Creating
Imagining
Role Play
Exploring media
Designing
Music
Dance
We aim for all children to participate in activities which help them develop their use of media and design and also nurture and encourage their imagination. We use the following base for our curriculum and plan activities according to your child’s developmental stage and interests.
Expressive Arts and DesignExploring and Using Media Materials
| 8-20 months +
16-26 months |
Explores and experiments with a range of media through sensory exploration, and using whole body.
Move their whole bodies to sounds they enjoy, such as music or a regular beat. Imitates and improvises actions they have observed, e.g. clapping or waving. Begins to move to music, listen to or join in rhymes or songs. Notices and is interested in the effects of making movements which leave marks. |
| 22-36 months | Joins in singing favourite songs |
| Creates sounds by banging, shaking, tapping or blowing | |
| Shows an interest in the way musical instruments sound | |
| Experiments with blocks, colours and marks | |
| 30-50 months | Enjoys joining in with dancing and ring games |
| Sings a few familiar songs | |
| Beginning to move rhythmically | |
| Imitates movement in response to music | |
| Taps out simple repeated rhythms | |
| Explores and learns how sounds can be changed | |
| Explores colour and how colours can be changedUnderstands that they can use lines to enclose a space, and then begin to use these shapes to represent objects | |
| Beginning to be interested in and describe the texture of things | |
| Uses various construction materials | |
| Beginning to construct, stacking blocks vertically and horizontally, making enclosures and creating spaces | |
| Joins construction pieces together to build and balance | |
| Realises tools can be used for a purpose | |
| 40-60+ months | Begins to build a repertoire of songs and dances |
| Explores the different sounds of instruments | |
| Explores what happens when they mix colours | |
| Experiments to create different textures | |
| Understands that different media can be combined to create new effects | |
| Manipulates materials to achieve a planned effect | |
| Constructs with a purposes in mind, using a variety of resources | |
| Uses simple tools and techniques competently and appropriately | |
| Selects appropriate resources and adapts work where necessary | |
| Selects tools and techniques needed to shape, assemble and join materials they are using | |
Being Imaginative
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| 22-36 months | Beginning to use representation to communicate, e.g. drawing a line and saying ‘That’s me’ | ||||
| Beginning to make-believe by pretending | |||||
| 30-50 months | Developing preferences for forms of expression | ||||
| Uses movement to express feelings | |||||
| Creates movement in response to music | |||||
| Sings to self and makes up simple songs | |||||
| Makes up rhythms | |||||
| Notices what adults do, imitating what is observed and then doing it spontaneously when the adult is not there | |||||
| Engages in imaginative role-play based on own first-hand experiences | |||||
| Builds stories around toys, e.g. farm animals needing rescued from an armchair ‘cliff’ | |||||
| Uses available resources to create props to support role-play | |||||
| Captures experiences and responses with a range of media, such as music, dance and paint and other materials or words | |||||
| 40-60+ months | Creates simple representations of event, people and objects | ||||
| Initiates new combinations of movements and gestures in order to express and respond to feelings, ideas and experiences | |||||
| Chooses particular colours to use for a purpose | |||||
| Introduces a storyline or narrative into their play | |||||
| Plays alongside other children who are engaged in the same theme | |||||
| Plays cooperatively as part of a group to develop and act out a narrative | |||||
