More Creative Opportunities in Early Years

The World Book Day 'dress-up' and 'door-decorating competition' generated an opportunity for children across the school to get creative. In Early Years, the children were excited and motivated to work together and decorate their doors, even though Arts and Crafts are a constant feature in the children’s school experiences.

Visual Arts is essential in Early Years because it boosts creativity, confidence, and motor skills. Making mistakes is good and leads to new ideas. It also improves communication and introduces Maths concepts in an applicable way, helping children understand the world around them.

This week, the Crèche children busily collected leaves for their insect art pieces. These insects are based on the little insect illustrations they spied in the book Monkey Puzzle and of course the main character, Butterfly.

FS1 children created a Stickman family. In small groups, they made a member of the family by selecting and joining sticks then carefully winding wool to create clothes and hair for their stick-person.

FS2 children dipped themselves into Zog’s world and played 'school', made dragon characters and rescued little (toy) people.

After creating something, children often feel a sense of achievement. The Early Years children felt just this and were very proud of the parts they contributed to their collaborative door creations. They were also very interested and inspired by the creations of the other classes as they walked round the school to see what everyone else had done.