Getting creative

One of the six types of activities included in the early years curriculum here is "creative activities." With a few exceptions, our experience of this so far is that the children do not get much chance to be genuinely creative. The activities are usually very teacher-controlled, and the work produced tends to end up looking very much the same. In the last couple of weeks the teachers at two of the centres were foolhardy enough to let me loose with coloured paper, scissors and glue...

At one centre they were studying the topic of "trees". I suggested that they re-read a picture book that I saw the teacher read to them a while ago about animals sheltering under a tree in the rain. (A good opportunity to recap the "seasons" topic.) My idea was then to make a different version of the book with the children, about animals hiding from the sun in the shade of the tree.

First, we went outside to look at the trees and shrubs in the school grounds, observing the different sizes and shapes of the trees, the colours of the leaves, and feeling the texture of the bark. We then made bark rubbings to use for the tree trunks in the pictures for the book.

The next day we worked with small groups of children to make the tree pictures, while other children did independent activities. (This approach to organising activities does not tend to be used. Nearly everything is done as whole class. There seem to be several reasons for this:

• a high ratio of children to adults means it is easier to keep control of things if the whole class are doing the same thing together;
• the aim is usually to make sure all children complete a particular task in a day so that it can be ticked off, rather than giving the children the opportunity for a genuine learning experience
• teachers do not feel confident that children left to do activities independently will not cause havoc

In working with teachers to make changes to their practice, I am having to tread a careful path between what seems to me to be good practice, and what is actually manageable and appropriate within the constraints of the context in which the teachers are working. There is nothing like doing the activities myself to help me understand some of the reasons why they do things the way they do!)

 

The result: notice how no two trees look the same, and some of them don't especially resemble a tree - just how 3-year-old art should be!

The next day we worked with small groups again to make the book. First, each child drew an animal (or several) hiding under their tree, and then stuck their picture onto a page of the book. They were all thoroughly engaged and delighted with the end product. I hope they will be allowed to read it, and that it will not be put away out of reach in a safe place!

At the other centre they were studying the topic of flowers, so I suggested making flowers in pots that could then be used for a role play flower shop. The teacher had started to prepare some fancy paper flower petals for the children to use, but I explained that I intended to let them make their own. The children were very excited about the glue and scissors - I don't think they get much chance really to experiment with such materials.

As with the tree pictures, the children seemed delighted with their finished flowers, their faces showing a real pleasure in the achievement.

The Flower Shop

I am not sure that the teachers were so impressed with the end result. The idea of creative activities here seems to be to make something that conforms to the teacher's model and looks perfect, which is why the teacher often ends up doing most of the work, and the child's contribution is minimal. Our trees and flowers were certainly not perfect, but the children were in control of what they were doing, making choices and decisions, experimenting with materials and developing their skills of using tools such as scissors. Radical ideas!