Expressive Arts and Design

Expressive Arts and Design enables children to engage with the arts, develop artistic awareness and give them the ability to respond to culture. 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.

The green thinking hat encourages children to use their imaginations and problem-solving skills to enhance their creative ideas and express their feelings.

Expressive Arts and Design includes the areas more familiarly known as Art & DT, Music, Dram and Pretend Play.

Art and D.T.

To ensure children have the very best opportunities, we ensure that:

We provide children with a range of media to explore, e.g. paints, crayons, chalk, pens.
We support children to use their fine motor skills to learn joining techniques to design and create models and structures using a range of materials, e.g. cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, cardboard tubes.
We provide a range of malleable materials to allow children to create their own sculptures, e.g. playdough, clay, papier mache.
We explore a range of techniques by a diverse range of famous artists to expand children’s knowledge, e.g. self-portraits, observational drawing, pointillism.

We support children to use ART and DT opportunities to explore their emotions and the feelings of others.

How To Help at Home

Encourage your child to use their imagination to create their own pictures and structures at home, e.g. building with Lego, drawing a picture of the family, baking with pastry.
Talk to your children about the illustrations in their favourite books.
Donate recycling materials to the school for our creative workshop, e.g. cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, yoghurt pots.
Provide opportunities for your children to develop their fine motor skills by manipulating small objects and tools, e.g. playdough, scissors, tweezers.
Talk to your child about emotions and feelings.

Making Playdough at home is a fun and easy activity to share with your children. If you store this in an airtight container, you can use the play dough again and again. Please see the attachment at the bottom of this page for a recipe to use.

Music

Music is another area within Expressive Arts.

At Hillcross We Ensure That........

We use a range of songs across our curriculum to make learning fun, e.g. Five Little Speckled Frogs: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, If You’re Happy and You Know It.
We provide a range of musical instruments for children to explore making sounds, e.g. maracas, tambourines, drums, xylophones, piano.
We support children to develop their listening skills by talking about how sounds can change their dynamics (volume), tempo (speed), and pitch (a high or low note), e.g. singing, playing musical instruments, playing a game of guessing the sound.
We use the Musician of the Month programme along with the rest of the school to expose the children to a range of composers and musicians, along with a range of musical genres, e.g. Beethoven (classical), Aretha Franklin (soul), Kishori Amonkar (Indian classical).
We support children to perform in a range of contexts, using their singing and dancing skills, e.g. Nativity play, Spring Term Extravaganza, Wake Up Shake Up showcase.

How To Help at Home

Sing with your children (you don’t have to be a good singer; just have fun), e.g. singing in the bath, singing in the car, singing while they tidy up their toys.
Provide a range of objects for children to explore how sounds can change (these do not have to be musical instruments), e.g. old pots and pans, sticks found at the park, pebbles from the beach.
Encourage your children to develop their listening skills, e.g listen to a story with no pictures, play sound bingo, sing a call and response song.
Be an audience member while your children perform for you, e.g. sing, dance, play music.
Talk to your children about the music that you used to listen to when you were a child.

There are lots of songs for you and your child to sing together, some of these can be found on the BBC Schools Website.

Imaginative Play

Imaginative play is characterised as a type of play that is mainly driven by children's imaginations. People may also call it 'make-believe' or 'playing pretend'. Children might use props, including costumes or masks, but the main source of play comes from children's creativity. They might be re-enacting an experience they've had or something that interests them. The importance of imaginative play involves practising communication, language and social skills in a safe space where the child is in control. They can practise making different decisions and use their imaginations to solve problems and find solutions. Plus, it's loads of fun!

At Hillcross We Ensure That.........

We provide role play areas (including props and costumes) for the children to use their imagination to act out scenarios, e.g. home corner, shop, space rocket.
We provide a range of small world toys for children to use their imagination to create stories, e.g. dinosaurs, dolls’ house, farm animals.
We support children to use a range of objects to represent props in their play, e.g. using a banana as a phone, using a green block as a frog, using a cardboard tube as a telescope.
We expose children to a range of books and stories to develop their ideas for characters, settings and events in their own story scenarios, e.g. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Giraffes Can’t Dance, The Rainbow Fish.
We support children to develop acting skills (taking on a character) in a range of performance contexts, e.g. Nativity play, class re-enactment of focus story book, use masks to act out a traditional tale on our outdoor stage.
We encourage children to use their social skills to play collaboratively and co-create imaginative storylines in their play.

How To Help at Home

Enjoy acting out imaginative games with your children, e.g. being a customer in their shop, being a customer in their café, pretending to go on a bear hunt with them.
Be an audience member while your children perform for you, e.g. act out their favourite story, practice their lines in our Nativity play, perform a puppet show.
Share a range of stories with your children, e.g. read a book, listen to stories, watch a film.
Encourage your children to engage in social play with others, e.g. with you, with other family members, with friends and neighbours.
Collect items for your child to use in their imaginative role-play games, e.g. hats, shoes, bags. (These can be items that you no longer want or from a charity shop).

Please see the attachement belwo with lots of ideas for pretend play at home with everyday materials.