Proving that age is no barrier to creativity, children at an Altrincham nursery have created a stunning masterpiece in celebration of Children’s Art Week.
The pre-schoolers at Back to the Garden Childcare, the natural child-led day nursery on Sinderland Road in Broadheath, came together in the setting’s beautiful garden for a morning of unstructured free-flowing creative expression that included throwing water balloons filled with paint at a large sheet to create a giant piece of textile artwork that is now hanging proudly in the nursery’s reception area for all to see.
Taking place for three weeks annually, Children’s Art Week encourages children and young people to take part in a range of practical and expressive art sessions with their peers, parents, carers and teachers and also with artists and educators to drive learning, connectivity, inspiration and wellbeing.
Children of all ages can take part in a range of on and offline art-related activities at home, school or cultural venues including galleries and museums.
Art and creative expression underpin the approach to learning and development at Back to Garden Childcare, so it was only natural that the nursery embraced the aims of Children’s Art Week with a range of activities for all to enjoy.
Nursery manager, Ann-Marie Ellison, explains: “Children’s Art Week is always great fun at the nursery with all of our children taking part in a wide range of activities including painting on canvas and giant floor tiles, modelling with clay, drawing on pebbles and free-styling as they wish on the easels in our garden. We take our lead from the children and approach the different activities organically, encouraging each child to be creative and express themselves in their own way.
“The highlight of this year’s event was definitely the paint throwing activity; we set up a giant white sheet and some mini stepladders and encouraged our toddlers and pre-schoolers to fill water balloons with their choice of paint and throw it at the sheet – they had a blast!”
It is hoped that the engaging art activities at Back to the Garden will be complemented by series of visits to The Whitworth in the city centre enabling the children to explore and experience a real life art gallery for the first time for themselves.
Based in Altrincham and coming soon to Lymm, Back to the Garden is an innovative child-led day nursery that focuses on active learning through outdoor play in a stunning garden setting. Its philosophy of allowing children to be children to explore their environment, experiment with the outdoor playscape and harness their own imaginations allows for a natural approach where each child develops at their own pace.
Back to the Garden Children is currently looking to recruit an “atelierista” to work on the arts in its Lymm nursery. For further information or to book an appointment to view the nursery, please call Back to the Garden Childcare on 0161 537 7999 or visit www.backtothegardenchildcare.com.
