Tag Archives: painting

Creative movement, Creativity, Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, Literacy, Mindful moments, nature, Outdoor Learning, Social Studies, Special Event

Garden roundup

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It’s been a busy week for us in the garden. We are developing our motor skills in a variety of ways.


This simple but effective experience enabled the children to experiment with colour mixing as well as developing their fine motor and early writing skills as they made marks on the foil using different  tools.

“ The blue got on the yellow and now the yellow looks a bit green”.

“I making fireworks”


The fireworks have really grabbed the children’s attention and been the topic of conversation. Throwing the powder paint on the ground sparked an idea. “The ground is black like the sky at night”

They threw lots of different colours on the ground and used small and large items to move and redirect the paint in different shapes and patterns.


Learning how to move our bodies in different ways to develop our gross motor skills and mark making skills has been so much fun.

We filled some tights with different materials such as sponges, pasta, pom poms and balls and used them to create a piece of art. This allowed the children to explore descriptive language as they figured out how to make marks on the foil.

“The pasta is spikey”

“ This one is really heavy I had to spin round and round to get the paint up there”

“ I want to get it to the top so I have to stretch my legs and stand on my tiptoes and do a big jump”

To end the week we thought it would be a good idea to begin learning about Remembrance Day and why we mark this as a special day. We watched a short child friendly video about the Poppy and decided to create our own.
The children used cut up potatoes and loose parts to make marks on the paper to create a lovely picture.

“ My dad wears a poppy for all the soldiers”

“ We can put purple on it too to remember the Animals”

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, Literacy

Pikachu clay models

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The children wanted to make something different with the clay, but they were unsure of what. So last week we sat down together and discussed some ideas, I asked the children questions to get them to really think about their interests and how we could incorporate these in to our clay area.

Pokémon seemed to be a common theme so we used the iPad to search the internet for some Pokémon ideas. We came across a clay Pokémon figure, it was perfect! The children helped pick out some other clay model pictures including unicorns, garden gnomes, and even Elsa from Frozen . I printed these out and laminated them, leaving them on the table to inspire some ideas.

The children began to make their own models, squeezing, rolling, and manipulating the clay to their desired shape. They soon realised looking at the pictures that our clay was grey and the pictures used coloured clay, how would they make their own models colourful? They worked together using their problem solving skills to come up with some ideas. “I know, we could get paint!” “and paintbrushes and paint them and that’s how they will be colours”.


Once their models were finished we left them to dry out over the weekend, ready for painting this morning.

There was lots of great ideas.


“A bowl of soup with spoon”

“Pikachu”

“I made a snail”


They put their finished models on the shelf to let the paint dry, we can’t wait to see the end result.

 

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Natures Canvas

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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)

Expressive Arts, Snack, Special Event

Today we were Celebrating Burns day at Cart Mill family centre 😁

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Here are some of our Burns day activities. We enjoyed Vegetarian haggis neeps and tatties for our snack and asked the children what they thought of it thumbs up or thumbs down I’m pleased to say the majority of the children liked it.

” The haggis is a bit spicy, but I like it”

“ can I have some more , it’s so good”

“I don’t like it, it’s to bitty”

” The turnip is my favourite it’s a nice yellow colour “

We also enjoyed painting using a big box and cars to move the paint around to look like tartan.   The box was quite heavy and the children had to get it into the correct angle to move the cars. “ My car is super fast” “ Im making the green tartan”

After lunch the children decided they would like to try some highland dancing. They were twirling jumping and dancing in time to the Scottish music.

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

Creative painting 🎨🖌

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This week in the studio we have been exploring different  paint techniques. We have been using the wire racks to create our pictures. As we explored painting thought the wire racks we noticed the strips and squares in our paintings and some of the children begin to explore some simple pattern in their painting


“I’m using yellow”

“I’m doing long strips”

”There is lots of squares”

“A face”

“My pattern is red blue red blue”

While painting their master pieces the children have been developing their fine motor skill, specially awareness, mathematical language and exploring the different process and outcome as they explore the paint.

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Let’s get painting!

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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.

Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Today we had fun painting in the style of Kandinsky😁

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Kandinsky was a pioneer of abstract art he is known for his inventive use of of colour and one of his most well-known images was a colour study with concentric circles. The children decided to recreate this famous piece of art work putting their own unique spin on it. First
We went on a circle hunt around the nursery to find objects we could use for our outdoor Kandinsky painting. “There’s lots of different shapes in here look here are two circles we can use” “ Look this would make a good circle shape it could also be for a robots eye” “I have shapes we could use to paint circles on my tower” “ cardboard tubes would make good circles”

We had great fun using the objects we found to make our circle designs developing our gross motor skills. The children were very creative making their painting. “ I want to use the plunger” “ I think the cardboard tube makes the best circles” “


“Im using the blue paint and the tube to make a big circle then I’m putting a smaller one inside it” “Circles, everywhere big ones small ones and tiny ones too”


The children were excited about their finished art work and we all think it looks amazing. Well done everyone great team work 🤩

Expressive Arts, Maths Week Scotland

Kandinsky Corner – Maths week in the Studio

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It was all about maths in the Studio Room as we celebrated Maths week Scotland. Which fitted in perfectly with our learning provocation area.


We have been learning about different artists and what their famous art work is. This month it’s Kandinsky.
Kandinsky is famous for his wonderful abstract work that have various shapes in them.
We have been trying our hand at creating our version of some of his paintings, using circles.
First we used paint to create a large scale painting. We used each of our primary paint colours and using our colour mixing skills creating bright and different colours just like the one’s Kandinsky uses.  We used our shape recognition skills to create huge and tiny circles inside one another.

Next we used our scissor skills to cut circles out of felt, gum paper, foam and shiny paper. We experimented with different textures for this abstract art picture.

We used our counting skills as we counted how many circles we used for our pictures.
We also tried ink prints using ink pads and corks to print circles onto paper to create a different type of abstract art. We used our 3D shape recognition skills to learn the shape of the cork.

The children enjoyed using the provocation area themselves to recreate Kandinskys work in their own ways. They used chalks,

Using digital technology on our paint app, on the smart board,

Paint dabbers,

and our pencils.

We were very proud of the work we created.
to finish off our week of Kandinsky circles art we used different circle shaped resources to draw around. We tried records, cups, pots  and mirrors.

It was a wonderful creation.
Maths can be a big part of art and is found in each area in our art room, it could be shape recognition with the different sizes of boxes in the junk model area. Counting how many pumps of the paint  we need to mix colours. Making patterns with the collage materials or clay and many more opportunities to learn our Maths skills with the joy of Art.
I wonder what artist we will learn about next?
Here is a wee look at some of our other maths experiences we have took part in through the week within our Studio Room. That have challenged and develop our children from 2-5 year olds with their maths skills.

Expressive Arts

Bubble, Bubble, Splat.

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In the Studio Room our children have enjoyed using the rollers to paint. Today we used bubble wrap to further develop their interests.

We started with the different shaped rollers. We picked the colour of paint we wanted then got to work rolling the paint rollers across the bubble wrap.


We enjoyed listening to the pop of the bubbles as the rollers glided over. We spoke about the patterns our rollers were making onto the bubble wrap. “Curvy” and “zigzag” ones are the favourites.

We like popping the bubbles with our hands and exploring the texture of the bubble wrap.

Our activity soon took a change and became much more fun and sensory based as we used our hands to paint.

Much more fun! We decided the the bubble wrap was “bumpy” and the paint was “cold” and  “smooth”.

We tried different ways to pop the bubbles, with our fingers and our whole hands.

We used our hands to mix the colours together to make new colours and spread the paint all over the bubble wrap making it look colourful and bold.


We even tried printing our hands and the bubble wrap with corks to experiment with the sounds and shapes it would make.

We had such fun with something so simple that inspired thought provoking questions from our children from 2-5 years. We enjoyed incorporating sensory experiences into our painting. We were learning about patterns and using new descriptive language.
But most important of all, we had the best fun getting messy.