Spots n Stripes

We have been looking at patterns recently so thought the children would enjoy this activity.  It is very adult led (however it is the children's choice whether they wish to participate), so can't really be described as a creative activity but covers aspects of the EYFS such as mixing colours, following instructions etc.

The children were provided with various templates and photographs of animals and selected the animal template that they wanted to do first. 

They first had to identify which animal it was by looking at the photographs and then we discussed the colour and pattern of the animal.  The children selected the colour paint they needed.

  I purposefully gave the children a limited number of colours as I wanted them to mix the colours that were not available, which they proved to be surprisingly good at.

When mixing colours we talked about what colour were nearly like the colour we needed and encouraged the children to make suggestions and try mixing their suggestions together.  The children particularly enjoyed mixing colours so we will do more of this next week.

  

After the children had painted the animals we looked closely at their patterns, identifying whether they were spotty or stripey and also the colours of their spots and stripes. 

 

The children decided their thumbs would be best for making bigger spots and their finger for smaller spots

With the stripey animals, we also had to identify the direction of their stripes.

The children made all of these wonderful animals.

I then encouraged the children to make up some animals of their own.  The decided on the colours they would use and then carried out their plans.We ended up with red and orange giraffes, orange and blue striped zebras and yellow dogs with black spots!

Links to EYFS:

CLL: Language for Communication - Where children respond and follow instructions
KUW: Exploration and Investigation - Noticing and commenting on patterns.

CD: Exploring Media and Materials - Exploring and mixing colours.

Salad Spinner Butterflies

There was lots of experimenting in this activity as we hadn't done it before and eventually we got it right!  I'd seen Salad Spinning Painting on Irresistable Ideas for Play-based Learning and was pretty sure it would be a hit with my little ones.  We used the butterfly templates we got from the Materials Bank (50p for about 50) and a salad spinner from Argos for £4.99.  The idea is to drop paint onto the templates and then give it a good spin to create some fantastic effects, easy .... or not.  I watered the paint down so it would run more easily and the children used pipettes to blob it onto their templates. 

Then we gave it a good spin .......

Our first attempt was a bit disappointing.

So we thought we needed to use a bit more paint.

Okay so better than the first attempt. 
We carried on experimenting and eventually found the more paint the better!  And blobbing different coloured paint on top of each other created even better effects.

Meanwhile the children were giving their arm muscles a good work out with all the spinning. 
The 30+ butterflies they created suggested to me that they really enjoyed this activity!
We even experimented with swirling the butterflies around in the paint that had spilled into the tray and created some interesting effects.

This is one activity we will definitely do again!
Links to EYFS:
3+ years
PSED: Dispositions and Attitudes - where children are keen to join in / ask for help if needed / remain focused on the activity.
PSED: Making Relationships - where children are taking turns and sharing.
CLL: Language for Communication - when children understand and follow instructions.
CLL: Language for Thinking - when children talk about the activity / try to predict what will happen when they spin the salad spinner.
CLL: Handwriting - where children are able to operate the salad spinner.
CLL: Using Equipment and Materials - where children can operate the salad spinner or show good control in using the pippette to place paint on the butterfly.

Milk Carton Elmer Elephants

We were busy making these fab Elmer Elephants today.

I'm not overly keen on activities like this as there is very little scope for children's own creativity, however, they appeared to thoroughly enjoy it and were very focused throughout.  The children are quite into Elmer stories at the moment, which was the reasoning behind the activity.  It also gave us the opportunity to practice existing skills including colour recognition (the children were quick to point out the colours we didn't have!), and small motor skills, which is vital for firm connections to be made in the brain.  I put an Elmer book on the table during the activity and was surprised by how much the children used this for reference, looking to see what colours were on Elmer's trunk etc.  Our Elmer's were made from 4 pint plastic milk cartons.

I cut the bottoms and the very tops off and masking taped around the holes that this created. 

I then gave these to the children alongside a range of different coloured tissue paper and glue (coloured paper may have been a better choice as the colours in the tissue paper tended to run).

And here are some of our fantasic Elmers - some are missing as I fogot to take a picture before the children took them home.  We also used 2 pint milk cartons to create a baby Elmer!

Links to EYFS:

CLL: Language for Communication - where older children are initiating conversations, using language to negotiate turn-taking, taking account of what others say and where younger children use language to show their interest in the activity.

CLL: Writing - where children are able to use the glue spreader to effectively spread glue onto their Elmer.

PD: Using Equipment and Materials - where younger children are able to use the glue spreader to effectively spread glue onto their Elmer.

PSRN: Numbers as Labels and For Counting - for example, where older children are able to count the number of red squares they have placed on Elmer

CD: Exploring Media and Materials - where children discuss / name colours.

PSRN: Calculating - where younger children may select only one colour to place on their Elmer (categorising objects according to their properties)