiences sharing our ideas and thoughts with one another.


We have been sharing and co operating with our peers and recognising how we can communicate with others in different situations.

The children then demonstrated how to use different techniques for moulding and creating in the clay area.


The children were able to create and develop using a variety of techniques in making things by hammering, rolling and cutting using different tools and materials.

The children then created their own models by using their curiosity and imagination to select different loose parts such as pebbles and sea shells.

”I made snails”

”My shells look like unicorns horns”

Expressive Arts

Shell-tastic Friday!

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Today in the garden the children have enjoyed exploring our magic bag full of special shells! No peaking!

We looked closely and noticed that there was lots of different patterns, colours, textures and sizes. The children had lots of interesting observations about the shells…

“That’s like a unicorn!”

“Look, I made a wee clam shell bed. It’s for a pearl fairy!”

The children used lots of mathematical language while exploring the shells, it was interesting to see the different ideas they all had. Some children enjoyed imaginative play and others liked sorting them into different groups…

“They’re the biggest. Because they’re so pointy!”

“Let’s put all the wee baby clams over here. The big ones can go over here with the unicorn horns. This is the pink side!”

The children had so many descriptive words to describe the shells including…

“It’s swirly whirly”

“Ooooohh it’s so jaggy!”

Loose parts is a great way to explore many areas for learning as it is such an open-ended experience. You can talk about size, shape, colour, patterns and much, much more. Make it whatever you want it to be about! What loose parts can you find in your home to explore?

Have a great weekend everybody! 🙂