Art works

Children can give their creative impulses free rein if early years practitioners have carefully planned their provision of resources and activities, says Jane Drake in our Foundation Stage series

Long-term planning

Planning for childrens learning in areas of provision requires careful thought if children are to be offered a range of high-quality experiences on a permanent basis. All staff members should be aware of how to support childrens learning in each area and plans should cover this role.

Possible learning experiences

The creative workshop offers rich opportunities for cross-curricular learning, for example:

• Working collaboratively
• Talking about ideas and plans
• Learning about shape
• Using tools with increasing control

However, the key areas of learning to be developed in this area are probably knowledge and understanding of the world (designing and making) and creative development (exploring media and materials, imagination and responding to experiences, expressing and communicating ideas). In the creative workshop, children will be able to:

• explore materials
• learn how to use tools and techniques effectively and safely
• experiment with colour, line, texture, shape, form and space
• use materials to express ideas and experiences
• engage in mixed media work
• talk about plans and ideas
• respond to works of art
• dismantle and remake boxes
• revisit work and modify designs.

Organisation

• Allocate a fairly large area for the workshop, as children often choose to work on a large scale.
• Provide a good range of tools and materials, as children need to be able to make independent choices.
• If possible, locate the area close to a child-height sink to enable children to fill their own paint pots and wash equipment.
• Provide washable floor covering.
• Provide opportunities for exploring media and materials outside.
• Ask parents and carers to supply consumable materials, such as suitable packaging, plastic pots and bottles. Point out that packaging for medication is not appropriate.
• Sort recycled items into, for example, tubes, cardboard boxes, plastic tubs and lids.
• Store cardboard boxes flat to save space.
• Designate a staff member responsible for maintaining the stock.
• Provide display areas a gallery for childrens 2D work and an open shelf unit or tabletop for 3D work in progress or finished models.
• Plan time for adults to give children one-to-one support when using the woodwork tools.

Resources

• Flat surface and an easel
• Self-coloured protective tablecloth
• Washable aprons
• Open shelf units or trolleys
• Drying rack (or a washing line and pegs, but a flat surface avoids the possibility of paint dribbling)
• Powder, ready-mixed and block paints
• Water pots, palettes and spatulas
• Marbling inks and fabric dyes
• Paper of different textures, colours and weights
• Brushes of different thicknesses, such as DIY and toothbrushes
• Rollers
• Mark-making tools, such as crayons, pens, dry pastels, charcoal and chalk
• Natural and found objects
• Shallow trays and sponges (to be paint pads for printing)
• Collage materials such as fabric, ribbons, sequins, and natural materials
• Paper art straws, wooden lolly sticks, dowelling, wooden/card wheels
• Newsprint rolled into paper sticks
• Recycled materials such as plastic pots, bottles, cereal packets and kitchen roll tubes
• Joining and fixing materials such as masking tape, glue sticks, treasury tags, paper clips and rubber bands
• Scissors and hole punch
• Sticky and folded card labels (for naming work)
• Woodwork tools and materials such as hand-operated drills, screwdrivers, hammers, saws, sandpaper, nails, balsa wood, off-cuts of wood and cork.

Adult role

• Teach paint-mixing routines and appropriate use of tools.
• Work with children in the area, modelling skills and offering imaginative ideas.
• Support children in selecting tools and materials and in tidying away equipment after use (including washing up their own paint equipment).
• Celebrate childrens individuality and creativity, so giving status to their ideas and work.
• Talk with children about their work, asking challenging questions such as How can we make the wheels on your car go round? What did you use to make these marks on the paper? What would you use to make wiggly lines?

Medium-term planning

Medium-term planning highlights the activities that will take place during the next few weeks and the resources that practitioners need to add to the area of provision. Sometimes activities will be directly supported by an adult; at other times children will work independently. Medium-term planning may be linked to a topic or interest but should be flexible enough to allow children to follow their own interests and be supported in these by an adult. For example:

Christmas Additional resources

Folded card of various shapes and sizes, labels, newsprint or sugar paper, plastic tubs, printing blocks of various shapes, cardboard boxes and drums, some toys from the setting.

Activities

Designing and making Christmas cards using own collage, printing, painting or drawing ideas; decorating and writing parcel labels; printing wrapping paper; choosing a present to wrap; selecting a suitable box for the present (talking about shape and size); wrapping up presents.

Balls Additional resources

Marbles, wooden spherical beads, balls (squash, tennis, football), drinking straws, small shallow trays and large builders tray, paper cut to the size and shape of trays.

Activities

Rolling marbles, beads and balls randomly through ready-mixed paint in trays to create patterns; rolling balls across the tray to a child on the other side; creating a wheel spoke pattern; using beads as wheels and a straw as the axle when building model vehicles; using beads or balls as heads when making puppets; building marble runs using cardboard tubes.

Short-term planning

When planning for childrens learning in the short term, ideas can be taken from various sources. The medium-term topic plans will include activity suggestions and the long-term plans for areas of provision will act as a prompt, but there must also be a strong emphasis on childrens individual or group interests and needs. The key to identifying and planning for these is observation.

Case study Observation

After hearing the story of The Three Bears, Katy began playing out the story in the home corner. She told the supporting adult which were Daddy, Mummy and Baby Bear. She found two bowls and asked the adult to help her find a big, Daddy bowl. She retold the story in her own words, using her props and, in the absence of beds, laid the bears on the floor.

Staff response

Responding to Katys enjoyment of this story, staff planned an extension activity in the workshop. They put bowls, spoons and chairs graded in size in the home corner and suggested that they now make beds for the bears.

Key early learning goals

• Use developing mathematical ideas to solve problems
• Build and construct with a wide range of objects, selecting appropriate resources and adapting work where necessary

Resources

Three teddy bears, cardboard boxes with lids, pieces of fabric and foam, tape, scissors, photographs of beds, assembly plans for a flatpack bed.

Activity content

• Look at and talk about the pictures, plans and materials with the children.
• Talk about the shape, size and length of bears when selecting a suitable box for a bed. Encourage the use of mathematical language such as big, long, and square.
• Experiment with ways of fastening the legs and headboards to the beds.
• Discuss how big, and what shape, the blankets need to be.