Art vs Craft
What is a craft?
A creative activity with a predetermined outcome and there is nothing wrong with it, it can be a nice way to relax or create a keep sake, particularly for adults. In fact new skills can be learnt in the process and concentration skills can be encouraged. Take for example knitting, and sewing, a skill that needs to be learned with instruction in order to create the desired outcome.
However, at Inspirations we believe there is a time and a place for a craft, and we would much rather encourage unique creativity without boundaries. With everything we do and make in life we draw inspiration from other peoples ideas, take for example the current interest in Jackson Pollock in the Art Studio. His method of painting has inspired us to try it our selves, but when it came to creating this piece of art, through trial and error and experimentation, the outcome is decided by them, and that is the important factor.
Who are we to tell our children what their art should look like?
We believe there are more creative options to crafts. By providing our children with tools, and telling them what to make and how it should look is projecting our ideas onto them, when the children should be at the centre of their own learning. Our role is not to tell a child what colour something should be, and we most definitely shouldn't be giving our opinions on how 'good' something is at the end of a creative session. These restricting activities have the potential for huge disappointment and create a barrier to the child venturing down their unique path of creativity. At Inspirations we use encouragement over praise, and if a child is looking for a comment on their drawing I will try to use factual language such as 'i see you used lots of green!' 'you seemed really focused whilst making that' or 'you must be really proud of that'. Factual statements instead of us giving our opinion will help build self esteem instead of encouraging them to do things to impress others.
We are a place where mistakes are part of the journey, and the process holds more importance than the end result. Open ended activities are important in early child hoods development. Of course they promote imagination and creativity, but they also encourage problem solving skills and social emotional development. Creativity doesn't just include drawing and making, it includes role play, dress up, music, building from cardboard boxes, magnets, loose parts, building blocks..the suggestions are endless and all a part of the 100 ways of learning. They piece together to make each unique child, who has learned new skills and ways of learning through experimenting and ideas, with us there to ask open ended questions.
How can we help support creativity?
Whilst allowing our children to play and learn we can support them by asking open ended questions. They might not always answer, a good sign they are truly engaged, but some questions you can ask at the right time will support them in extending upon their own learning.
- Tell me about that?
- Why do you think…?
- How do you know…?
- I wonder what might happen if you...?
- Why do you think this happened?
- I wonder if you will add anything?
- What can you do about it?
- What do you think would work?
- How do you think it could work?
- Can you do it another way?
- How are these the same?
- How are these different?
- What do you think comes next?
- What else can you do?
- What does it remind you of?
So next time you come to do a craft, why not encourage your child to take a unique spin on it. By removing that set outcome you will find the pressure is gone and creativity flourishes.
-Nathalie
Transitioning to School
Inspirations nurseries endeavour to not only prepare children to be ‘school ready’ but do all we can to support their well-being around this time. Firstly, we gather information as to which school the children are going to and chat to them about their new school. We then contact each school and invite the reception teacher to come visit their new children to see them playing in a familiar setting at either Horsforth and Adel.
Most children will attend sessions at their new schools, but they can often feel shy, therefore seeing them at nursery gives them a true idea of their personality and the children often feel more confident to talk to them.
Key persons then begin to write notes for their transition reports that will go to their new teachers and home to parents. These include information on any support needed, what the children are interested in and like to do, and their ‘characteristics of effective learning’, how they prefer to learn. We also include a parent section as this contribution is extremely important because they know their children better than anyone. All this information is then used to settle in, support and assess new children once they start school.
Inspirations wants our children to feel excited and positive about this change so we hold school groups where we will read stories about starting school and share our thoughts and expectations throughout. We have found that the children naturally begin to role play ‘schools’ and encourage this by providing uniforms, registers, books and resources to enhance play. Practitioners often observe this play, listening for any questions or anxieties we can sensitively address during our group times.
Finally, we have a graduation party for our leavers. A photographer is invited to take individual photos of the children in their caps and gowns being presented with their leaver certificates, parents can then keep these photos as a special reminder of this early years’ experience.
We are always sad to see our children leave us but are happy and confident we have done everything we can during the time they have been with us to prepare them for the future. We wave them goodbye with pride and best wishes.
From this week up until September we start to say our goodbyes to our school leavers, some who have made the most of a short time here, others who have been with us since they were babies. We wish all our school leavers luck with their next adventure and hope you come back to visit.
The Issue around Aprons
Messy Little Learners
Aprons: the solution to a mess free creative session, right? But what if you think about the real objective of creativity. Is staying clean really the main priority when it comes to nursery or are we as adults simply putting unrealistic expectations on our children? The very act of making art is to experiment hands on with materials and ideas, and at Inspirations we have found that forcing children to wear an apron limits this creativity.
As a nursery we used to enforce aprons, but noticed this shortened creativity, interrupted learning or put the children off all together. Our environment is the third teacher. Our setting is set up to reflect this, to invite children to explore independently and learn through exploration. Each area is set up with an invitation to play and get involved. Let’s think about this from the child’s point of view, a child approaches an area with resources and paints and picks up the paintbrush. By this point the child is engrossed, excited, bouncing around ideas in their head. Brain development is happening right now and the synapse in their brain is firing rapidly...and we stop them to put an apron on.
What does this tell the child? That the neatness of their clothes are more important than their learning? Does it tell them that instead of observing their excitement and eagerly awaiting to see their approach to this activity we are instead simply seeing the negatives of making a mess. Not only that, but we are also interrupting cognitive brain development in that very moment, something we as a nursery work very hard not to do.
Art is Messy
We always suggest sending your child to nursery in clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty. After all, a paint stained T shirt can still be a clean one, so wear it again and again.
There are of course times when aprons are strongly encouraged in the Art studio, when using dye’s and inks or techniques that involve throwing and splatting paint. We also have aprons available at all times so the option is always there, but we would never give the child an ultimatum when it comes to not wearing one.
As mindful nursery educators it’s our role to place the child at the forefront of everything and to give them to opportunity to create rich meaningful connections to the world. After all, imagine a nursery where your child returned home at the end of each day as clean as they were at the start?
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This week in the Art Studio
After noticing the children making use of the Lavender growing around the Art Studio I followed their interest by bringing in a range of herbs and spices. This week the children combined these with water, clay and turmeric and lead their own learning with the help of some kitchen tools.
One group of children used the lavender to make 'Lavender Perfume', others made 'pancakes', 'birthday cakes' and 'salads.' Come and take a look!
A
In the News
https://www.newstatesman.com/encounter/2022/04/twenty-minutes-with-trees-restores-your-focus-the-father-of-the-uks-forest-schools-on-the-outdoor-learning-boom
Let’s shake up Education
At Inspirations nurseries we go the extra mile to ensure we are providing the children in our care a ‘second to none’ learning environment. Our ethos and pedagogy speak of children learning trough their interests, through nature and art, both independently and with their peers. Our environment is set up to encourage thought processing skills, logical problem solving and collaborating ideas to solve problems within small groups of friends and/or the adults supporting them.
Our love of all thing’s nature encourages us to consider the planet and our impact on its future evolution. We recycle, upcycle and reuse and repurpose our waste as much as possible and discuss with the children our environmental impact wherever appropriate.
The time, care and commitment required to offer our children this rich varied learning environment is considerable, the rewards however, are clear to see in the faces of every one of our children. Their open, happy, faces, the intent with which they explore each developmental opportunity is the reason we, in this profession, do what we do, it’s pure joy.
There is no doubt in my mind that the freedom of choice, the sense of open space and freedom, the ability to be autonomous in their learning experiences, to make their own choices and explore their own ideas is one hundred percent the reason that our children stand out in reception classes across our postcode as having the necessary ‘school ready skills’ (a term I abhor)!
It therefore leaves me feeling deflated, saddened and to be honest a little angry on behalf our children that these foundational skills which should be built on and nurtured throughout their childhood, is ripped away by a school education system that is failing to ignite curiosity, lifelong learning skills and most of all, an enthusiasm to learn. Having had a child recently start school after attending Inspirations I can’t tell you how against the grain I have found the homework load, the testing at age five and above all, the change in my child’s engagement in her own learning. Her interest has waned, she is no longer skipping out to tell me what she has been doing… Why, because it has been inconsequential to her, it is something that has just happened, rather than something she has engaged with and in. She is no longer at the centre of her learning process. Testing teachers teaching skills has overridden the requirement (and every child’s right) to put them at the heart of their own learning and development.
Consider an alternative
It is my view that our current learning institution is failing in terms of both the children attending and the teachers teaching. Here at Inspirations, we have witnessed first-hand the uptake of teachers leaving the profession in recent years citing burnout and their personal loss of passion for a role that is no longer rewarding to them. I have always said that working alongside children is a vocation not a job, we need to foster the passion and autonomy of the people educating our children NOT beat them down and stamp them out. This is unfortunately the situation we are currently facing within schools across the UK.
The alternative then… Let’s consider a school environment that follows a similar ethos and pedagogy to Inspirations where children and adults collaborate together in environments that encourage lifelong learning experiences, where children feel free to learn though play where they can experiment, make mistakes and learn from them without feeling like they have failed or haven’t met pre prescribed arbitrary standards. ‘Standards’ which only serve to demoralise both the teachers and students.
Our school environments haven’t changed since their conception over a hundred years ago. I for one think it’s time for a new approach.
Do you agree?
-Nicola
Project Based learning in Adel
We're heading over to our Pre-School Adel setting this week to see what's been going on. Just like our Horsforth setting; Adel follows a child centred approach with a focus on creativity and project based learning.
Our Adel children began talking about farms when we returned in September and since then we found out what they know and learn and followed that interest.
They began talking about the animals and especially pigs so we focussed in on this particular animal to learn more about them. We read non-fiction books together and looked at the internet for facts about what pigs do and look like. We read The 3 Little Pigs story in English and Spanish and made their houses inside and outside in the garden.
We used pigs for maths, shapes, estimating, counting and size ordering. We had sensory play with shaving foam, mud and paint to make muddy pigs, investigated real pig snouts and baked our own pig snout biscuits. We talked about our senses and animal senses and our Atelierista worked with the children on smelling different scents and choosing which to use in their ‘smelly snouts’ as well as making a group Papier-mâché pig.
Horses became the animal of interest so again we asked the children what they knew and wanted to know about them. The children always suggest we can read books and look at the internet for information so we did this and discovered lots of new facts about how many jobs they do and what they look like.
Since then we have learned about their hooves and horseshoes, and made horseshoes using clay, tools, and metallic paint with our Atelierista. We have role played using cowboy hats and learned about cowboys, made hobby horses to race on the field, used sewing skills to make sock puppets and went on a trip to Hope Pastures to see some real horses up close.
The children have been talking about tractors and combine harvesters so we are learning more about them and what they are used for. We have had tractors in paint to make tracks, washed them and used them in the mud, we have been singing the old Wurzels Combine Harvester song together and have read non-fiction and fiction books about tractors. At the moment the children have been telling us what the tractors do to help farms and which food might grow on a farm, so we will be following this path to learn more about farm produce and planning lots of activities to support this journey togetherincluding visiting a local farm.
Movement and Sensory
“Watching a child makes it obvious that the development of the mind comes from movement” – Maria Montessori
Having only being on the planet a short space of time, babies are very curious and explorative learners. They use all their senses to explore and learn about the world around them. They are primed to respond to sensory stimuli, starting from in the womb; touch being the first sense to form and then the others follow. It is important to provide a variety of sensory experiences from a very young age to support the development of the senses, and on more than one occasion. Repetition will give babies time to explore and investigate whilst making vital connections in the brain for future learning. This needs to be supported with a play-based approach as it is not a taught process. When engaged in movement play, children are working the brain and making incredible connections that will support their future movements. Movement is very important between the ages of 0-9 and supports children with links created in the brain.
How do we support this at Inspirations?
Providing children have access to space, resources and good role models, children will spontaneously make the movements and develop their brains, making the connections needed. At Inspirations, we always ensure we provide opportunities that support children in the five headings and what it supports:
- Floor play- tummy and back. Floor play/ tummy time is really vital for the brain to make connections for early reading in future learning. If the baby is premature or has reflux, this will be really uncomfortable for them so it’s not recommended. Different textures such as bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard or a slightly deflated gym ball are good opportunities for this. Being on the tummy helps with connections to develop bladder control and the sense of need- heat, cold, drink etc.
- Belly crawling/creeping. Supports bladder and bowel control, stimulates foot arch (walk on tip toes), hip rotation, physical alignment, lower palm rotation- mark making. Making swirly patterns in gloop supports the opening of palms.
- Crawling supports the cross lateral part of the brain. This will help with making the connections in the brain to enable us to use a knife and fork for example. This allows more complex balancing/ coordination, the ability to remember, sort and filter tactile, aural and visual information. Children who haven’t crawled tend to find it more difficult to remember sequence, remember the last instruction given.
- Upright. Sensory intelligence, balance and coordination, supports reaching and grabbing. The balance receptors in your feet are stimulated
- Spinning, rocking, rolling and swinging. Eye tracking/ convergence- reading, complex balance ability, great coordination, vestibular awareness, help to centralise their body movements.
The 'Bare' Necessities
Toe flicking and spending as much time as possible with bare feet is one of the lesser know important aspects. Children who have not had much time doing this are often the children who kick out when laid down or kick whilst sat at the table as they are craving the feeling on their feet. The educators with the babies will often create a sensory walk for them to experience lots of different textures on their bare feet. We also allow the babies to strip down to their nappies when involved in sensory/messy play. This enables them to get a full sensory experience all over their bodies. A sensory activity is planned most days alongside the children’s interests for our babies and toddlers.
Being outside is a totally different sensory experience. Outdoor learning is a big aspect of our ethos that we provide all day, every day. The weather provides different experiences as well as the surroundings, growth, plants and herbs. Our toddlers enjoy adding paint, essential oils or bubbles to puddles and then lots of splashing and watching the changes emerge. They will hang foil blankets in the trees when it is windy to listen to the noises it creates. Our babies are out at least twice a day, no matter what the weather. We therefore provide full suits to enable all our children to have the full experience of all weathers, without any limitations. Our toddlers have the door open and can choose to go in or out all day. Preschool are based in an outdoor classroom with a yurt so experience all weathers all day.
Supporting our children’s developmental needs ultimately helps prepare them for future challenges, and an independent happy future.
Making up Stories
Last week it was National Story telling week, so our children had a go creating their own stories. Here are the stories from 2 of our pre-school children.
Taking Care of Mental Health
In today’s blog we are thinking and looking at the importance of taking care of our mental health and wellbeing. To say the last year has been difficult would be an understatement! It has been extremely challenging and may have taken a toll on our mental health and wellbeing.
At Inspirations we believe that the staff are the lifeblood of our nursery, and therefore supporting their mental health and wellbeing is a key priority. This was top of the agenda for our first staff meeting of the year.
As a setting we have introduced a new wellbeing policy and different initiatives (ie wellbeing basket, flowers and activities in the staff room, celebrating working anniversaries), to help staff to focus on their own wellbeing, while supporting them both professionally and personally. Staff also have full access to our EAP program (employee assistant program). The program offers a free 24hr confidential helpline to help with anything from stress and anxiety to gambling issues. If needed staff can be referred for 6 free counselling sessions. The program also offers many wellbeing services with its ‘My Healthy Advantage’ app where you can do things from mini health checks to tracking your sleep or mood. Family members can also access the program.
Promoting wellbeing among staff is not only humane and a good thing in itself but, also has a number of benefits for our setting, such as.
- Positive impact on children, including stronger relationships.
- Reduced absences
- Staff being able to manage their own stress better and to develop healthier coping strategies.
- Staff feeling valued, supported and invested in.
Supporting Mental Health in Early Years
The foundations for a child’s healthy emotional development are known to be laid down in their early years. At Inspirations we recognise the importance of positive early experiences for mental wellbeing. Feelings or attachment, security and positive stimulations within loving relationships (key person) help to strengthen a child’s development emotionally. This makes them more likely to thrive and become healthy adults.
We know at Inspirations that all adults who spend time with young children have a responsibility to help in their healthy mental development and wellbeing. This is just another reason why we make it a priority all staff are qualified to level 3 or above (or working toward).
Some of the ways we support our children’s wellbeing daily are, through stories, outdoor play, singing, music, drawing and crafts, use of emotional language, role play and general play.
In relation to children’s wellbeing, long term Forest School programs are found to have positive impacts on children’s physical and mental health, in addition to improving their social and cognitive competence. Being outside in a natural environment has been shown to relieve stress by reducing the levels of stress hormone, cortisol, in the brain. Children taking part in forest school sessions quickly show evidence of a greater emotional maturity.
Promoting wellbeing in children enhances their confidence and resilience. The promotion of social skills through group games and activities will enable our children to be confident communicators and develop positive friendships and relationships. Our forest school sessions also promote self-esteem and emotional intelligence by giving children ownership and control. Being outdoors in our beautiful natural environment is as beneficial to the staff as it is to our children.
Our setting is homely and cosey with lots of opportunity for conversations. Children are encouraged to choose what they do, with guided play (forest school, art studio). Children also have opportunity to take safe risks, building their confidence and resilience.
As a team we are constantly reflecting on our environment and daily routine, and how it best supports children’s emotions. We also recognise that family is the most important influence in a child’s life. Building strong bonds with our parents/carers is extremely important to us at Inspirations. All our children/families have their own key person. The presence of a key person helps both the child and parent/carer to feel more emotionally secure, and of course our management team are also there to offer support to our families daily.
-Tara