Expressive art and design is one of the seven areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage and is used to develop a child’s imagination, creativity and their ability to use media and materials.

Helping children to be creative is as much about encouraging attitudes of curiosity and questioning as about skills or techniques. Children notice everything and closely observe the most ordinary things that adults often take for granted. Building on children’s interests can lead to them creating amazing inventions or making marks on paper that represent for them an experience or something they have seen. Encouraging children to choose and use materials and resources in an open-ended way helps them to make choices and to have confidence in their own ideas.

Retaining childhood confidence in their ideas and skills can easily be lost if others ‘take over’ and try to suggest what the child is making, thinking or doing. Just expressing an interest in the process a child has gone through is often enough or asking open questions such as ‘Can you tell me about it – that looks interesting’ may be all that is required to help a child hold on to their remarkable creativity. (EarlyYears Matters 2022)

On Monday, we had the exciting arrival of the chicks and on Wednesday the children observed two chicks which had hatched. The arrival of the chicks has prompted lots of activities linked to them like egg size ordering, cutting and sticking activities, exploring wind up chick toys, using seed to fill up capacity containers and lots more.

In our 2 year old room, the children are continuing to grow their own vegetables; you should see the size of the cucumbers they have grown! They have also been engaged in activities about eggs and chicks. 

The 2-year-olds have also begun being part of small groups playing games like lotto and snap. These sorts of games are very important for developing an understanding of turn taking, problem-solving and developing communication skills. Most importantly it is a simple, enjoyable way to have one on one time with a child, which they of course love.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Ainsley and the Nursery Team.