Expressive Arts activities and websites you might want to try at home

Design a Sports T-Shirt for your House

Design a t-shirt for your House for Sports Day and PE sessions.   Send your designs to your teacher via Seesaw.  When we return to school, we will give all these ideas to the Move it! Learn it! PAG (Pupil Action Group) and they will pick one design for each house to turn into a t-shirt that you can buy.  So, if you want to be a fashion designer, or you want to be able to see your art work around school, give it a go!

If you can't remember what House you are in, click on this link - https://www.ninianparkprm.cardiff.sch.uk/virtual-sports-day-2020/

Moving to the music

Music can make exercise more fun.  Why not create your own playlist to exercise to?  How long will it be?  What will you include?  Will you have a cool down track?  Can you make a playlist for someone else in your family, based on their musical tastes?

Alternatively

Make a film of yourself taking part in one of the sports day activities.  Use an app like iMovie (a free Apple app or try Animotica on android) to add music to it which matches your efforts. Maybe you could use GarageBand (a free Apple app or try Crayola DJ on android) to create your own music then add this to iMovie? 

View from my window

You don’t need to be an artist to try this.  A scrap of paper and a biro will get you started.  If you have the resources, use paint, felts, whatever you’re allowed.

Remember art is a skill and like any other skill it requires practice.  

Playdough

If you’re lucky enough to have flour, why not make your own playdough?  Once you've made it, you can play a game where one person sculpts something and the others have to guess what it is.  It’s not easy and can be very funny.

The following playdough recipe is copied from the BBC website - 

Makes 1 coloured ball
Prep 10 minutes

You will need

• 8 tbsp plain flour
• 2 tbsp table salt
• 60ml warm water
• food colouring
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil 

Method

1. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix together the water, a few drops of food colouring and the oil.

2. Pour the coloured water into the flour mix and bring together with a spoon.

3. Dust a work surface with a little flour and turn out the dough. Knead together for a few minutes to form a smooth, pliable dough. If you want a more intense colour you can work in a few extra drops of food colouring.

4. Store in a plastic sandwich bag (squeeze out the air) in the fridge to keep it fresh. You can make a batch of colours and give away as kids’ party bag favours or hold a playdough party for your child’s next birthday. 

Okay, so now you've got it, what else could you do with it?  Here are some ideas from Artfulparent.com (https://artfulparent.com/39-ideas-for-playing-with-playdough/)

Playdough Art Activities

• Explore color mixing with playdough (from At the Butterfly Ball)
• Playdough dress up (from Inspiration Surrounds… Creativity Abounds)
• Make a playdough maze (from Squashed Tomatoes)
• Roll the playdough into balls, snakes, and snails
• Make your own natural dyes for the playdough (from Mini Eco)

Poke Things in the Playdough

• Poke in spaghetti (from Having Fun at Home)
• Make spaghetti towers by stringing on pasta and cheerios (from Pre-School Play)
• Make sand playdough and add seashells (from The Imagination Tree)
• Use googly eyes and feathers to create playdough monsters
• Stick candles in for birthday cakes
• Poke in toothpicks to make porcupines and other prickly creatures
• Stick in popsicle sticks
• Add beads and pipecleaners for playdough robots (from Counting Coconuts)

Make Prints in Playdough

• Use sculpey nature prints to make flower and leaf prints in the playdough
• Make leaf prints from real leaves (from Nurture Store)
• Make lace prints in playdough
• Roll textured rolling pins in the playdough

Playdough Kitchen Activities

• Open a playdough bakery (from Frugal Family Fun Blog)
• Be a playdough short order cook
• Make playdough pizza (plus lots of other playdough ideas, from Childhood 101)
• Whip up a batch of edible peanut butter playdough

Make Playdough Gifts

• Make Rainbow playdough
• Here’s Candy Cane Playdough
• And Playdough Snowmen in Snow Globes
• Simple glittery playdough with googly eyes (from Sew Liberated)
• Playdough Valentine’s are sweet! (from Simple as That)
• Playdough gift with cookie cutter and recipe (from eighteen25)

Science Activities with Playdough

• Playdough makes a good volcano
• Use playdough to make a tabletop forest ecosystem
• Make glow in the dark playdough (from Sun Hats & Wellie Boots)
• Create a playdough Earth (from Meet the Dubiens)
• Make galaxy playdough (from Fairy Dust Teaching)

Playdough Literacy Activities

• Write messages in playdough
• Stamp letters in playdough (from KindergartenWorks)
• Practice letters (from KinderGals)

More Playdough Activities for Kids

• Make a playdough train table! (from Filth Wizardry)
• Use the playdough for a fun sensory experience (from The Magic Onions)
• Cut playdough snakes—a great first cutting activity for toddlers (from OT Mom)

Hope you have fun with these.

BBC Teach - Bring The Noise

The BBC has launched Bring The Noise, an educational campaign set to help primary school teachers and parents inspire children to become musicians and see the joys of music-making. Musicians and artists will come together for the campaign from BBC Education which is aimed at children between the ages of four and seven.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/bring-the-noise 

Google - Arts and Culture

We all know that Google has a huge amount of resources available for us to explore and get lost in.  This link takes you to the Arts and Culture hub, where you can travel around the world and gaze on the world's treasures from the comfort of your own sofa, garden chair or kitchen table.

This link is probably more appropriate for Key Stage 2 pupils, however with a willing adult guide and interpreter, it can be suitable for all ages.

https://artsandculture.google.com 

Free art sessions

Free art lessons at your fingertip to teach you and your children creative ways to develop their imagination and drawing skills. 

https://www.jerrysartarama.com/free-art-instruction-videos/skill-level/kids 

Drama activities for 4 to 7 year olds

Fun drama activities for 4 to 7 year olds that will help them, explore: role, voice and movement can be found on this site. There are many activities that teach the importance of listening skills, concentration and collaborative play. 

https://www.teachstarter.com/gb/blog/drama-games-for-kids-years-4-7-gb/ 

40 Drawing ideas

If your children love to draw why not explore the following site to pick up some fun drawing activities that will keep you busy for hours away from electronic screens (once you've researched some ideas). 

https://picklebums.com/20-drawing-ideas-activities/ 

Music activities

Amazing musical activities at your finger tips to keep your little musicians busy and entertained. Take a look and enjoy expressing yourself through some creative play.  

https://www.momjunction.com/articles/music-games-activities-for-kids_00387016/ 

BBC Teach - Get Creative

BBC Teach – Get Creative  

A series of short films exploring creativity in art and design and creative writing; including stop motion animation. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/art-and-design--english-ks2-get-creative/zmkrf4j 

BBC CBeebies - Live lesson

BBC CBeebies Pablo – Live lesson - This Live Lesson for 5-7s was created in collaboration with the CBeebies series Pablo, the first animated TV series to star an autistic character and the first TV programme with an all-autistic core cast. 

Pablo uses his magic crayons to turn his life challenges into fantastic adventures and his feelings into colourful characters with a voice.   In Pablo's imagination, just about anything can happen. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/live-lessons/cbeebies-pablo-live-lesson/zn7ty9q  

Get drawing with illustrator - Steve Harpster

Draw along with author and illustrator Steve Harpster and his kids.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MoKanOsj9Ck 

Pre-school music activities

Pre-school music activities 

Why not explore your child’s creativity with music and dance through the creative ideas found on 

https://www.verywellfamily.com/preschool-music-activities-2764608 

Not only will you little ones have lots of fun but they will develop their ear for sound and imagination through play.