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Creative Courses

Playtrain courses can be adapted and tailor made to meet your specific requirements.   All of our courses can be adapted according to the age of children and young people that you work with.

Playtrain courses aim to promote the need for children’s creative expression and to enable adults who work with children and young people to develop the skills and awareness to facilitate that expression.

Playtrain regularly runs the following courses as part of our training provision.

Dance and Movement

This training will encourage creative expression through dance and movement. We will cover all the ingredients you need to run a successful dance and movement session with children or young people. There will be opportunities to explore a range of styles and techniques using music, props, narrative and role play to help encourage and foster enjoyable healthy activity in your setting.  The course is suitable for those with no previous dance experience but would also be useful for dance workers who want to gain an understanding of how to work with children and young people.

This course can be adapted to your needs to include elements such as yoga or cross-cultural dance and for different ages and abilities.

“This has given me good ideas and the confidence to use them.”
(Dance & Movement for Young Children, December 2007)

Mini-Movers: Exploring movement play with babies.

Playtrain offers a special training course in movement play for Early Years professionals who work with babies aged 6 weeks -18 months. This explores best practice in child-led movement activities and shares fun and simple techniques using props, songs and music to encourage babies to move and express themselves. The course reflects on how movement activities can be used for communication and expression and also looks at ways to build these activities into your own setting.

Inclusive Games

Games are an essential part of team building, they can help to liven a quiet group and calm down a lively group; they help people to feel at ease and to get to know each other; they can get the blood flowing and the brain cells ticking. This training will be packed with games for every occasion and setting including: concentration games, quizzical games, energetic games, word games, singing games, name games, storytelling games, drama games and more…

Visual Arts in Play

Participants will experience a variety of 2D and 3D arts activities from making sculptures, masks and kites to using other equipment and materials to stimulate imagination and play. This course will look at how child-centred visual arts can provide opportunities for children to express their individuality, explore their creative potential and have fun! This training is suitable for anyone working with children aged 5 to 11 years.

“I fully enjoyed the day and would recommend playtrain to anyone working in this field.”
(Visual Arts in Play course participant 2007)

Visual Arts in Early Years

A day to experience all kinds of hands on art techniques, from making wobbly slime to creating exciting shadows and building an imaginative play space using garden canes. We will be looking at the importance of exploration and play for early years children. This course is suitable for any early years practitioners responsible for planning creative activities and for arts workers who wish to develop their work with early years.

Outdoor Environments in Early Years

This course will demonstrate practical games, constructions and creative activities which encourage outdoor play. Participants will use the four elements as inspiration for outdoor play and use natural materials to create individual art.

“This training has given me plenty of inspiration about providing creative activities at my placement, especially in the summer as we spend most of the days outside.”
(Outdoor Play course participant 2006)

Playing With Sound

This workshop will give people a gradual introduction to using instruments and songs. We look at games that use sound, but no instruments, and bring in simple instruments in a way that can be used directly with children. Participants will explore rhythms and games which use the instruments and enable them to become more confident in using them. You do not need to be a musician to take part in this course!

Drama & Imaginative Play

Learn drama and role play techniques, which will help you to enable children to explore and develop their creativity and imagination. Participants will experience new games, which encourage confidence and participation, while introducing techniques to create and explore characters, objects and places…but you will not have to perform on your own in front of the group!! This practical training course promises to be full of fun, variety and inspiration

Practical Puppets

On this fun practical course you will create your own puppets, from inexpensive and scrap materials, then bring them to life and put on a simple puppet performance. Types of puppets covered on the course may include: glove/ string/ stick/ large processional/ shadow puppets.

Using Natural Materials

This workshop explores how commonly found natural materials can be used to inspire creative activities from den building to natural collage and mud painting. You will learn how to use natural materials to make 3D structure, both large and small; mix pallets of colour and texture; and create abstract pictures from leaves, sticks, seeds and soil.

“The day made me realise how many exciting natural materials can be found all around us. My imagination is running wild!”
(Course participant 2007)

Using Recycled Materials

Children of all ages enjoy creative arts activities, but the cost of art materials can often be a barrier. With a little imagination, everyday items from your kitchen cupboards and garden shed can be recycled to create works of art and fun activities. Participants will use recycled materials to explore ways of connecting, fixing, joining and placing. Use your own creativity to invent ways of making structures, develop activities and hands on experiences to inspire others, without spending a fortune on arts materials.

Big It Up Making Day

Find out how to make large scale structures and create different play environments using cheap everyday materials—this day provides activities and advice for ‘bigging it up’ in your setting - be prepared to get messy and have lots of fun!

“The course facilitator introduced lots of practical things for us to do. I’m looking forward to seeing what the children make of the materials!”
(Course participant 2007)

101 Things to do with a Cardboard Box

This day provides plenty of engagement activities designed to explore the many opportunities for creative play using a cardboard box - cheap and yet priceless!