Art Work Policy

'The development of children's artistic & cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. It is important that children have regular opportunities to engage with the arts, enabling them to explore & play with a wide range of media & materials (EYFS, 2021)

Children will explore & play with a wide range of media & materials as well having opportunities to create large & small scale pictures, sculptures and other works of art! The children will be encouraged to use their senses to express their feelings& ideas.

The learning environment is set up to allow children to be able to access materials & resources independently. As well as the standard paint, crayons, pencils & glue we also ensure to provide resources such as natural materials or discarded materials to give the children more opportunities for open ended play.

The children are encouraged to produce art work that is child initiated. We don’t produce worksheets for the children to use as we believe this stifles creativity. We value & respect the work your child produces thus encouraging the children to value & respect their work & others. We also respect that some days they do not want to access the messy area. This may mean that sometimes your child may not have a picture in their drawer. This doesn’t mean your child hasn’t spent the day absorbed in their learning. Play is often the most effective example of children’s ‘work’. If we are making cards as a group we will encourage the children to use their own creative flair when designing their card.

When the children finish a piece of art they can choose to display it themselves on our low level boards. They may also choose to take it home. They may want to take a photo to add to their on-line learning journal.. We also create wall displays of the children’s art work. This helps us to value it and can boost the child’s self esteem, as well as making the class rooms look inviting & colourful. The large displays help to support & enhance the children’s learning.  If it has come to the end of the session and they have not finished then they can leave their work on the shelf provided and come back to it at another time. Practitioner may take photographs of larger scale work to upload to their on-line learning journals and share with parents.

Being creative is a messy business. The children are provided with aprons and encouraged to wash their hands. However, children’s clothes can get covered in paint, glue and a host of other things so please do not put children in their best clothes. Please also provide spare named clothes in a non plastic bag.

Each child has a named drawer. This is where the key person will put all the children’s art work to go home as well as newsletters, invoices and other important information. Please check your child’s drawer at the end of the session.

Inclusion

We ensure that all children are included in messy play. We do this in a number of ways

  • All planned activities are differentiated to support the more & less able children.
  • Children are encouraged to try all activities, children are supported to return to an activity they have found challenging
  • Activities are repeated throughout the week to give children an opportunity to revisit or repeat activities.
  • We support the children by having enough resources for the children to use.
  • We have a supply of left & right handed scissors
  • All resources are in stored at the children’s height in clearly labeled boxes. These boxes are labeled using words & pictures.
  • We have a supply of different skin colour paint, crayons & paper. We use mirrors with the children to look at our faces and celebrate the similarities & differences.
  • We celebrate all relevant festivals.
  • Children who need support with their fine motor skills have chubby crayons, paints & play dough to use.

Outdoor play

We believe that the indoor & outdoor environments are of equal importance. The learning environments of the indoor & outdoor environments are planned to complement each other. The children get a wide range of opportunities to be creative. The outdoor environment also gives children the opportunity to do things on a larger scale. The activities can include

  • Painting & sticking
  • Large scale painting (large paper, old wallpaper)
  • Large scale junk models
  • Chalk board
  • Chalking on the pavement & walls
  • Natural materials
  • Bubble printing
  • Mud kitchen

Staff training

Our staff have received the following training in order to support the children in their messy play

  • Enabling environments
  • Observation, assessment & planning
  • It’s cool to be creative
  • Early mark making
  • Babies brains are amazing
  • Choices for children in the EYFS

The settings existing policies that support this document are;

  • Play & learning
  • Outdoor play & learning
  • Observation, assessment & planning
  • Listening to children
  • Parents as partners

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