Being Creative - Responding to Experiences, Expressing and Communicating Ideas
Talk about personal intentions, describing what they were trying to do.
Respond to comments and questions, entering into dialogue about their creations.
Make comparisons and create new connections.
Respond in a variety of ways to what they see, hear, smell, touch and feel.
Express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools, imaginative and role-play, movement, designing and making, and a variety of songs and musical instruments.
The connections children make as they respond to different experiences, for example, remembering being cold at Diwali and seeing the cheery lights may inspire one child to begin to dance like the flames of the Diwali lamps.
How children respond to new experiences and how they respond differently to similar experiences, for example, a child may run around moving their arms rhythmically when they see or hear a train, or run along calling "train, train" as if they are trying to catch up with it, while another day they may want to draw, paint or represent the power of the train.
How children design and create, either using their own ideas or developing those of others.
Support children in expressing opinions and introduce language such as 'like', 'dislike', 'prefer' and 'disagree'.
Be alert to children's changing interest and the way they respond to experiences differently when they are in a happy, sad or reflective mood.
Introduce language that enables children to talk about their experiences in greater depth and detail.
Provide children with examples of how other people have responded to experiences, engage them in discussions of these examples and help them to make links and connections.
Provide and organise resources and materials so children can make their own choices in order to express their ideas.
Be sensitive to the needs of children who may not be able to express themselves easily in English, using interpreter support from known adults, or strategies such as picture cards to enable children to express preferences.
Exploring Media and Materials
Explore what happens when they mix colours.
Choose particular colours to use for a purpose.
Understand that different media can be combined to create new effects.
Experiment to create different textures.
Create constructions, collages, painting and drawings.
Use ideas involving fitting, overlapping, in, out, enclosure, grids and sun-like shapes.
Work creatively on a large or small scale.
Explore colour, texture, shape, form and space in two or three dimensions.
The inventive ways in which children mix colours.
The decisions that children make about colour choices.
How children experiment to create new effects and textures, for example, by drizzling glue over wool, or squirting pools of colour on to paper.
How children combine their creative skills and imagination to create something new, such as when a small group of children are using large blocks to represent their experience of a visit to the ferry port. After much discussion and negotiation they make arrows for the one-way system and a variety of signs and symbols. They tell the stories of people who will go on the ferry and wonder about whether one family will get there on time.
The numerous ways in which children create and construct, and how their explorations lead to new understandings about media.
Making a model with glue - In reception class, a practitioner supports the child in fixing boxes together. [transcript]
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Help children to gain confidence in their own way of representing ideas.
Talk to children about ways of finding out what they can do with different media and what happens when they put different things together such as sand, paint and sawdust.
Help children to develop a problem-solving approach to overcome hindrances as they explore possibilities that media combinations present. Offer advice and additional resources as appropriate.
Alert children to changes in properties of media as they are transformed through becoming wet, dry, flaky or fixed. Talk about what is happening, helping them to think about cause and effect.
Provide resources for mixing colours, joining things together and combining materials, demonstrating where appropriate.
Introduce pieces of wood, stone, rock or seaweed for children to feel and discover.
Provide children with opportunities to use their skills and explore concepts and ideas through their representations.
Have a 'holding bay' where 2D and 3D models and works can be retained for a period for children to enjoy, develop, or refer to.
Block play - In a nursery school, a small group of children work together on a large construction, and afterwards their work-in-progress is cordoned off, showing that their achievement is respected. [transcript]
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Creating Music and Dance
Begin to build a repertoire of songs and dances.
Explore the different sounds of instruments.
Begin to move rhythmically.
Recognise and explore how sounds can be changed, sing simple songs from memory, recognise repeated sounds and sound patterns and match movements to music.
Children's interest in exploring sound, rhythm and the arts such as when, in response to listening to music that represents the sea, the children composed their own sound picture. This led them into planning and constructing a pirate ship in the role-play area and using materials in the art and technology area to make hats, flags and other props to support their play.
Support children's developing understanding of the ways in which paintings, pictures and music and dance can express different ideas, thoughts and feelings.
Encourage discussion about the beauty of nature and people's responsibility to care for it. Help children to support other children and offer another viewpoint.
Extend children's experience and expand their imagination through the provision of pictures, paintings, poems, music, dance and story.
Provide a stimulus for imaginative recreation and composition by introducing atmospheric features in the role-play area, such as the sounds of rain beating on a roof, or placing a spotlight to suggest a stage set. Provide curtains and place dressing-up materials and instruments close by.
Developing Imagination and Imaginative Play
Introduce a storyline or narrative into their play.
Play alongside other children who are engaged in the same theme.
Play cooperatively as part of a group to act out a narrative.
Use their imagination in art and design, music, dance, imaginative and role-play and stories.
The way stories are developed in children's play, for example, children may start 'swimming' on the 'beach' and extend their storyline into a meeting with a mermaid and their adventures with her.
Be aware of the link between imaginative play and children's ability to handle narrative.
Carefully support children who are less confident.
Introduce descriptive language to support children, for example, 'rustle' and 'shuffle'.
Make materials accessible so that children are able to imagine and bring to fruition their projects and ideas while they are still fresh in their minds and important to them.
Provide opportunities indoors and outdoors and support the different interests of children, for example, in role-play of a builder's yard, encourage narratives to do with building and mending.
Acknowledgements
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00012-2007CDO-EN