EYFS Associated Vocabulary

EYFS at work 

Felt-tip pens

Using felt-tip pens to represent an artist's work

The children learnt all about the artist, Pablo Picasso, during our Spanish Day. The children explored the bright colours Picasso used, how he used shapes in his cubism art and mixed up faces. 

The children started by practising cubism art using a colouring template, then drew their own Picasso faces. 

Chalks

Mark making outdoors with chalk, practising creating patterns in a new medium and identifying similarities and differences between the drawing tools used.

The children have been exploring how they can make large and small marks outside using the different sized chalks. The children experimented with lines, shapes as well as smudging to see the different effects it would make. 

Drawing faces

Creating self-portraits by applying their observational skills, using mirrors to draw their faces carefully.

The children explored the features on their faces using a mirror. We spoke about the colour of their eyes, hair and skin and the children attempted to find the correct colour for their pictures. 

We explored shapes of faces, eyes and noses as well as trying to get the shape of our mouth correct too. 

Observational pencil drawings

Developing skills in observation, using pencils to draw and reflecting on whether their drawings show what they can see.

Following on from reading the text Owl Babies, the children thought about how their homes are cosy and which elements of the home makes them so. We drew our homes using our memories after looking at different types of houses. 

Clay

Exploring and understanding clay through manipulation and experimentation; developing small motor skills.

Creating animal sculptures

Shaping clay into animal sculptures; refining their ideas as they follow their designs and problem solving as they work.

After reading Owl Babies, the children explored the different parts of an owl. We spoke about its large eyes, its beak, wings and talons. 

The children explored how they could mould the clay into the shape of an owl's body, then used the natural resources to add features. They thought about whether to use the items to print into the clay or whether to use the items as part of their sculpture. 

Outdoor painting

Collecting materials and objects from nature to make painting tools; children use these to create abstract and figurative art.

The children collected different autumnal items from around the school that they felt would be good to print or paint with. We spoke about autumnal colours and explored these on the walk then chose the colours to use to represent these in their painting. 

The children tried different approaches of painting the items prior to printing or using the item straight into the paint. The children mixed the colours as they explored their creations to see what other autumnal colours they could make. 

The children explored a new way of painting to create firework pictures. The children used toilet rolls to make printing tools and carefully placed the prints onto the paper to avoid smudging. Some children explored how the pictures would look like if they placed come of the colours over the top of others. 

using multiple media 

We used different tools to print a basic Christmas Card design of either Rudolph or a bauble in a tree, then we added different media to enhance this using 3D effects. The printing tools were potato mashers and sliced straws. We added glitter, ribbons, pipe cleaners and red materials as well as googly eyes! 

We made Valentine's Day cards for someone we loved. The children had a template of a heart and they decided whether to use pens and collage or just pens to create their cards. The children tore the tissue paper up into small pieces and stuck this into the heart, being careful not to go over the lines. 

Aboriginal art

The children have been learning all about different art techniques and learnt all about aboriginal art and how they use dots to make their pictures. The children used this technique to go round an outline of a silhouette.