Nursery World - EYFS Best Practice - All about… ateliers

One setting’s atelier provides a case study in how to set up such a space and resource it to encourage children to fulfil their artistic potential, finds Annette Rawstrone

It's important to give children the opportunity to explore a variety of materials.

‘Plants don’t talk, they make sounds,’ was a child’s observation that sparked resident atelierista Dillon Howling to undertake a long-term research project exploring sound with pre-school children at Little Barn Owls in Horsham, West Sussex.

They tested the theory using an electric circuit board, which produced different sounds when connected to different species of plants. Children went on to use wire and mixed media to produce sound sculptures and draw sounds. They also tried a range of musical instruments, were introduced to various musical genres and taught themselves to play the intriguing instrument the melodica – a keyboard with mouthpiece – and write musical scores using colour as musical ‘notation’. Children recorded their compositions and edited them using software in the setting’s digital atelier, where technology is used for creative potential.

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