Infant Program

november 2022

Over the last few weeks, the children have been actively exploring mark-making. The majority of the materials they have been exploring have been Art media: markers, crayons, a variety of pencils, pastels, pens as well as paint.

However, we (the educators) wanted to challenge the children’s thinking. So, to extend their learning further; we took a different approach and offered a sand tray for making marks.

It was really fascinating to watch how the children manipulated their hands and fingers to create lines, swirls, and clearing big patches of sand away from the plexiglass. To highlight the ‘negative space’ that was made by clearing those spots away, we placed coloured fabric underneath, so the contrast was more visible.

To extend the learning even further, the children had the opportunity to experiment with dry paintbrushes and texture combs. This generated a lot of excitement, as the tools gave them the ability to create bigger spaces and more complex lines in the sand!

But why stop there? There are plenty of other sensory materials that we can access to challenge their thinking even further…..

What do YOU think? What else could we try to expand this idea around mark-making even further?


Don McMahon RECE

Hailee King RECE

Madison Myrefors RECE