Planning a Text-led Curriculum in Pre-K - Understanding the World: Creating with Materials

The development of children’s artistic and cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. It is important that children have regular opportunities to engage with the arts, enabling them to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials. The quality and variety of what children see, hear and participate in is crucial for developing their understanding, self-expression, vocabulary and ability to communicate through the arts. The frequency, repetition and depth of their experiences are fundamental to their progress in interpreting and appreciating what they hear, respond to and observe.

Expressive Arts and Design: Creating with Materials covers Pre-K learning sequences for Nursery and Pre-K. It includes:

- ;Taking part in simple, pretend play, using and object to represent something else even though they are not similar
- ;Beginning to develop complex stories using small world equipment
- ;Making imaginative and complex 'small worlds'
- ;Exploring different materials freely
- ;Developing their own ideas
- ;Exploring different materials and textures
- ;Creating closed shapes with continuous lines
- ;Drawing with increasing complexity and detail, such as representing faces with circles
- ;Showing different emotions in their drawings and paintings
- ;Exploring color and color mixing
- ;Exploring, using and refining a variety of artistic effects
- ;Listening with increased attention to sounds and responding appropriately