Supporting Children's Learning!

Four Seasons Activity!

Our activity involved children creating a display for the four different seasons and them drawing and writing short words which they thought related to each different season.

“Creativity is about expressing ourselves”

During this project we were asked to choose an area of provision to for children’s learning and document the process. We choose to focus on creative workshop and construction; there are many benefits of creative workshop as it allows the child to openly express themselves. Creative play allows the child to develop intellectually, physically and social and emotionally. As we explained in greater detail on our PowerPoint the intellectual benefits include them being able to learn their shapes and numbers when drawing different objects and also problem solving which I saw a lot during the creative process. For example when it came to sticking on pompoms onto the paper, at first they weren’t sticking then she had to think she needs more glue than what she used for a piece of card as they are different materials and different shapes. 

When solving problems like these they start to learn about the creative thinking process. The physical benefits include them being able to develop their fine motor skills, which later on in life helps prepare them to write when they reach primary school. The social and emotional benefits include the creative activity becoming a positive outlet for the young children to express their thoughts and emotions. Having a wide range of materials for them to experiment with also helps this process as you can see in the PowerPoint I made sure that there were many different materials available as I knew this played a huge part in the creative process. Socially as the activity is supposed to be group based it gives a chance for everyone to share their own ideas and open up opportunities for discussion. 

Following Vygotsky’s theory children learning from other children with different experiences this was kept in mind a lot when planning the activity. We also looked at and related our activity to Vygotsky’s ‘Developmental course of language’ as we thought this related to our activity heavily and explained in our PowerPoint how the three different stages relate to the activity. As well as Piaget’s ‘Stages of Cognitive Development’ the activity was more child initiated and led rather than adult led as we were asking them to draw what each season meant to them and draw things that they thought related to each season. I found when carrying out the activity the less adult intervention allowed the child to reach their full creative potential as no one was interfering with their creative thought flow.

As the EYFS states to reach an effective learning, practitioners should let the child engage with the activity playing with the different textures and choosing the materials. Also making sure the child is willing to “have a go” because as adult we introduced the activity as a fun activity and lastly let the child lead the activity as adults may interfere with the child’s imagination process. This activity links to the EYFS Development Matters (2012) in the area of Expressive arts and design: Exploring and using media and materials. A Unique Child 40-60+ months “selects appropriate resources and adapts work where necessary”, “manipulate materials to achieve a planned effect” “constructs with a purpose in mind, using a variety of resources” (BAECE, 2012, p44). This activity also links to the EYFS Development Matters (2012) in the area of Expressive arts and design: Being imaginative, A Unique Child 40-60+ months “choose particular colours to use for a purpose”, “create simple representations of events, people and objects”.

(Throughout the blog you can see images of what the child created and the materials that were available to them)

 By Rianne Selina Hanooman (Student ID: 1406296) & Monica Trave (Student ID: 1439718)