Mark-making in EYFS
10th September 2022
Mark-making in the Early Years is when children start to intentionally create their own lines, patterns, or shapes using their bodies or tools. It is the first step towards writing, mathematics and the creative arts and it is very important for their physical development.
What a wonderful way to start the term with Growing our Future project. The children have had so much fun outside with seeds, spades and watering cans. Learning all about what plants need to grow and why it is so important to have them. This is also a great place to start mark-making! Using spades and sticks to draw in the mud, using their hands to plant and weed strengthens them. Inside the classroom we have been recreating gardens in a whole variety of ways. We started off reading the story Errol’s Garden, which helped us to think about how to plan a garden, and how to work together.
We designed some of our own gardens using paper and pencils and thought about what we would like to grow - strawberries were very popular! We have also been free painting and printing flowers in all our favourite colours, using our hands, paintbrushes, chalk, finger tips, toilet rolls and sprinkled cumin seeds (which smelt wonderful). Creche have been using leaves as paintbrushes as well as making leaf prints which have formed beautiful pieces of work. FS2 have been painting gardens and writing wonderful poems
A highlight of everybody's week has been the whole of the EYFS working on an art canvas together. Creche started by painting the whole background blue, then FS1 added their flower paintings and FS2 added theirs on top. The collaboration has created one of the most beautiful pieces of work, which will proudly hang next to the other canvases that are being created further up school.
Overall, mark making has endless possibilities: from scribbling on a piece of paper using a crayon, making patterns in the sand or mud using a stick, or painting shapes with their fingertips or handprints. No matter what their method, mark-makings are the beginnings of formal communication on paper and the next stage in their development.
