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Busy Things hosts over 1600 curriculum-linked activities and games for early years and primary aged children. A school subscription also includes lots of features and tools for teachers that promise to save planning time.  Take a free trial to have a proper play or book a demo here. 

Pretty Things: Spin and shake

Hold down on the spinning canvas to create marks.

Drag the slider up and down to experiment with different degrees of shake. Try out different brush sizes and colours! Use the buttons in the top left to save, load and print your creations!

You can use this activity with the other Pretty Things activities for even more amazing results! In the left-hand margin are other works you have made during the session. Select one to open it in the canvas area and work on top of it. NOTE: These will not be saved automatically when you finish your session on Busy Things.



Discussion points

Age 3-4Age 4, Age 5, Age 5-6, Age 6-7Age 7-9, Age 9-11

  • Tell someone about your picture.
  • What do you like about your picture?
  • What is happening to the patterns as it spins?
  • Which tool do you like the best? Why?
  • If you could give your creation a title, what would it be? Why?
  • How could you use circular motions to represent something in a picture?


Teaching tips:

Age 3-4Age 4, Age 5, Age 5-6, Age 6-7Age 7-9, Age 9-11

This activity can be used as an open-ended creative task for children to explore different patterns and colours and how they can be used to create a picture.

Children could practise moving their arms in large and small circular motions in the air or drawing ‘swirly’ patterns on large pieces of paper and coloured felt tips or paint to develop motor skills.
This activity can be used as an open-ended creative task for children to experiment with and explore different lines, colours and patterns.

It could also be used to develop vocabulary by getting children to talk about their creation and to discuss what they notice when they select and use different features or change the motion of the spinner.

Children could take inspiration from this in their own artwork by creating a piece of art using circular motions.
Pair this with a design and technology project by getting children to make their own ‘spinning art’ using paper plates, paints and a spinning device. They could work in pairs where one child spins and the other adds the paint in small droplets.

Alternatively, use with ‘Create an Abstract Expressionist painting’ to create a piece of abstract art using circular motion techniques and ideas.
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Nursery

 £110+VAT yr

  Unlimited children in a single nursery

  Single shared login

  xx games for independent play

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  Printable worksheets

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Your free trial includes

  • access to 1600+ of fun educational activities and games
  • Create an area just for your class (school version)
  • Track activities and send feedback (school version)
  • Customisable games and activities targeting core maths, literacy and phonics skills
  • Creative activities working with colours, shapes and sounds
  • Busy Code - a whole suite of activities and guides for teaching children how to code
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  • Curriculum-links and activity search
  • Pupil timelines - see what your pupils have been doing
  • Set assignments and collate results
  • Play on desktop computers, laptops and tablets

 

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Schools have no limit on the number of pupils that can use Busy Things simultaneously. 

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Families 

The family version allows up to 5 children to play at once.

 

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