Mark Making Matters
We love to draw… and write… and make all sorts of marks… with all sorts of materials!
Pencils, pens, paints… crayons and chalk… have given us lots of tools and opportunities to make marks.
Our scribbles are all sorts of investigations… they are helping make connections with ideas and with each other.
There have been drawings of families.
Drawings of maps and dinosaurs.
Drawings of shapes and patterns.
Long lines and short lines.
Lines that zig and lines that zag.
Patterns and symmetries.
We have been “having a go” at writing our names – names demand all sorts of lines and marks don’t they?
It’s so empowering to make your own mark for your name.
And such an important part of our sense of selves, our identities.
We do love to draw… making marks matters!
Scientists and the Senses
We have been exploring and experimenting, testing, and retesting, predicting and hypothesising!
Real, first-hand experiences – of sand, of dough, of foam and flour, of leaves in the wind! – have helped children observe, notice, and talk about all sorts of materials, properties, forces, and changes.
We have been making GLOOP with cornflour and water.
Have you noticed what happens? Can you feel the changes in between your fingers?
So slimey!
But what happens overnight? When the gloop dries out?
So hard and cracked!
We wonder why?
We have been pouring sand, running it through fingers and holes and sieves.
Have you noticed all the changes that take place when you pour water into sand?
The colour? The texture? The weight? The stickiness?
We have been scientists … noticing, questioning, making links, imagining, reasoning, planning, revising, distilling.
We have been scientists using our senses!
Creative Imaginative Play – Together as a Group
We have been playful.
We have been creative.
We have been imaginative.
We have been belonging and learning together… as a group!
Children have been “trying out” roles and responsibilities in their play…. Imagining and reimagining families and home life… doctors and carers…
Using the home corner to cook and eat, to care for babies, to be families has been supporting children to negotiate, take turns, tune in to others’ ideas.
Creating small spaces from blocks and furniture – to make dens, rockets, homes – has supported children to cooperate and collaborate, be flexible and resourceful together.
Being in big spaces – in the garden, on the swing, in the sand – to run and chase, to dig and build, to push and pull – has supported children to invite others, join in with play, imitate and interact.
Children have been playing with what they know.
Children have been making links in their learning and experiences.
Children have been motivated and involved in “trying things out” – together as a group!
