Creating with Materials
EYFSEAD-R-D001
Using and exploring a variety of materials, tools and techniques to create artworks and products, sharing and explaining the creative process, and using props in role play.
National Curriculum context
Creating with Materials is Early Learning Goal 16 within the Expressive Arts and Design Specific Area. At the end of Reception, children are expected to safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function. They should be able to share their creations, explaining the process they have used. They should also make use of props and materials when role playing characters in narratives and stories. This ELG encompasses the full making cycle from initial exploration through intentional design to reflective explanation. The emphasis on process — experimenting, explaining — over product is deliberate: at EYFS, the child's engagement with materials and their growing capacity to communicate about what they have made matters more than technical finish or resemblance to a model. This domain is the direct precursor of Art and Design and Design and Technology at KS1, where children begin to develop systematic skills in drawing, painting, sculpture and the design-make-evaluate cycle.
3
Concepts
1
Clusters
0
Prerequisites
3
With difficulty levels
Lesson Clusters
Practice: Materials Exploration and Experimentation, Role-play and Props, Intentional Making and Design
practiceConcepts (3)
Materials Exploration and Experimentation
skill AI FacilitatedEAD-R-C001
The active, purposeful investigation of different materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with the visual and tactile qualities of colour, texture, form and function to discover what each material can and cannot do. At EYFS, this is less about acquiring specific technical skills than about developing a confident, experimental mindset: children try things out, notice what happens, adjust their approach and try again. Exploration of materials underpins all subsequent art, design and technology learning by establishing that making begins with curiosity about what materials can do.
Teaching guidance
Provide a rich and varied making environment with open-ended access to paint (powder, ready-mixed, watercolour), clay, collage materials, construction kits, natural materials and found objects. Resist providing adult models to copy: instead, pose open provocations ('I wonder what would happen if you mixed those two colours', 'What could you use to make something bumpy?'). Value the process of exploration as explicitly as the product. Encourage children to describe what they notice as they work: 'What does it feel like?', 'What happens when you add more water?', 'Can you make it a different shape?'. Ensure all children have regular access regardless of perceived ability.
Common misconceptions
Adults often over-direct creative activities at EYFS, providing step-by-step models that limit children's experimentation. Children may believe there is a 'right way' to use materials if they have mainly been given structured tasks. Open-ended provision corrects this. Children may also lack confidence to experiment if previous attempts have been evaluated negatively; establishing a culture where trying is always valued over outcome is essential.
Difficulty levels
Beginning to explore different materials freely, handling, combining and experimenting to discover what they can do.
Example task
Provide paint, collage materials, clay and construction resources. Observe how the child explores them.
Model response: The child picks up different materials, squeezes the clay, mixes paint colours on the paper, sticks sequins onto card. They explore freely without a specific goal but discover effects ('Look, I mixed red and yellow and got orange!').
Sometimes exploring materials with developing purpose, choosing materials for their visual or tactile qualities and commenting on what they discover.
Example task
Ask the child to make a picture of a fireworks display. What materials do they choose and why?
Model response: The child chooses glitter, foil and bright paint. 'I'm using glitter because fireworks are sparkly. The foil is shiny like the light.' They select materials for specific qualities related to their subject.
Safely using and exploring a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.
Example task
Create something that represents 'under the sea' using any materials you like. Explain your choices.
Model response: The child creates a layered collage: blue tissue paper for water (because you can see through it), bubble wrap for bubbles, shiny card fish, and string for seaweed. 'I chose bubble wrap because it looks like real bubbles. The tissue paper is see-through like water. I used string because seaweed is long and wavy.'
Delivery rationale
EYFS concept for 4-5 year olds — AI can deliver structured activities via voice/touch but adult facilitates physical tasks and monitors engagement.
Intentional Making and Design
process AI FacilitatedEAD-R-C002
Creating with a purpose in mind: selecting materials, tools and techniques deliberately to achieve a specific effect, and being able to explain the choices made and the process followed. This moves beyond open-ended exploration to goal-directed making in which the child holds an intention and evaluates their materials and methods against it. The ability to explain the process — 'I chose this because...', 'I did this first and then...' — demonstrates that the child has internalised the making process and can reflect on it, which is the EYFS precursor of the design-make-evaluate cycle in KS1 Design and Technology.
Teaching guidance
Provide making challenges that have a purpose but leave the method open: 'Can you make something that the bear could hide under?', 'Make a gift for someone in your family'. Before making, ask children what they are planning to make and what materials they think they will need. During making, ask process questions: 'Is that working the way you wanted?', 'What will you do next?'. After making, create regular sharing opportunities where children explain their process to the group. Value and display children's explanations alongside their products.
Common misconceptions
Children may focus entirely on product appearance without considering whether it achieves its purpose ('It looks nice' as the sole evaluation). Teaching children to check against the original intention builds purposeful evaluation. Adults sometimes accept 'I just made it' as an explanation — prompting children to reconstruct their decision sequence in language requires patience and consistent modelling.
Difficulty levels
Beginning to make things with a simple intention, stating what they are making before or during the process.
Example task
In the construction area, observe whether the child says what they are making.
Model response: 'I'm making a house!' The child builds something and can describe it, though the end result may not closely match the stated intention.
Sometimes creating with clear purpose, selecting appropriate materials and showing a developing ability to explain the process and choices.
Example task
Ask the child to make a birthday card for a friend. Observe their planning and choices.
Model response: The child folds card, draws a cake with candles, writes their friend's name (with phonic spelling), and decorates with their friend's favourite colour. 'I used purple because Fatima likes purple. I drew 5 candles because she's going to be 5.'
Sharing their creations, explaining the process they have used, and returning to and building on their previous learning to refine ideas.
Example task
Over several sessions, develop a model of a garden using junk modelling. Observe whether the child improves it over time.
Model response: Session 1: The child builds a basic garden with boxes and green paper. Session 2: They add flowers made from cupcake cases and pipe cleaners. Session 3: They create a pond using foil and add a bench from lolly sticks. 'I kept making it better. Yesterday I thought it needed water so I added the pond. Today I'm making a path because gardens have paths.'
Delivery rationale
EYFS concept for 4-5 year olds — AI can deliver structured activities via voice/touch but adult facilitates physical tasks and monitors engagement.
Role-play and Props
skill AI FacilitatedEAD-R-C003
The use of physical objects — either ready-made props, repurposed everyday objects or child-made props — to support and extend imaginative role play and character enactment. In role play with props, children engage in symbolic thinking: an object is treated as standing for something else (a block becomes a phone; a cloth becomes a cloak). This symbolic use of objects is both a mark of cognitive development and a powerful support for narrative, language and social learning. Making props connects this domain to materials exploration (EAD-R-C001) and narrative invention (EAD-R-C004).
Teaching guidance
Provide role play areas that are richly resourced with open-ended props (scarves, hats, boxes, lengths of fabric, simple tools) that can serve multiple roles rather than single-use commercial props. Support children in making their own props in the making area and then using them in the role play area. Enter role play alongside children to model purposeful prop use and narrative extension. Avoid scripting the role play for children; instead, ask 'What is this?', 'What are you going to do with it?' to prompt symbolic thinking. Change the role play provision regularly to introduce new contexts and narrative possibilities.
Common misconceptions
Children who have not developed symbolic thinking may use props only literally (a phone is only a phone). Adults can scaffold symbolic play by modelling repurposing objects ('I'm going to use this stick as a magic wand — what would your magic wand do?'). Some children avoid role play areas; tracking participation and ensuring all children have supported entry experiences is important.
Difficulty levels
Beginning to use objects as props in pretend play, understanding that one thing can represent another (a block becomes a phone).
Example task
In the home corner, observe whether the child uses objects symbolically in their play.
Model response: The child picks up a banana and holds it to their ear: 'Hello? Yes, I'll come to the party.' The banana represents a phone — symbolic thinking.
Sometimes creating and using props to support more complex role play, extending scenes through dialogue and action.
Example task
Observe the child in role-play. Do they create props or adapt objects to serve their narrative?
Model response: The child wraps a blanket around their shoulders as a cape, uses a ruler as a sword, and makes a crown from a paper strip. They stay in character: 'I am the king and this is my castle. You must bring me treasure!'
Inventing, adapting and recounting narratives and stories with peers through collaborative role play using props, demonstrating sustained imagination.
Example task
Observe extended role play with props over 15+ minutes.
Model response: Three children set up a veterinary surgery. One child makes a 'waiting room' with chairs, another creates appointment cards from paper, a third sets up a table with toy medical equipment. They sustain the play for 20 minutes, with a narrative that develops: a pet arrives sick, gets examined, receives medicine, and goes home better. Props are central to the story and created collaboratively.
Delivery rationale
EYFS concept for 4-5 year olds — AI can deliver structured activities via voice/touch but adult facilitates physical tasks and monitors engagement.