Exploring nature through dance and art, with reception children in Surrey primary schools.​

 

​The aim:

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Encouraging Early Years children to use their imagination and creativity to express themselves and learn about changes in the natural world around them. Developing skills linked to the Early Learning Goals including Physical Development, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design.

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​The organisation:

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Made By Katie Green is a dance company based in Surrey, specialising in using dance, music and storytelling to respond to museums, heritage sites, libraries, galleries, caves, landscapes and other kinds of extraordinary spaces. We work extensively in primary schools and in places that are generally open to the public, without a cost barrier, meaning a high proportion of those who attend our events have never done something like this before.

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For the Delight in Dance: Grow project, we collaborate with:

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Delight – a leading arts-based learning charity based in Caterham, using the transformative power of the arts to bring about sustained change for children affected by disadvantage.

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Hannah Maiya-Mills from Paintbox, which runs art classes for children and works in schools to provide creative arts experiences for primary aged children.

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Our pilot for this activity in primary schools was supported financially using public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

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The activity:

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In 2025, we piloted a programme for children in Reception linked to our dance piece SEED, which we have now performed extensively in libraries, schools and community centres. 

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During the pilot, we tested ways of bringing to life the Early Years and Foundation Stage ‘Understanding the World’ topic over 6 weeks through dance and visual arts activities, especially developing the children’s awareness of the life cycle of a seed and the seasons.

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Beginning with a live interactive performance of SEED as an ‘inspiration point’, in week 1 participating children were tasked with helping Kid and Pinto, two ‘Seedologists’, as they followed the journey of a mysterious new seed through the seasons. The children decorated terracotta pots and planted their own seeds, which they then looked after during the course of the half term, with their dance and art activities mirroring the growth and development of the plants.

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​Over the following 5 weeks the children worked with professional dance artist Katie Green in weekly workshops to explore movement as a way of expressing themselves, developing their strength, balance and coordination along the way. The children also created a range of visual art props in class, which they used in their dance workshops and final performance.

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The children shared their experience with their families in an Open Classroom event at the end of the half term, including performing their dances for their parents, and taking part in a shared collage art activity together.

 

The results:

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​Now more than ever, this kind of arts activity isn’t only about sharing a passion for the arts and nurturing creative skills – although it does that to great effect - but also about providing a context in which children can learn how to collaborate and solve problems in a safe way, without being worried about taking a risk or trying something new. They can practice respect, empathy, really trying to listen to each other to achieve something cooperatively. They can be expressive and playful, building their courage and developing their curiosity, with 75% of parents completing feedback forms during our pilot saying their child’s interest has extended beyond the classroom and into an interest at home. At the end of the programme, the children took pride in doing something which they would never have expected they could do, with 100% of parents who joined us at the end of project stating they had observed their child’s confidence and happiness, and 100% of teachers commenting on how calm the children were when participating in something like this, moving and learning at the same time.

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“it is amazing how much they have come on since week 1”

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“There was so much joy in all of their faces joining in, especially with all the props and dancing.”

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“Really nice to see the children moving their bodies in different ways and learning at the same time”

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"Was a lovely dance to see; all the children were enjoying themselves and also learning about the seasons."

 

“They all looked like they had so much fun. Loved the imaginative play.”

 

"She loved the activities, enjoyed every moment of it.”

 

“A very interactive way to learn about the seasons incorporating art and dance. Very well put together. Katie was amazing with the children, including them all.”

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(Example parent and teacher feedback from our pilot in 2025)

Since the pilot, we have worked again with Delight and Paintbox to deliver the programme in the 25/26 academic year, enabling us to work with more children aged 4 and 5 in primary schools across Surrey, inspiring them to think about the world around them and celebrating their learning with their families. This project is now called ‘Delight in Dance: Grow’, and you can read more about how it has progressed here.

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Tips:

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• If you have an idea for a new project working creatively with children and young people, find an opportunity to test it out with members of your target audience first. They will show you (and tell you!) exactly what they think about the ideas, and there is nothing that can beat that instant feedback in terms of finding out whether you’re on the right track. Feedback from their teachers and parents will also provide valuable information.

 

• Collaborate with brilliant people who can contribute complementary skills and knowledge. We are lucky to have worked with Delight before on the development of the ‘Delight in Dance: Heroes vs Villains’ project for year 3 and 4 children since 2019. This means we knew that their team would be excellent partners for testing the ‘Grow’ project as they share our love of creating magic in learning through the arts, and they also have an extraordinary insight into the needs and interests of primary schools in the county, and particular schools they knew would support us to test our ideas.

 

• Keep things simple and adapt as you go along – throughout development of this project we’ve been reminded of the importance of this time and again. It’s easy to get ahead of ourselves in terms of planning how much we can fit in to the sessions for example, but in fact it is always the simplest things which the children enjoy the most - things which give them space to play and to enjoy a particular kind of sensation/sensory prop; to feel calm and to build up trust week by week, which helps give them a sense of ease and enjoyment.