Tag Archives: #expressivearts

Reduce, reuse, recycle

Over the past two weeks the children have enjoyed exploring different textures, sizes, shapes and ways of mark-making through expressive arts and design using their imagination in the junk modelling area. We love to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Through discussions and excellent teamwork the children decided to make an alien robot, they all put forward great suggestions as they talked about what it should look like, how many eyes will it have , should we give it horns shall we paint it and what colour. Our imaginations offered up some wonderful ideas  


All of this play helps to improve fine motor skills i.e. using and showing control over mark-making tools, using pincer grip (holding tools between thumb and two fingers) – encouraging pre-writing skills, using tape and cutting with scissors and all made out of recyclable household materials donated by yourselves.

The last decision to make is what shall we call him? We have a few ideas so we thought it would help to record our votes as tally marks so we got lots of input from all the children, so far Pickachu is in the lead!

We would also like you to have a vote too the choices are:

1. Robbie Robot

2. Andy Alien

3. Pikachu 

Which is your favourite?

You might just spot him out in reception where he will be standing guard over the next few weeks.

Cart Mill Clay Creations!

In Cart Mill, we’re always seeking ways to spark imagination and connect children with the wonders of the outdoors. An activity that achieves both is the art of flower pressing in clay. This isn’t just an activity; it’s a celebration of nature’s beauty and the boundless creativity of our children.

With clay, rolling pins, colorful flowers, and herbs, our little artists began creating their works of art. First, they rolled the clay using the rolling pins to create a canvas for their art. Using the rolling pins and their hands to flatten the clay is a fun way to develop fine and gross motor skills. Next, they selected flowers and herbs to press onto the clay, leaving beautiful imprints that capture the essence of the world around them.

Some of the children have been using their problem-solving skills by figuring out how to get the flowers to stand up. They worked together and discovered they needed to pile the clay around the stem to make it stand straight. Well done!

The children had the opportunity to explore their senses by discussing how the clay felt. We also had a smell of the herbs and flowers. Below are some comments.

“It smells like my toothpaste.”

“It smells green.”

“The clay is really soft.”

“It’s a bit sticky.”

Now, we let the clay masterpieces dry, and voila! We have fantastic keepsakes that showcase not just the creativity of the Cart Mill children but also the wonders of nature.

Stay tuned for delightful surprise! These fantastic creations will be showcased in the welcome area later this week. 😀

UNCRC ARTICLES

Article 28: Education

Article 13: Freedom of expression

Life feels better with colour !

In the studio we are continuing to study artists from around the world. We have chosen to look at the colourful art work of Scotlands Steven Brown. “ McCoo” being his most famous piece of art . The children used their knowledge gained to select material to begin our painting.

We had the most fun using our hands and feet to create some bright colours and lots of shapes.  The children also chose some rollers and bottle tops to enhance their work . It was slippy standing in the paint and we had to be very careful.

The girls and boys enjoyed the sensory feeling of the paint on their hands and feet. “My feet look like a rainbow”

The girls and boys waited till the paint was dry and then we were able to create more animals within our painting using a black pen . We now have a caterpillar 🐛, a tiger 🐅, rabbit 🐰, elephant 🐘,ladybird and whale 🐳.
We enjoyed working together to produce our own colourful painting and will be continuing on with this trying out different resources and media. As we do everyday we had to help tidy up . Well done .

Article 30: You have the right to play and relax by doing things like art.

Exploring technology in the studio

As part of STEM week, the children have been exploring technology in the studio room by using the promethean board to create pictures.

The children were able to explore the different features of the ‘Actispire App’ by selecting different colours that they wanted to use..

”I’m using the yellow colour”

”I can pick black for my picture”

The children then used their gross motor and fine motor skills to perform different movements with their arms to create their picture on the board.

”I can do a circle”

”My picture is red and wavy like this”

”I can do a green colour on my picture”

T discovered that he could control the board by using the mouse pad on the laptop, he chose this as his preferred way to make selections for his picture.. great problem solving skills!

He then used the Ipad to take a picture of his creation all by himself.

 

Exploring our Senses

This week in the garden we have been exploring our sense of smell by using the herbs growing in our garden in different ways.

Today we explored our senses further by using teabags to create our own art in the studio.

We started by using our sense of smell to make observations about the different kinds of tea. We discussed the different kind of scents and what they smelled like.

“It’s mint”

“It smells like toothpaste”

“Like strawberry”

“We have mint in the garden”

To create our masterpiece we placed the tea bags on paper and used spray bottles with water to wet the tea bags. This is an excellent way to developing our fine motor skills. As the teabags absorbed the water we squeezed them, painted with them and explored the mixing of the colours.  We also talked about the texture of the tea as the bags started to break apart.

“It feels like sand”

“Little bits stick to me”

“It’s soft”

“I like mud in the garden”

The studio is now smelling very lovely, We all had lots of fun exploring our senses and creative skills.

The final masterpiece. Well done everyone!

Firework Splat Painting!

Today In the garden we created some firework pictures in preparation for bonfire night this weekend.

The children selected some paint and resources that they could spray and splat. We picked a selection of different spray bottles and pipettes to spray at the large plastic sheet and create our firework picture.

The spray bottles and pipettes helped us to develop our fine motor skills. We demonstrated good skill when filling them up and spaying them.

We then used the paint and sponges to throw the paint at the ground to make splats that resembled fireworks. This was a good way to get our bodies moving and develop our gross motor skills while being creative.


While we were painting we talking about fireworks and how we can stay safe.  These are some of the children’s comments.
😊

“You don’t touch the fire”

“Fireworks and very hot so you need to stay away”

“They go in the sky”

“Only adults do the fireworks”

Sandy-dough!

Today the children had lots of sensory fun in the playdough area. We added a special ingredient to experience some new textures with our hands; Sand playdough!

First we added our normal ingredients and did lots of mixing…


Next we added our special ingredient.

The children really engaged their imaginations, and created lots of different role playing scenarios in the playdough.

“It smells like the beach. I’m going to make a sandcastle!”

”it’s very soft. And crunchy”

“Im going to make a sand cake!”

”my baby”

Some children loved being expressive with the playdough, and enjoyed making some funny faces.

“I want to make a playdough face. Like this, look!”

The children enjoyed adding the different textures and how soft and malleable it made the playdough, making it easier to mould into different shapes and sizes. These are all experiences that help develop little fingers and little muscles, and of course our imaginations! Great work everybody  👍

 

Let’s make music!

Today in the noisy quiet room the children got creative with the musical instruments. In a small group we started by singing songs and playing our chosen instrument together.  We began to explore beat and tried to copy the beat played by Derek and follow along wile we sang. We all played beautifully and made an excellent band.

“Let’s do old MacDonald had a cat”

“Sing twinkle twinkle”

We then explored how to use the instruments to make different sounds. Learning new words like high pitch and low pitch, and learning how to make the instruments sound noisy or quiet.

“Twinkle twinkle is a quiet song play it just a little”

Then the group got creative and invented their own songs. We had “it’s time to go to bed song”,  “The snake in the hat song” and the “bumped the head song”.  They were superb!

We all demonstrated good turn taking and swapped our instruments  in the group so that everyone got a turn at playing something different. We all had lots of fun and can’t wait till we can do it again.