Making your creative area outstanding
Creative area’s in early years settings all tend to contain very similar resources making it sometimes difficult to make the area seem special and unique. With this in mind, it is more the presentation and the accessibility of the resources rather than the actual resources themselves.
Things to consider in your creative area
· Layout
Creative areas sometimes contain water and sand trays, malleable and tactile materials such as playdough as well as graphics area resources. It is completely up to the setting whether they would like to include these items in the creative area of whether they could be better placed elsewhere. Does the water tray cause too much noise and excitement next to the children who are carefully trying to paint a picture? Do the creative resources find their way into the sand tray? These are a few things to keep in mind when considering room layout.
· Age and stage
Also, you should consider the age and stage of the children in the room, for example, would they be better of jumbo paint brushes or thin paint brushes? Finger paints or powder paints? Chunky wax crayons or normal wax crayons? Small sequins or fine glitter?
Another aspect to consider is creating a communication friendly environment within the creative area. The creative area can lead to some incredible discussions when children talk about their creations and this can sometimes be hindered through the creative area becoming too overwhelming. Does the creative area need to involve lots of colourful displays or could hessian backgrounds be used? Does there need to be things hanging from the ceiling causing distractions? Does their need to be lots of printed materials such as colour signs and area labels? Is it light and airy? Are resources displayed in a balanced and purposeful way instead of all resources jumbled and messy?
Creative area resources and layout
· Tables and easels – Some children prefer to take part in creative activities if they can stand and feel like they are using their whole bodies rather than being forced to sit still at a table
· Paint – Have paint made up and accessible daily. You may like to have these in pots with the lids or alternatively in smaller palatte trays so a smaller quantity is out.
· Scissors – Scissors are a great creative resource and many have these out daily. If you feel they are a risk to have out, you may choose to keep them in a labelled box in the creative area with a tough lid. This way it is still accessible and the children can still see and use the scissors but they have to ask for adult help to take the lid off and then the adult knows scissors are in use and need to be supervised
· A provocation – Set your creative area up so it can include a provocation. This is something such as a photo or real objects such as flowers that will provoke thoughts, ideas and learning.
· Materials – Add interesting materials to the creative area for the children to explore it doesn’t always need to be art on paper. Add twigs, lollipop sticks, wooden spoons, paper plates, tin foil, newspaper, large flat stones, leaves etc.
· Independence – Make sure there is lots of opportunity for independent explorations and expression of self. Sometimes the creative area can be a space that practitioners take over with too many adult led activities.
· Display – Could you display the resources in a more thought provoking way such as by colour? With the red crayons in a pot, next to the red paint and red sticking materials etc…
· Glue – All too often creative areas include lots of wondering sticking materials such as paper scraps, glitter, sequins, buttons etc.… but then there is never any glue available. Practitioners can sometimes worry about waste and sticking is not always essential so you may choose to limit the glue or sticking resources. If it is a concern don’t make the main focus of the creative area lots of wonderful sticking resources that are on display but never used and instead keep these aside for adult led activities
· Pencils and felt tips – In almost every creative area you will find pencils and pens, unfortunately, half the time these are not sharpened or dried up. This is really deflating for children who want to use these resources and have been enticed to the creative area to use them for them to be blunt and not working. Always ensure if these materials are readily available that the children can use them.
· Colouring Sheets – Although some settings love to use colouring sheets, many now feel they place too many restrictions on children’s creativity and too limiting. You may want to bear this in mind and read this article here before deciding whether to include these in your creative area.
Aprons – Always encourage the children to wear aprons so their clothes cannot be ruined.
What do you include in your creative area?