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  Development matters Look, listen and note Effective practice Planning and resourcing
Being Creative - Responding to Experiences, Expressing and Communicating Ideas
 
  • Use language and other forms of communication to share the things they create, or to indicate personal satisfaction or frustration.
  • Explore and experience using a range of senses and movement.
  • Capture experiences and responses with music, dance, paint and other materials or words.
  • Develop preferences for forms of expression.
 
  • The ways children capture their experiences by, for example, finding materials to make wings from large pieces of red paper after watching some ladybirds in the garden.
  • The ways in which children explore materials and the effects they can create, for example, making swirling lines with scarves and streamers by twirling round.
 
  • Provide appropriate materials and extend children's thinking through involvement in their play, using questions thoughtfully and appropriately.
  • Encourage children to describe their experiences.
  • Be interested in children's responses, observing their actions and listening carefully.
 
  • Ensure that there is enough time for children to express their thoughts, ideas and feelings in a variety of ways, such as in role-play, by painting and by responding to music.
  • Encourage children to discuss and appreciate the beauty around them in nature and the environment.
Exploring Media and Materials
 
  • Begin to be interested in and describe the texture of things.
  • Explore colour and begin to differentiate between colours.
  • Differentiate marks and movements on paper.
  • Use their bodies to explore texture and space.
  • Understand that they can use lines to enclose a space, and then begin to use these shapes to represent objects.
  • Create 3D structures.
  • Begin to construct, stacking blocks vertically and horizontally, making enclosures and creating spaces.
 
  • Children's responses to different textures, for example, touching sections of a texture display with their fingers, or feeling it with their cheeks to get a sense of different properties.
  • Children's growing interest in and use of colour as they begin to find differences between colours.
  • How one child spontaneously makes lots of 'spiral' marks and movements on their paper, while others may imitate each other's movements.
  • How children begin to describe the objects they represent.
  • The patterns and structures children talk about, make or construct.
 
  • Make time and space for children to express their curiosity and explore the environment using all of their senses.
  • Talk to a child about images or effects that they see, such as the effect of light hitting a shiny piece of paper.
  • Talk to children about colours they like and why they like them.
  • Demonstrate and teach skills and techniques associated with the things children are doing, for example, show them how to stop the paint from dripping or how to balance bricks so that they will not fall down.
  • Introduce children to a wide range of music, painting and sculpture.
  • Encourage children to take time to think about painting or sculpture that is unfamiliar to them before they talk about it or express an opinion.
  • Make suggestions and ask questions to extend children's ideas of what is possible, for example, "I wonder what would happen if...".
  • Support children in thinking about what they want to make, the processes that may be involved and the materials and resources they might need, such as a photograph to remind them what the climbing frame is like.
 
  • Introduce vocabulary to enable children to talk about their observations and experiences, for example, 'smooth', 'shiny', 'rough', 'prickly', 'flat', 'patterned', 'jagged', 'bumpy', 'soft' and 'hard'.
  • Provide a wide range of materials, resources and sensory experiences to enable children to explore colour, texture and space. Document the processes children go through to create their own 'work'.
  • Provide a place where work in progress can be kept safely. Talk to children about where they can see models and plans in the environment, such as at the local planning office, in the town square, or at the new apartments down the road.
Creating Music and Dance
 
  • Enjoy joining in with dancing and ring games.
  • Sing a few familiar songs.
  • Sing to themselves and make up simple songs.
  • Tap out simple repeated rhythms and make some up.
  • Explore and learn how sounds can be changed.
  • Imitate and create movement in response to music.
 
  • The ways children choose to explore sound, song or movement, for example, a group of children explored a rainforest theme through music and movement. Some used instruments to make the sounds of the rainforest, while others imitated the movements of rainforest animals.
 
  • Widen children's experience of music from different cultures, through experiences with different instruments and styles so that they are inspired to experiment, imitate, enjoy and extend their own expressions.
 
  • Provide experiences that involve all the senses and movement.
Developing Imagination and Imaginative Play
 
  • Notice what adults do, imitating what is observed and then doing it spontaneously when the adult is not there.
  • Use available resources to create props to support role-play.
  • Develop a repertoire of actions by putting a sequence of movements together.
  • Engage in imaginative play and role-play based on own first-hand experiences.
 
  • The range of experiences children represent through imaginative play.
  • How children respond in different ways to stories, ideas and their own life experiences.
 
  • Support children's excursions into imaginary worlds by encouraging inventiveness, offering support and advice on occasions and ensuring that they have experiences that stimulate their interest.
  • Tell stories based on children's experiences and the people and places they know well.
 
  • Offer a story stimulus by suggesting an imaginary event or set of circumstances, for example, "This bear has arrived in the post. He has a letter pinned to his jacket. It says 'Please look after this bear'. We should look after him in our room. How can we do that?".