Tag Archives: Creative skills

Natures Canvas

Today in our gross motor art area, we used the translucent board to paint on.  Before we started we got some powder paint mixed with water. We chose colours that represented nature. Green for the grass and trees, blue for the sky and orange for the sunsets.
We decided to use large pots today to make it a little different learning experience than indoor art. We wanted to extend our gross motor art and take our skills we learned in our studio painting area into a larger creative environment outdoors.

Inside our pots we had a selection of gross motor art utensils to select from. We had mops, rollers and large paint bushes.

When we were making our creations we talked about what we could see in the outdoor environment and what was the inspiration for our art.

We each took a turn of painting and sometimes we worked along side our peers to create collaborative art.

We used our gross motor skills as we had to bend and stretch to dip the large brushes/rollers into the tubs and use our arms/hands  to help us control where we put the paint while using the large brushes.

Once we had got the hang of our gross motor art painting we decided we wanted an even bigger space, so we used the nursery garden as our “natures canvas”. It looked nice and bright with all the colours we used.

This is a great experience for our children to let there creativity take over with a large space and freedom to design. It is a learning experience that can be easily adapted to differentiate the learning between our 2-3 year olds and our 3-5year olds while simultaneously having fun along side each other with our older children role modelling for our younger ones.

I wonder where our creative gross motor art journey will take us tomorrow. Feel free to have a look at our floor book next time you are in to see what we have been learning in our outdoor art area.

Article 29 – “you have the right to education which tries to develop your personality and abilities as much as possible and encourages you to respect other peoples rights and values and to respect the environment.”  (UNCRC)

Let’s get painting!

Today in the studio a group of our children selected materials to paint. They choose rollers and a selection of different coloured paints. They displayed good understanding of the rules in the studio and put on aprons before they began to make their creations.

Using different rollers they created different patterns. Below are some pictures and comments from the children. 

“It’s a zig zag”

“It’s got lots of dots”

“I wavy like the beach”

“Squiggles”

We then added in paint brushes and let the children explore their fine and gross motor skills to create their masterpiece.

Article 28
You have the right to education.

Sew much fun 🧵

This week in the studio, we have been having lots of fun sewing and weaving. There were lots of volunteers to create DIY boards for us to practice our weaving skills.

We practiced our technique…

“you go over and under and over again! It’s tricky”

Some children enjoyed exploring different patterns while weaving…

 

”it’s like an M!”

Weaving is a great experience for children to develop little muscles as it is very intricate work, and these movements help  support the development of their fine motor skills.

After developing our little muscles, we put our creative hats on 👩🏼‍🎨

”I want to make a little cushion for my LOL doll”

This sparked some curiosity in the children, so we decided to explore it further.

“I want to chop my own stuffing for my little pillow.”

“I want to sew a button”

The children had lots of fantastic ideas to share…

“I’m going to make a bow”

“mine is like a little butterfly”

Sewing with children is great for many reasons, but most importantly it’s a really fun way to express ourselves. The children have been talking about making “purses” for “all their pennies”! I wonder what other wonderful role playing ideas we could come up with next week for the sewing area? We can’t wait to find out! Have a fabulous weekend everyone ☀️

Playful pom poms

 

Today the children decided they would like to make something for themselves.  We had a discussions and thought we could make our own Pom Poms.

We had lots of different ideas as to what we could use pom poms for. Some children thought they would make nice decorations ,some thought they would be good to use for ball games or as a honeypot for Mr.Bear ! 🧸

I demonstrated how to make our Pom poms using wool and a  Pom Pom maker. The children listened well to my instructions and began  by choosing what  colour of wool they wanted to make their pom poms:

We talked about how their Pom poms will look and the different sizes they will be.

“ mine is going to be big”

“I like my pink colour”

Now it was time to cut our wool to create our pom pom the children began to cut with a little support needed. We weaved the wool in and out and around our maker until we had several layers This took lots of concentration and patience!

 

Once we had our makers covered we then wrapped a piece of wool round the middle of the pom pom and tied a knot..

Carefully we then separated our pom pom from the maker.

Now we could see our own creations!  A beautiful ;colourful ;fluffy pom pom!

“ it’s like a ball”

“It’s fluffy”

“Mine is big and blue”

“So soft”

Textile Textures

Today the children explored a variety of materials and different textures in the sewing area.

We looked at cellophane,carpet, silk, felt, bubble wrap and hessian. The children were able to describe how these materials felt.

“This is a bit jaggy”

“It is so soft”

“This one is smooth”

“Oh that’s crinkly”

We cut the materials into squares and thought it would be a great idea to make our own texture board.  The children chose the materials they wanted to use and were keen to create stitches on them, using good hand and eye co-ordination we were able to put together a selection of materials for our board.

We then displayed our work on the texture board in our sewing area.

The children were very proud of their hard work and the children invited their friends to come have a look and feel the different textures.

Jewellery making skills

Today the children were exploring in the sewing area and decided they would like to make bracelets, friendship bracelets and necklaces.

We  searched for a variety of materials which we could thread.   We found lots of exciting resources such as coloured beads, sequins, buttons, pasta and foam shapes to choose from to begin our creativity.

First we chose either pipe cleaners, ribbon or wool to use as our bracelet.  We took time to select our favourite items to personalise our own jewellery . The children demonstrated great concentration and were able to talk and share ideas with each other throughout, discussing what materials and colours they were using.

“I like this one”

‘“mine is sparkly”

” lots of colours”

“it’s hard to do”

During this time the children were exercising their fine motor skills. We  talked about how we found it a little tricky to thread through the wool,  and that the  pipe cleaners worked better. The sequins did not fit on the pipe cleaners, so a few of the children were keen to try it with the thread. This was difficult, but with lots of effort and perseverance, we were able to complete this.

“ My mum will love this”

“It’s so pretty”

The children were then excited to try on their jewellery  and show it off.

“Oh this is cool”

“Can I make another one”

“I have made one for mummy and my friend”