15 replies to this topic

[sunshine]

Any creative ideas for encouraging boys in mark making, especially outdoors I would love some fun ideas

thanks
Sunshine

[mrsbat]

Paint brushes and water, wet mud and fingers - that one goes down really well with our boys, and they can see how the consistency and colour changes as it dries
The messier the better we find, how about finger painting?

[Jackie A.]

We often cover a large table with old wallpaper or lining paper taped down with masking tape. We put the brio trains on, but no train track. We put a pot of large marker pens. They have to draw their own train track, station, signs, roads, etc. This really gets them engaged and involves them in collaborative play. Through the session, different children will come and add other thing to the paper - a park, a farm, houses, school, seaside, shops, petrol station, road signs, labels for a garage, etc.

[Petal]

I have a group of car mad boys so we turned the writing table into a car. We made number plates, and provided paper of different vehicle shapes. We also went out and look at the different features inside and outside my car and they even helped to wash it! This led to some children drawing my car and labelling it! We set up a garage and car wash outdoors (they wash our outdoor bikes) using reources from sparklebox and they have a garage sheet they can fill in to write problems with the cars. This then led onto looking at road maps. We looked at the maps on 2go, used beebot on maps, provided large sheets of paper for drawing road maps which they loved. Lots of labelling here of the features on the maps. This also led onto road safety, learning the green cross code and learning about road signs. Many of the boys made their own road signs and some children even made signs for our classroom. Hope that helps

[Cait]

We don't have any noticeable difference between boys and girls mark-making at all. All happily draw. they all have tiny notebooks in their trays with tiny IKEA pencils and they enjoy walking round emulating the staff - doing observations!

[Panders]

If you have any empty squeezy bottles - like fairy liquid etc. we fill those with water on a hot day for the children to squeeze patterns, shapes and if they are adept, letters. Obviously we use pavement chalks, they carry out surveys of the traffic going past the nursery, they draw the minibeasts they see, they keep a tally during games they play, we also give them buckets of water and large paint brushes to paint the fences or pavements, we tape down large sheets of wallpaper in a sheltered area and they can draw etc. on that, or make tracks with wheeled vehicles on it. They make rubbings of different surfaces outside that they can find and, whilst it is not strictly mark making, we take out buckets of water and scrubbing brushes so that they can clean, particularly if they have been chalking, this is good for the old muscles to help with mark making. Do you still have blackboards and easels, they could chalk or paint outside.

[Susan]

Clipboards are very good for encouraging the boys too.

[hfn]

we have had compost in our tuff spot that the boys have enjoyed using, we also find that shaving foam is very popular, and lovely and messy!!

We also have spray bottles which we fill with paints or watercolours and roll out huge pieces of paper for them to 'spray' paint on!

We recently did paint mixing in tub on the floor outside, and most of the boys ended up sat in the tub before encountering in all kinds of mark making using all parts of their bodies! Great fun!

Like Cait we have a good balance in interest from both girls and boys, we try to ensure we offer different provisions throughout the week to keep their interests.

The boys really enjoyed using paints and brushes or water and brushes to paint our fence outside!

[mrs b]

Hi , was told about a really good way today, sounded like fun, put the paper on the underside of the table and give the children crayons/felt pens to write they have to crawl under the table or lie on their backs. My colleague said that the boys were queuing to do it, they are going to repeat but try using paints and cars to print tracks underneath. I find large rolls or wallpaper outside get the boys interested as it can stretch from one end of the outside area to the other, its great for footprints, drawing trails, making big maps or plans of the outside, we uses brushes, mud i(if you give them plastic gloves they can write with them on to, my boys also like to draw complex swirls, shapes, etc and them play who can move the fastest from one to the other and then add another element, it makes an obstacle type course. They also like to mark out their own football pitches or games areas.

Mrs b

[Marion]

This year I gave those children who wanted one an exercise book to use as they wanted and the up take from my boys has been an eye opener. Most are on their second book and they actually use the book to write! ... words... sentences... stories!

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[chicken]

I got these two books, free , from www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications

mark making matters and confident, capable and creative: supporting boys achievements.

Both very useful

[Possum]

I have those too, make good reading

[Rachie05]

I purchased some tool belts from the pound shop, filled them with pencils, small rulers, notebooks etc. The boys love them and soon fill the notebooks! The clips to do them up are chunky, so children can easily open/close them. Only downside is, even on fully adjusted size, they are a little too big, so I had to sew them a little. Not a big deal though when I see how sucessful they have been!

[Panders]

What a great idea Rachie05 - might just have to "nick" that one!!

[carly1]

Hi,
Yeah we found that our boys love their gun play so the outside wall is covered in wall paper and their water guns are filled with coloured paint that they then mark make squirting the paint everywhere.
Hope that has helped.
Carly.