Nursery activities: Our bright idea

Children in the Garden Room at George Dent Nursery School, Darlington, were fascinated with the snails in their garden and this motivated them to create spiral patterns using a range of different media.

PLANNED LEARNING INTENTIONS

To talk about, recognise and recreate simple patterns

To handle tools, objects, construction and malleable materials safely and with increasing control

RESOURCES

Snails

magnifying glasses

books about snails

pictures of spiral patterns

spiral shells

candles

wax crayons

salt dough

paint

clipboards

mark-making tools

paper

card

STEP BY STEP

- Let the children observe snails closely either outdoors, for example, under stones and in crevices in walls, or inside a clear plastic tank.

- Provide magnifying glasses, clipboards, and mark-making tools and materials so that they can make observational drawings. Always return the snails to their original environment after children have observed them for a short while.

- Discuss the appearance of the snails and how they move, and find out about their lifestyle from books.

- Draw attention to the spiral shape of the snails' shells. Look for spirals in different places, such as on sea shells, or wallpaper or fabric designs.

- Provide a wide range of creative materials so children can experiment with creating their own spiral patterns:

- painting spirals of different sizes and colours

- creating spirals from salt dough, baking them, painting them and glueing them to card

- taking prints of the salt dough spirals by laying paper on top and pressing gently downwards

- drawing spirals with candles or wax crayons and painting over them with thin watery paint.

EXTENSION IDEAS

- Cut out spirals from paper and hang them in front of the display to twist and turn in the breeze.

- Draw boxes in a spiral pattern with outdoor chalk and try to hop or jump from one to the other.