Tag Archives: expressive arts

Today in the studio we were Marble painting.

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.

Team work makes the dream work

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.

An introduction to rhythm sticks 🎼


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.

 

Creative Toddlers


Today some of the toddlers got creative mark making, selecting their own paint colours and using large brushes and rollers, developing fine motor skills and muscle dexterity they even made their own natural brushes from recycled flowers.  They painted over different textures  eg Anaglypta , tinfoil, cling film, lining paper and  canvas promoting language development  about how the different materials felt. “That paper is rough” “the shiny is cold and smooth”The toddlers talked about the colours they were using and mixing. “ It’s yellow”  “ I like the blue paint best” “I’m making purple” They enjoyed using the roller and big brushes. “I want the biggest brush” “the roller is fun” The toddlers did great turn taking whilst sharing the resources.  The end result was a beautiful piece of colourful art. Well done toddlers!