Creative-Arts-Page (ID 1009)

• Exploring Clay in Nursery
  Artist Cath Rive
  Exploring Clay in Nursery

  "What is this Mud where did you get it from?" Asks Aliya. "It’s clay, it comes out of the ground" - Ethan

  In the Nursery we have discovered clay is a valuable material in enabling children to settle into the nursery as it encourages conversations and sharing between children. It is a great as a tool for getting to know each other. Clay is introduced to the children as the term starts in September.

  

  Clay is an inclusive open ended resource rich in possibilities. It is accessible to all ages and abilities. Children are able to share and express their interests and ideas.

  Clay is an inclusive open ended resource rich in possibilities. It is accessible to all ages and abilities. Children are able to share and express their interests and ideas.

  ‘I can make holes in it’ Patrick

  Children's first encounters with materials involve exploration and action. This is a necessary step in the children's process of understanding. Through encounters and explorations, children build and awareness of what can happen with materials.

  As their skills develop so do the possibilities their imaginations take hold. They move into open ended exploration making unique creations.

  

  ‘I squish it Daniel’ ‘I squish, soft and cold’ Grace

  Clay can stimulate communication and social skills. As the children manipulate the clay, they tell stories. They discuss, conversations develop as they share interests, ideas and discoveries. They ask questions and learn from each other. They have to work together sharing resources and space.

  

  Spending time exploring clay children solve problems as they adapt adjust and rebuild their clay creations. They develop their confidence, show focus, persistence and resilience. As the children explore and manipulate the clay they make discoveries.

  They test their strength exploring the weight, size and shape.

  

  Over time they develop skills and strategies learning how to flatten the clay. They will use their fingers, hands, elbows, feet and tummies.

  Clay is a fantastic mathematical resource. As the children explore the properties of the clay they develop concepts of weight, shape, space and number.

  

  The children solve problems such as how to share a clay ‘birthday cake’ in to enough equal portions. They will divide the clay in to half’s, quarters… Instinctively they will cut the clay into many equal sized pieces.

  As they manipulate they measure, and compare different size, and amounts of clay. They explore and experiment with two and three dimensional shapes. There are many opportunities to count and explore number. Their language develops as they describe the position and shape of their clay.

  Clay as a creative tool for expression

  Encouraging the children to follow and express their own interests and ideas discoveries are made their creations are wide ranging, surprising and go way beyond our expectations. As their confidence and understanding of the possibilities of the clay develops so does their creativity and imagination. Independently they will seek out materials to combine with the clay.

  As the children manipulate large lumps of clay children develop their gross motor skills. These are the development of the large muscles in the body. These muscles are important for hand eye co-ordination, the ability to recognise body space and being aware of the left and right hand side of the body.

  Clay helps develop fine motor skills allowing children to manipulate small amounts of clay in their hands and fingers. These skills enable children to manipulate small objects with precision. It also helps them make the precise movements required in writing.

  In Blue room parents and carers are invited into the Nursery to spend time exploring the clay with their children. Phillip and his Mummy spent time together manipulating the clay with much determination and focus Phillip made this clay creation.

  

• Untold Stories
  Untold Stories

  Woodlands Park was lucky enough to receive funding from the Big Lottery Celebrate fund to run a unique new project.

  The project involved a number of different strands, combining outreach to a number of communities, the development of photography trails in the local area, and a series of shared lunches and celebratory events.

  Woodlands Park engaged with a range of creative partners, including resident artist Cath Rive and regular collaborators Groundswell Arts, in the process.

  

  

• The Lullaby Project
  The Lullaby Project

  The Lullaby Project originated at Woodlands Park and Pembury House Nursery Schools and Children’s Centres in 2010 as part of a piece of action research to explore ways of engaging families through the arts. The idea was to work with a family and through speaking to them about their child compose a unique and special song about the child.

  Since that time Woodlands Park has worked closely with Angeline Conaghan of Groundswell Arts to develop bids

  to Youth Music and we have continued to roll out this project. Angeline Conaghan continues to run the project at Woodlands for Nursery children and families and the project has now been rolled out by Groundswell Arts to 20 settings in Haringey and is currently being delivered by a team of freelance songwriters.

  Every child that takes part in the project receives a CD with a unique song composed for them and this is used by both parents at home and key workers in the nursery to nurture the confidence and wellbeing of our children.

  The project has been shared at a wide range of conferences and events and included in a variety of textbooks. A research report by the Sydney De Haan Centre for Arts and Health can be read here.

  For more information about the project please contact info@groundswellarts.com

  

  

• Exploring Light Colour and Shadow
  Artist Cath Rive
  Exploring Light Colour and Shadow

  Autumn is a time of year when the dark nights are long. Cultural events, celebrations and festivals such as Bonfire Night, Diwali and Christmas happen in this term. These festivals and celebrations focus on light: Bonfire night with fire and fireworks lighting up the dark night sky; Diwali the Hindu festival of light where homes are filled with light; and Christmas with people decorating their homes with fairy lights and sparkly and reflective materials. This autumn term with resident artist Cath Rive children in Blue Room have been exploring light, shadow and colour.

  Through their experiences and explorations the children are developing their knowledge of the world and understanding how it works.

  Using torches the children can experience and explore the dark. They discover they can control the beam of light by shining it on objects, the walls and the ceiling. They can shine the torch light on to the wall and make their torch beams change size. Light travels in straight lines. As a beam of light travels away from a torch it will spread out. By moving the torch light closer to the wall the children will notice their torch beam is smaller. By moving further away the torch beam is bigger.

  

  Using the torches the children discover the shadow of the dinosaur. They discovered when they shine the light on the dinosaur they can manipulate the size and shape of the dinosaur shadow.

  Using an overhead projector they can discover how different materials behave in front of the light. They OHP enables the children to explore scale and manipulate their own shadow. By placing themselves in front of the light of the OHP and moving closer and further way from the light source the children discover they can change the size of their shadow. Light does not travel through them, their bodies are opaque. With props and objects the children experiment and can transform their shadow.

  

  + How can you make your shadow hands touch the ceiling?

  - Yigit, Daniel and Mohammed transform their shadows with props

  Holding objects in front of the light of the OHP and placing objects on to the OHP the children are discovering how different materials behave in front of the light. Light can pass through some objects but it is blocked by others. Arranging objects on the OHP offers children the opportunity to explore scale, pattern, shape and form. As they make choices and explore the possibilities, their critical thinking, problem solving and design skills flourish.

  The opportunity to explore materials in different combinations enables children to extend their imaginations.

  

  Mila has arranged these objects on the OHP she describes the pattern ‘dots’

  Suzara Interacts with the projection of her marks

  ‘It’s green, jungle and spiders’

  

  Eva Rose and Laila choose to make the wall ‘blue and yellow.’

  Sofia manipulates her shadow.

  

  ‘Red like fire’ Laila

  Brooklyn selects a makes mark on a yellow acetate on the projector. He moves into the projection and counts his marks

  ‘1-2-3-4-5’

• Dancing Together – Embodied music making
  Dancing Together – Embodied music making

  Dancing together was a 6-week project held across 6 Saturdays for 15 families from Woodlands Park Children’s Centre and Nursery School.The project was also run at Rowland Hill Nursery School and Children’s Centre. Funded by Sound Connections ‘Innovate’ strand, the project's aim is to explore creating a bespoke pedagogy to working with families to explore deeper understanding of how music and movement can support children in the home.livered by Angeline Conaghan and David Leahy and staff from Woodlands Park, the project brought together families to share song, dance and food.

  Throughout the project we explored three themes Ritual, Language and Culture. Parents shared songs and dances from their own cultures and lives and we hope to embed these into other work that goes on in the centre.