Expressive Arts and Designs

The development of children’s artistic and cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. It is important that children have regular opportunities to engage with the arts, enabling them to explore and play with a wide range of media
and materials. The quality and variety of what children see, hear and participate in is crucial for developing their understanding, self-expression, vocabulary and ability to communicate through the arts. The frequency, repetition and depth of their
experiences are fundamental to their progress in interpreting and appreciating what they hear, respond to and observe.

This area of learning should provide opportunities for children to try new experiences and express themselves in a variety of ways. Creativity and design is an important part of successful learning; it enables children to make connections between experiences, helps them solve problems and be inventive. Through looking at children’s creative and imaginative experiences we can find out what they know and understand about their world, what they think is important and how they choose to represent it.

We aim to:

  • Develop children’s self-esteem by showing that we value the creative experiences children have within the nursery environment and beyond.
  • Provide opportunities and time for children to explore sound, colour, texture, shape, form and space in 2 and 3 dimensions.
  • Provide experiences so that children can respond in a variety of ways to what they see, smell, touch and feel.
  • Provide opportunities and time for children to show an increasing ability to use their imagination, describe, listen and observe.
  • Provide opportunities and time for children to use a wide range of materials and tools, instruments and other resources to express their ideas and communicated their feelings.