Get inspired with these 8 mark making ideas
There's lots of fun and exciting things settings can do to engage children with mark making – here are just a few examples…
- by Teachwire
Sometimes, children don’t require much encouragement to start applying paints, water and other substances with their hands or any other implements that might be nearby; at others, they can sometimes use a little encouragement and some imaginative prompting.
As you might expect, there are myriad examples out there of impressive mark making approaches and activities – here are some of our recent favourites…
An early start
The staff of Leed-based Daisy Chain Childcare are evidently firm believers in getting children started with mark making early on. In this blog post, Training Manager Helen Stoner offers several suggestions for open-ended mark making activities suitable for babies and young children.
Read it here
Dinosaur swamp sensory writing tray
Mark making, messy play and dinosaurs can be combined to form an engaging literacy activity, as suggested by The Imagination Tree…
Read it here
Light and sand
You’ll find a number of mark making ideas and resources at the blog ‘Stimulating Learning With Rachel‘, including this suggestion of using sand with a home-made lightbox and a downloadable set of mark making pattern cards Download PDF here
Mark making, Reggio-style
Take a leaf out of the Reggio Emilia approach with this guide by Laura England on how a relatively straightforward mark making activity can be used to help develop children’s communication skills.
Read it here
Christmas sensory mark making
With the festive season fast approaching, it an ideal time to try out this Christmas-themed mark making activity suggested by early years resources supplier, The Consortium…
Read it here
Build a mark-making tepee…
From Pippa Pixley comes a brilliantly simple idea, albeit one requiring a fair amount of preparation, some spare floor space and quilting skills – constructing a tepee out fabric squares adorned with your children’s past mark making experiments…
Read it here
A mark making shed…
For something a little more permanent, why not re-purpose a wooden shed to serve as a dedicated mark making area? As this post at Early Years Careers explains, a mark making shed can really come into its own when situated outside…
Read it here
Or get rid of your writing area altogether…
And finally, a rather bold proposal from Alistair Bryce-Clegg – why have a mark making area at all? He makes the point that while destination areas are well-suited to creative activities such as painting and construction, basic skills such as mark making – are best practised as widely and as often as possible throughout your setting.
Read it here
