Tag Archives: #creativityskills

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.

 

 

 

Digital Technology, Social Studies, Technologies

Our emotions😀😢🤪😱🫣🥱😡😳

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This week at the malleable area the children have been using their creative imaginations to mould our play dough into different things.

“I made a big worm, I rolled it with my hands”
“look I made my ear in the play dough, I lied down like this”

”I made a smiley face”

The smiley face sparked a conversation about the different faces we could make.

”can I show you my silly face”

The children used the iPad to take a picture of the different faces they could make, they even took a picture of Carly’s silly face but we won’t bore you with that.

Each child made a different face and we discussed what they were and why we might feel these ways. Using facial expressions we can begin to learn and recognise different feelings and emotions that we can feel and find solutions to understanding and dealing with them.

”some of the new boys and girls get sad faces when they just come to nursery, now they have happy faces”

We will continue exploring emotions in different ways at the malleable table, it is a very important way of communication especially for children as they don’t often understand their feelings.

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Refreshing the rules

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Today in the discovery room the children were keen to open up the tinker table and use the tools, but before we could do that we had to do something very important.

The children gathered round and noticed the safety goggles under the bench. They tried them on and even collected hard hats from the block area . We discussed the rules of the tinker table and the purpose of our PPE for our new children and remind our returning children.

“ We need to wear safety goggles to stop things going in our eyes”

“ The helmet stops our head getting hurt”


Next we explored the tools. I asked if the children knew what their names were and if they knew what their job was.

“I have a hammer, i can use the hammer to make something with the wood”

We had a look at the different shapes and sizes of all the tools.

“That one is pointy and that one is small”

“what’s this called?” “ I know that one is pliers”

The children had a great discussion on all the tools and told each other the names and what they do. We had a look at the plan book that other children had made, they drew what they planned to make and then selected the correct materials to make it.

This inspired the children to think of their own ideas of things they would like  to make.

Our memories are now refreshed of the rules and are ready to start being creative. When we are finished at the tinker table we put our closed sign ( that the children made) up so that they know that the area is closed.

Block building, Technologies

Budding architects and construction engineers!

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It’s been a brilliant few weeks in our busy block area! A number of our 4&5 year olds have become expert architects and construction engineers! They are able to describe what they are going to build before they start, draw their own plan, demonstrate excellent problem solving skills when creating their fabulous models and then use our iPads to capture images to create a fabulous display of their work.

”I used lots of blocks. I did it like symmetry, the same on each side. We found a picture that looks like it on the iPad”.

”We made a high chair for the teddy to sit in to eat his lunch, and a bed for the dolly cos she was tired”.

”I builded my house. These are the walls. I made a table and chairs and bunk beds to sleep in”.

Our 2 & 3 year olds have had lots of fun exploring stacking, demonstrating excellent problem solving skills by investigating how the blocks turn, fit on top of each other and different sizes, shapes and weights.

It was so much fun to see how many we could put on top of each other before they fell over!

Through observing and learning from our more experienced children, our 2&3 year olds are at the early stages of creating their own bridges.  Although they much prefer using their friends creations for their cars and trucks!


To add further challenge and depth to their learning, our children were set a challenge to see if they could build a bridge to help our small world people cross the river safely!   This sparked some wonderful conversation, problem solving, creativity and teamwork! Our children designed their own village with a school, park, shops and lots of houses and constructed some wonderful bridges to allow our people to cross the river safely to “go to the shops and the park”.


“I builded a bridge. There’s crocodiles in the water!”
“Look the people can cross the river to get to the park and the shop”.

”This bit doesn’t fit. We need a longer bit. Why don’t we try this bit?”

It has been so much fun watching our children develop their design and creativity talents, we can’t wait to share our future creations with you!

Articles 28 & 29 – children have the right to an education, children have the right to an education which tries to develop your talents and abilities.

 

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, Literacy, Outdoor Learning, Social Studies, Technologies

New and improved wormery

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Following on from our last up-cycling project, we can now say we have finished fixing our broken wormery.

The children have worked so hard over the past couple of weeks using the tools and their problem solving skills to put it back together. They worked as a team to decide what they would use and what tools would work best.

“This small bit is too small”

“ We could use this long piece of wood on the side”

“we need a little nail and a hammer to put it on we don’t want to break the wood in half”

“What does this do? it has a bubble in it”

We learned that the spirit level indicates whether a surface is ‘Level’ or ‘plumb’.

“What does plumb mean?” We researched it and found out that ”Plumb means that the surface is sitting straight, it is vertical” This meant that we could check the sides were running straight up and down. We also used the spirit level to check the wormery was level across the top and bottom. We found out this is horizontal!

Every tinker table experience is different, even if it seems the same. We learn new vocabulary every day and learn skills that we can transfer into our everyday life, especially as we get older.

Using a wormery for compost is an easy and environmentally-friendly way of turning food waste in to nutritious compost to feed your garden.

Now we just need find some worms to come and live in it and make up its bedding! 🐛

Expressive Arts, Technologies

Upcycling project

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This week the children have been working very hard to start their up cycling project at the tinker table.

They began by  looking for something around the playroom that they could ‘Up cycle’. They found an old storage drawer that had missing handles on the boxes. They collected loose materials such as buttons, pipe cleaners, beads, bottle lids,  small wood chips and twigs to use as new handles for the boxes.


They used skills they had previously learned at the tinker table to join the new handles to the box.

“I can use the hammer and nails to put this wood on”

 

Once all the new handles were on the children noticed one of the drawers were missing. Using their problem solving skills one of the older children suggested making a sign to let everyone know that the new up cycled storage drawers belong to the tinker table.

The next job on the list is to up cycle our broken wormery, we are looking for longer pieces of wood if anyone has any lying about that they no longer need.

Expressive Arts, Social Studies, Technologies

Creative clay ⚒

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In the clay area today the children have been super creative and using their design skills and imagination to create models. We have also been exploring and using different tools and techniques to create patterns and prints on the clay…

we used lots of different loose parts to create some “birthday cakes” and sang happy birthday to our friends.

then we used different tools to copy and create patterns and textures on the clay, we practiced hammering, rolling and creating prints showing how creative and imaginative we can be!


Exploring with clay helps to develop our hand eye co-ordination and fine motor manipulating skills. It gives the children the opportunity to socialise with their friends through talking and listening to each other’s ideas and also work independently.

i wonder what creations we will make over the next few weeks! 🤩

 

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Banana and raisin muffins

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This week our little chefs have been baking delicious muffins, following recipes from our ‘Tickle fingers, toddler cookbook’. We have been making Dairy and Gluten free Blueberry Yoghurt muffins but we ran out of blueberry yoghurt (Plant based Alpro- soya) and blueberries so had to improvise this morning.

We followed the same recipe but adapted the ingredients to suit what we had available.  We had a discussion on what ingredients we would use.  “We could use bananas” “and raisins”.

We washed our hands and put our aprons on ready to begin baking.

Working their larger arm muscles, the children began by using a potato masher to mash the banana until it was all mushy. They helped each other as it was so tough.

“It’s so tricky” “ I’m using my big muscles”

Next we added all the liquids to the banana mix including  oil, honey, soya milk and gave it a good mix using the whisk.


They added the raisins then used their measuring skills to weigh out the gluten free self raising flour using the scales, each child took turns to add a scoop to the bowl and watched as the measurements got higher.

”it’s got a 3 and 4”

“Now it’s got two 6’s that number is sixty six”

Next they added the flour to the mix and gave it a good mix till it was the right consistency for our muffins. We filled up our muffin cases and popped them in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. We discussed how to use the oven safely using oven gloves and letting an adult put them in.


The muffins turned out great and are now ready to go home.

”they smell like banana”

Expressive Arts

Let’s explore loose parts.

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Today in the Discovery Room, we were exploring the loose parts. We set up the loose part area with some natural materials and some familiar objects that might spark some interest in our children’s creativity.

We had objects such as shells, wooden disks, bottle lids, wooden pegs and wooden rings.
Our older children decided to have a loose parts tea party.

They used the loose parts and pretended they were foods such as burgers, pizza  and cups of tea. The older children were able to use their imaginative skills to add the loose parts into their role play, making connection with objects, relating them to real life scenarios.
Some of our older children used the loose parts to turn into different objects and shapes.

We recreated shapes such as love hearts and faces.

Our younger children were using the loose parts to stack, line up and  using containers to fill and empty with them.

The children were making long bridges with all the different types of loose parts adding each one to make the bridge longer.


The 2-3 year old children were enjoying exploring each of the loose parts seeing what can be done with them. We could balance the wooden disk on the large screw.

We could stack them on top of each other.
We enjoyed looking at the different shape, size and texture of each of the loose part materials.

Our children are all at different stages in their play with  loose parts and it is wonderful to see how the creative minds of each of our children works. Each child has their on unique way of using the loose parts.

Article 31 – every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.