Being creative is all about having fun with your child when you’re drawing, designing and making things, dancing and singing, listening to music and using your imagination.
Children need to explore and express their own ideas in different ways, using all of their senses. These ideas can be inspired by anything and everything around them and there is no right or wrong answer.
At CBeebies, we’ve linked our 7 learning areas with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum. ‘Being Creative’ closely matches the Creative Development/ Expressive Arts and Design area of the EYFS curriculum.
The Early Years Foundation Stage is a curriculum used by all care and education providers working with children from birth to the age of five (or the end of your child’s reception year).
It describes how adults working with young children can support the development of a child’s existing knowledge, skills and understanding in all areas of their learning. The EYFS recognises that all children are individual and will learn and make progress at their own pace, aiming to achieve the Early Learning Goals by the end of their reception year.
The EYFS curriculum is delivered through a play-based approach to learning, offering fun and practical activities and hands-on experience. As a parent or carer, you will know your child best and it’s important that you share your knowledge of your child’s achievements with the adults they are working with.
The EYFS is currently divided into 6 areas of learning. These areas are:
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Physical Development
Communication, Language and Literacy
Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy
Knowledge and Understanding of the World
Creative Development
The games, songs and stories across CBeebies relate to all areas of learning from the EYFS curriculum. Here are a few ideas for activities you can do at home to support Creative Development or Expressive Arts and Design.
Print off your child’s favourite CBeebies character in Make and Colour and use pens, pencils, paints or chalks instead of a paintbrush. Or try using fingers, cotton buds or corks! You can really let your child’s imagination go wild. You could play together on the My Story Interactive Book and help your child make their own story all about them - their friends and their family. Another activity you could do together is the Mr Maker Magic Paintbox game. This is a great game to play that encourages independence and confidence - without making a mess at home! You could also play the Rastamouse Picture Maker which encourages creativity and allows them to make up their own personal story. You can join in by asking what they are doing and let them explain it back to you. As your child expresses their own ideas they will be exploring colour, texture and space – which all ties in to the EYFS.
Have fun with music in Song Time! You can experiment with instruments and sound in Boogie Beats, listen to different styles of music at Carrie and David’s Pop Shop and Zingzillas or simply sing along to the theme tune of your child’s favourite programme. Try changing the volume or why not think of your own dance moves to the different music? Listening, finding out how sounds can be changed or matching movements to music are important skills in the EYFS curriculum. You could also use CBeebies Radio as an effective tool to have fun with music but also story telling. There are a series called Ministry of Stories which is designed to get little minds thinking and being creative. Why not listen to an episode with your little one and when it asks the children to come up with suggestions, stop the recording and ask them what their ideas would be.
Sing along to familiar songs and nursery rhymes - like Twinkle Twinkle with the Teletubbies. Or listen to more traditional stories like Little Red Riding Hood, which have been given a modern twist using rhymes and animation. Get your child to retell the story using their own toys and teddies – and have fun making up the voices for each of the characters. This is a great way to extend your child’s vocabulary.
