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 Being Creative - Responding to Experiences, Expressing and Communicating Ideas Exploring Media and Materials Creating Music and Dance Developing Imagination and Imaginative Play
Birth-11 Months
 
  • Use movement and sensory exploration to connect with their immediate environment.
 
  • Discover mark-making by chance, noticing, for instance, that trailing a finger through spilt juice changes it.
 
  • Respond to a range of familiar sounds, for example, turning to a sound source such as a voice.
 
  • Smile with pleasure at recognisable playthings.
8-20 Months
 
  • Respond to what they see, hear, smell, touch and feel.
 
  • Explore and experiment with a range of media using whole body.




Exploring cornflour and paint - In a nursery, a young toddler is deeply involved in exploring cornflour, then joins another child and the practitioner in exploring the paint.[transcript]

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Video

 
  • Move their whole bodies to sounds they enjoy, such as music or a regular beat.
 
  • Enjoy making noises or movements spontaneously.
16-26 Months
 
  • Express themselves through physical action and sound.
  • Explore by repeating patterns of play.
 
  • Create and experiment with blocks, colour and marks.
 
  • Begin to move to music, listen to or join in rhymes or songs.
 
  • Pretend that one object represents another, especially when objects have characteristics in common.
22-36 Months
 
  • Seek to make sense of what they see, hear, smell, touch and feel.
  • Begin to use representation as a form of communication.
 
  • Begin to combine movement, materials, media or marks.
 
  • Join in singing favourite songs.
  • Create sounds by banging, shaking, tapping or blowing.
  • Show an interest in the way musical instruments sound.
 
  • Begin to make-believe by pretending.
30-50 Months
 
  • 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.
 
  • 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.
 
  • 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.
 
  • 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.
40-60+ Months
 
  • Talk about personal intentions, describing what they were trying to do.
  • Respond to comments and questions, entering into dialogue about their creations.
  • Make comparisons and create new connections.
  • Respond in a variety of ways to what they see, hear, smell, touch and feel.
  • Express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools, imaginative and role-play, movement, designing and making, and a variety of songs and musical instruments.
 
  • Explore what happens when they mix colours.
  • Choose particular colours to use for a purpose.
  • Understand that different media can be combined to create new effects.
  • Experiment to create different textures.
  • Create constructions, collages, painting and drawings.
  • Use ideas involving fitting, overlapping, in, out, enclosure, grids and sun-like shapes.
  • Work creatively on a large or small scale.
  • Explore colour, texture, shape, form and space in two or three dimensions.
 
  • Begin to build a repertoire of songs and dances.
  • Explore the different sounds of instruments.
  • Begin to move rhythmically.
  • Recognise and explore how sounds can be changed, sing simple songs from memory, recognise repeated sounds and sound patterns and match movements to music.
 
  • Introduce a storyline or narrative into their play.
  • Play alongside other children who are engaged in the same theme.
  • Play cooperatively as part of a group to act out a narrative.
  • Use their imagination in art and design, music, dance, imaginative and role-play and stories.