Art EYFS
Art in the Early Years Foundation Stage appears in under Expressive Arts and Design. Children explore the arts through imagination and roleplay through through their interests which are extended by educators through purposefully planned experiences to further their creativity. Children interact with materials in many different ways. The provision of the EYFS supports the children to explore different materials by engaging with the creative process to represent their thinking. Children are offered materials such as clay, playdough, paint, oil pastels, collage materials and many more. We wholeheartedly celebrate the creative process as much as the final creation.
Reception's Colour Library - exploring how colours can be changed and adapted
Nursery
Nursery Art Gallery
Take a look at how we engage our families to join us to celebrate art and learning with their children!
Nursery made their own paint by smashing flowers and vegetables with tools such as hammers and blocks.
Nursery began by exploring the work of the artist Andy Goldsworthy. They were inspired to arrange stones and other natural objects found in the outside area into beautiful art. Next they selected a range of flowers and vegetables to make their own paint.
The finished pieces looked amazing! The colour and textures of the natural paint were stunning.
Reception
As part of their yearlong enquiry into Change, the children were intrigued about the changing nature of colour. Learning how to mix primary colours, the children used their knowledge to create different shades of each colour and gave each shade a name. Some names like "Elsa blue", "Oil green", "Sunshine yellow" to name a few. Farrow and Ball.. watch out there's some competition about!
Children in Reception have explored lots of different creative outlets throughout the school year. The small world area provides the children with an avenue to re-create experiences and co-construct ideas with one another. The children have also been invited to use the creative process to explore celebrations, such as Diwali and Remembrance Day.
After reading the book the Colour Monster, the children explored how colour evoke emotions and feelings and were invited to explore colour in a way that is meaningful to them. A collaborative painting opportunity was offered as an invitation to share their emotions through colour and the exploration of acrylic paint. The children used small paintbrushes to explore form, line and details.
In a whole school paint project, Reception painted birds. This project was based on the children's interests. Some children had been observing birds in the outside area and others were learning to distinguish different bird song at home.
The children began by looking at the work of Beatrix Potter because children in Reception are most familiar with seeing art in picture books. The children were excited to see paintings of characters they were familiar with and they used pencil and watercolours to paint their own version of Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddleduck.
Next the children chose a bird they would like to paint and were provided with a photo of it. First, they used water colours to create a background. They explored how the colours mixed and ran into each other, especially when they added drops of water. After this, the children had help to cut out several different sizes of card to use for printing. They also mixed two shades of each colour that they needed by adding white.
The children were encouraged not to draw an outline of their bird but to use circular printing with cardboard to form a bird shape. They thought carefully about the shapes they would create, perhaps a circle for the head, an oval for the body and a triangular tail.
They added details such as eyes, a beak and legs with a fine paintbrush.
The finished artwork looked fantastic!
