Expressive arts and design is one of the four specific areas within the seven areas of the early years foundation stage. It is broken into two aspects:

• Creating with Materials 
• Being Imaginative and Expressive  

Expressive arts and design is used to develop a child's imagination, creativity and their ability to use media and materials. Children do this in range of ways including singing songs and making music, dancing, playing with colours, textures and design. All these approaches to expressive arts  help children to represent and understand their own feelings and ideas.

Expressive Arts and Deign is one of the four specific areas of learning in the EYFS framework. Each specific area is divided into Early Learning Goals (End of Reception):

Creating with Materials: Children at the expected level of development will: Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function; Share their creations, explaining the process they have used; Make use of props and materials when role playing characters in narrative sand stories.

Being Imaginative and Expressive:
Children at the expected level of development will: Invent, adapt and recount narratives and stories with peers and their teacher; Sing a range of well-known nursery rhymes and songs;
Perform songs, rhymes, poems and stories with others, and –when appropriate –try to move in time with music.