Vertical Surfaces

You'll notice lots of opportunities to use vertical surfaces at Discovery Time like easels, windows, perspex partitions and weaving frames. Why are vertical surfaces so important?

Gross Motor Skills

Gross motor (physical) skills are those which require whole body movement and which involve the large (core stabilising) muscles of the body to perform everyday tasks. Moving around, side to side and up and down, moving and engaging their whole body while using a vertical surface encourages gross motor skill development.

Crossing the midline

You might have heard this term before, but what does 'crossing the midline' actually mean? It literally means one side of the body crossing over the centre (midline) of the body to the other side. When drawing or painting on a vertical surface, this happens incidentally. Performing a task on the opposite side of the body is important developmentally.  It engages both sides of the brain and gets each side to work together. It’s important for many everyday tasks like writing, putting on shoes, and being able to play most sports (think hitting a ball with a bat or kicking a footy).

Shoulder elbow stability

Big arm movements encourage strength and flexibility throughout the joints and muscles in the upper extremities. Having shoulder and elbow stability helps with future fine and gross motor activities.

Wrist and finger strength

Vertical mark making naturally puts the wrist in an extended position which encourages hand stabilisation for better pencil grip and control of writing utensils. It also helps with things like using a knife and fork, tying shoelaces, typing, and holding an open mouthed cup.

Hand / eye coordination

Being closer to the writing surface fosters concentration, visual attention and hand eye coordination. Hand eye coordination involves using your eyes to identify details that are relevant to the task, the brain transmitting that information to the relevant parts of the body, and the body responding to the information it has been given.

Spatial awareness

Working with a vertical surface naturally encourages an awareness of directional language such as up, down, side to side, high and low. Spatial awareness is really important. It tells us how people and objects move through the environment. Being spatially aware can affect social functions, like being able to maintain personal space.

Core strengthening

Working while standing, moving from one side to the other, squatting down and standing on tiptoes engages core muscles. Core muscles are incredibly important for everything from sitting and standing, to being able to write for any length of time, maintaining overall body health and being able to play sports.

Freedom of movement

Vertical surface mark making is perfect for children who can’t, or don’t like to, sit still. Sitting at a desk or horizontal work surface can be a lot of work for children who need to move their bodies.  Expending energy on focusing on sitting detracts from the intended focus of mark making.

Ideas for home learning

You can absolutely encourage mark making skills at home using vertical surfaces you already have there! I recommend chalk, wet paint brushes and Kitpas crayons for working on surfaces that need to be cleaned off after use. In our house, all the windows are fair game! Painting the fence with water or drawing on the outside of a house with chalk are also excellent. Otherwise, any mark making material (paints, crayons, markers, pencils) can be used on paper or cardboard pegged up on a vertical surface. Easels, fences, windows and weaving frames are perfect for this kind of work.