Being Creative - Responding to Experiences, Expressing and Communicating Ideas
Exploring Media and Materials
Creating Music and Dance
Developing Imagination and Imaginative Play
Birth-11 Months
Expressions of emotion shown through the movements of fingers, arms and bodies.
The way young babies respond when they touch or feel something such as warm milk, or a fluffy toy.
The voices, sounds and music, such as lullabies, that young babies respond to.
How a baby is pleased to see a stripy bee soft toy, or a colourful snake that crackles when it is squeezed.
8-20 Months
Young children's favourite materials, music, lights and aromas.
What babies like to make marks in and the tools they use to make them.
How babies move their whole bodies as they explore media.
The different ways babies move in response to sounds, for example, patting the floor when on their tummy, flexing and relaxing their legs, or opening and closing their palms.
The way a young baby may join in with you, moving their head or making sounds as you say, for example, "The dog went woof, woof".
16-26 Months
The ways that young children may repeat actions or make tuneful sounds as they climb steps, or step up and down from a stool.
The processes which children engage in as they explore and experiment with media.
How children like to use shakers, blocks and body movement when they hear music, or to explore sound.
Making music - In a reception class, the practitioner and a group of children work out different rhythms using percussion instruments. [transcript]
You can watch the video, via modem or slow / fast / superfast broadband connections. If you are behind a network firewall, why not click here to view a flash file of the video. You do need to have the flash plugin.
How children may turn to pretend play when an object comes to hand, for example, when a child uses a wooden block as a telephone.
22-36 Months
Word plays, signs, body language and gestures that young children use in response to their experiences, for example, a child may jump up and down or whirr around when they are excited, or eagerly engaged.
The inventive ways in which children add, or mix media, or wallow in a particular experience.
Children's responses to different songs, dance or music.
Children's make-believe play in order to gain an understanding of their interests.
30-50 Months
The ways children capture their experiences by, for example, finding materials to make wings from large pieces of red paper after watching some ladybirds in the garden.
The ways in which children explore materials and the effects they can create, for example, making swirling lines with scarves and streamers by twirling round.
Children's responses to different textures, for example, touching sections of a texture display with their fingers, or feeling it with their cheeks to get a sense of different properties.
Children's growing interest in and use of colour as they begin to find differences between colours.
How one child spontaneously makes lots of 'spiral' marks and movements on their paper, while others may imitate each other's movements.
How children begin to describe the objects they represent.
The patterns and structures children talk about, make or construct.
The ways children choose to explore sound, song or movement, for example, a group of children explored a rainforest theme through music and movement. Some used instruments to make the sounds of the rainforest, while others imitated the movements of rainforest animals.
The range of experiences children represent through imaginative play.
How children respond in different ways to stories, ideas and their own life experiences.
40-60+ Months
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.
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]
You can watch the video, via modem or slow / fast / superfast broadband connections. If you are behind a network firewall, why not click here to view a flash file of the video. You do need to have the flash plugin.
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 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.
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.
Acknowledgements
Disclaimer
00012-2007CDO-EN