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This clay artefact was designed to depict my love for my cats. I have used brown natural air-dry moulding clay to make the sculpture and after shaping my sculpture it was coloured with in black and white and left to air dry. For conducting the process earthy moulding clay and water with black poster colours were used as material.

Clay is a site of invention (Stengers, Manning, & Massumi 2009, p. 3). It helps a child in moulding it the way they want; clay can be shaped according to a child's thought and imagination.

The child in his/her early years of growth and development are like a clay, you can mould them and their behaviour the way  their parents and educators want, which is why it clearly depicts the importance of forming the right curriculum in ECE.
Inculcating clay moulding for play activities can be a great regime in ECE as it helps children to give shape to their imagination and their muscle strength, also, "clay ecologies" help toddlers to develop problem solving skills.
Clay helps children to become researchers of new discoveries and what they can make out of it, it helps them to do critical thinking. Clay, like the other elements in our area, is a living aspect of our environment; it has evolved into a language for expressing emotions & thoughts, as well as a means of articulation, representation, curiosity, desire, understanding, and inquiry. (Yazbeck 2013)

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This painting is inspired by the idea of using earthy colours and Abstract expressionism.
the whole canvas is painted with bold red background and after that black, apricot, red, orange, and white colours are used in geometrical shapes and lines to give the illusion of a lady standing in red with the shadow of hat on her face, thus it is called giving expression to imagination. to conduct the whole process, acrylic colours, brushes, paint tray, water and canvas was used as material.

Paint assembles human and non-human body, which is imagination, a blank paper lying in front of a child becomes the canvas for his imagination to be expressed. (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind & Kocher 2016)

Children explore theories through play, in this case painting. (Pelo 2016) Use of paint in classrooms help children to elaborate their thoughts, the choice of colours, bold strokes of paint, playing with their thoughts and at last expressing them on a piece of blank paper helps an educator to explore a child's insight.
Also, paint help children in early childhood to develop fine motor skills with hands, wrists, fingers along with that, it helps them to create hand-eye coordination.

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This song is my favourite, it is an Indian song, sung in language Hindi by me. and video was shot on a river-bank during sun set time giving it a breezy feel to it. the art of music has always inspired me because I personally believe that music is one of the biggest elements of assemblage as it brings together so many emotions, expressions, notes, words, people, and ideas. Thus, it brings your imagination and ideas to reality.
Being an artist herself my mother was smothered with art and its benefits in expanding the horizons of IQ, of a child. she from beginning gave me an art culture rich environment that helped me grow my imagination for cognitive development.
For making this artefact a video camera was used as material to capture the essence of whole audio/visual.

Music interface makes children smarter; it has been explained in Mozart effect that early childhood engagement with music improves brain development. (Koops 2018)

Music can form the base for vocabulary in early childhood setting, it is evident that when a music video is played in class for toddlers it makes easier for them to grab the concept. Music in the form of communicational music begins from the age when a baby is born for example musical chanting, cooing and movement responses (Koops 2018) are exchanged between a baby and its caregiver. Thus, it is clear that music gives a base to children from beginning in order to build creativity and intellect.

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Art is an accusation, an emotion, and a passion. Art is a battle between charcoal and paper. this beautiful charcoal art is named hidden truth, as from picture you can depict that even though you can see the girls fading smile, she is in melancholy mood. It was designed from the inspiration of today's lifestyle how people are showing something outside but are something else inside. A simple but bold 5b charcoal pencil was used with faber castle charcoal sticks with a white background A4 sheet to draw on.

An art made from charcoal is a hope of discovering something new. It is the most imaginative form of art because artist is left onto his/her imagination that what outcome will come once he starts putting his/her skills to charcoal. Charcoal has the potential to be used for more than just sketching. Paper may be more than just a surface. We try to see what we have not yet imagined, to comprehend what we haven't yet conceived. (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind, & Kocher 2016)

Children in an early childhood setting are always eager to play with new material, "Give them permission to get their hands (and faces) dirty" (Begley 2021), they play to express and what better way of expressing if not with charcoal. if inculcated in ECE, Fine motor abilities may be acquired with the most basic of materials - a charred stick piece. Children learn about light and shadow (tone), line, form, volume, pattern, texture, composition, storytelling, and developing their seeing, and perception via observation and imagination through charcoal drawing.

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Who does not like Legos? there is no age barrier when it comes to play with Legos. just like my niece she loves everything about Legos or any activity that involves blocks. her most favourite is playing in a block pit, so she inspired me to make this artefact, while playing with her tiny lego blocks.
Legos were invented in mid-20th century, and they designed a toy that can be built in any shape with its brick like block structure helping our young hero's in shaping their imagination. Thus, giving Legos a new artistic twist.
Material used were small Lego blocks.

Children who are given time to play with blocks develop socially, emotionally, cognitively and physically. (Hirsch 1996; Pollman 2010; Tunks 2009,2013; Wellhousen and Kieff 2001)

Blocks are not as ordinary we think, they are capable of improving a child's cognitive development. Blocks teach youngsters to take turns and share resources, to make new friends, to become self-sufficient, to expand attention span, to cooperate with one another, and to create self-esteem.  Progress in all areas. Gross motor abilities are enhanced during block play.

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This craft activity reminded me of my childhood, I remember when I was little may be 5, there was this cool game where you could make bracelets, necklace, earrings and many more. I use to spend hours with my best friend making all these and never get tired of it, This artefact was inspired by my nostalgia.
In this I used beads and garlands to make a bracelet.
Things that I used were coloured beads, threads and small stones.

Craft is a form of knowledge, it is not only the knowledge of making something, but, it is about knowledge of being imaginative enough to make something out of it. (Bierut 2018)

It is of utmost importance to have art and craft in circulating regime of ECE because it helps in improving children's hand-eye coordination and increasing physical dexterity. They learn about different colours, forms, and textures through working with materials. how things work and how things fit together. Craft allows youngsters to experiment and play in a pleasant and comfortable setting.

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Begley, D. (2021) Charcoal for Children, David Begley. Available at: https://www.davidbegley.com/charcoal-for-children#:~:text=Fine%20motor%20skills%20can%20be,perception%20through%20observation%20and%20imagination. (Accessed: October 24, 2022).

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Bierut, M. 2018, Some Assembly Required, New York Times Company, New York.

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Koops, L.H. (2018) ‘Communicating the Importance of Music in Early Childhood’, General Music Today, 31(2), pp. 33–35. doi:10.1177/1048371317742111.

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Pacini-Ketchabaw, V, Kind, S, & Kocher, LLM 2016, Encounters with Materials in Early Childhood Education, Taylor & Francis Group, London. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [23 October 2022].

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Pelo, A 2016, The Language of Art : Inquiry-Based Studio Practices in Early Childhood Settings, Redleaf Press, La Vergne. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [22 October 2022].

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Rosanne Hansel (2016) Creative Block Play : A Comprehensive Guide to Learning Through Building. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press. Available at: https://discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=5a463d2d-5a76-3df8-89cb-2bdc38e6dd4f (Accessed: 24 October 2022).

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The world is nothing but a canvas to our imagination, and art is what helps us to express it. Art is Something that brings everyone and everything together. It has always inspired me to be dynamic, expressive, and imaginative, thus keeping my creativity alive because we are nothing if not creative. Children are the most creative beings on this planet, they are the true artist who knows how to express through play and impress with art.

"All people - and I mean scholars, researchers, and teachers, who in any place have set themselves to study children seriously -have ended up discovering not so much the limits
and weaknesses of children but rather their surprising and extraordinary strengths and capabilities linked with an inexhaustible need for expression and realisation."

-Loris Malaguzzi, The Hundred Languages of Children

At last it is of utmost importance that art is the main stream of a child's play based learning in early childhood education as it helps them to expand, grow and develop both physically, mentally, and socially, thus making them fully prepared for all the challenges of life. Art will always help them to learn and phase their inner emotions as it brings out their thoughts, ideas, and skills because "art is the canvas for their imagination".

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Yazbeck, S.-L. (2013) ‘Movement and Clay’, Canadian Children, 38(1), pp. 47–49. Available at: https://discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=7eae2de4-d625-3975-b062-cfe0b7f41a7b (Accessed: 22 October 2022).

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Art is the springboard of creation; it gives life to the imagination. Art can be different for every person Because no two imaginations are alike, but what matters is "imagination", it can be considered as colours and "Art" is the canvas to bring is to life.
A child's brain is most creative in his early learning years and introducing art in their curriculum helps them to try out various materials and approaches and procedures to get the desired outcome. In short it  helps them in exploring and learning new things further helping them promoting their cognitive development. As said by Ann Pelo "when art spills out in a child's live the language of art becomes the language of learning"
Art is expression that give each child words to build vocabulary thus helping them in social act of commute, it can be in any form i.e dance, singing, painting, movement, charcoal, music, clay etc.
On this journey of exploring art as the canvas of imagination we will come across many milestones for example paint, clay, blocks, music and much more, that will help us bring out our creative side and elaborate on how art is crucial to develop cognitive, motor and learning abilities.