PROJECT TITLE: Everyday Reinventions

School Name: Winthrop Primary School

Teacher’s Name: Maisie Stein

Year Group: Year 2/3

Number of students: 24

Creative’s Name: Isabelle Yong

Creative Practice(s) (e.g. visual art, music, etc.): Visual Arts

Main Curriculum Focus: Science

Cross-curricular Links: Design & Technology

Project overview

Our project, Everyday Reinventions, focuses on engaging the students in the creative process of reinventing something out of everyday objects but with a lens of physical and chemical sciences. The idea was to stimulate curiosity by using found objects and household items that the children were familiar with and encouraging the idea of playing with possibilities. A bottle lid was not just a bottle lid. It could be eyes for a robot or even wheels for a machine!

The students were introduced to new activities each week which was a great way to challenge their thinking and for them to not be focused on creating a product but to understand the processes instead. Over the two terms, we explored a variety of processes all while learning about physical and chemical sciences. From ice-dyeing to making paper clay, and even building their own pinball machines.

“I just love Creative Schools so much. It makes me so happy. I’m so creative when I’m doing Creative Schools.” (Student)

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How did we make the curriculum come alive?

The name of the project itself pushes for creative thinking and so it was a great way for the creative practitioner and the teacher to also challenge themselves when planning for the sessions each week. We began with looking at chemical sciences in term 2 and moved on to physical sciences in term 3. The way we approached each week was to look at our main objective which was “how can we transform everyday objects and give them a new life?”.

And then it was getting the students to understand that this is not an arts and crafts session. We are actually looking at chemical and physical sciences and learning about them in different ways. We will move away from viewing a project as just creating a product or learning one thing when in fact there are multiple possibilities on how we explore and investigate.

Each week, we began with warm ups that linked to the curriculum or what we were learning that day. Tables were cleared and chairs were stacked before each session so they knew that the session will be completely different than their ordinary classroom sessions.

“I was in the Creative Schools program last year. This year, I’m the science teacher for the whole school. Creative Schools has really left an impression on me and made me think about how I can maximise the impact across the school. I’m using STEAM across the Science program. I’ve had so many AHA moments when it comes to what we did during Creative Schools!” (Amy Williams/Head of Science)

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How did we make the 5 Habits of Learning come alive?

It took a bit of time for the students to really understand the five habits and why we are incorporating the five habits into our learning. We had to be very creative in how we got the students to truly understand the five habits and found ways to have a visual representation of our learning throughout the two terms.

In the beginning of each session, we spend a bit of time discussing the five habits and do the same at the end during our reflection. One of the ways in which we incorporated the five habits into our learning was to get the students thinking about the five habits throughout the session.

Ms Stein decided to create a hot air balloon which was going to be a representation of their learning throughout the two terms. Each student received five cubes that represented the five habits and they could “claim” a token throughout the session. They will then receive a sticker to stick onto the hot air balloon. This was an amazing way to start conversations about the five habits between the students and also for those that weren’t sure about the habits to come up and ask about it.

“Creative Schools has been brilliant. I keep thinking about the Professional Learning, where we spoke about authentic learning. In traditional lessons we don’t tend to do it because of the mess. We say things like “the cleaners aren’t going to like us”. But the authentic learning during Creative Schools has been incredible. Some of the kids were uncomfortable with the mess at first, but then they got it. We have never used the wet area like this before and it’s so perfect for Creative Schools. We randomly selected groups each time. They are getting so much better at working with different groups. The things that I have been hearing the students say from the first session have been amazing. They are engaged and you get very real conversations happening during the sessions. I have found ways to bring Creative Schools into other areas like recount writing. The students are obsessed with Isabelle they go crazy when she arrives. In their recount they say I learnt how to be creative like Isabelle.” (Maisie Stein/Teacher)

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How did we activate student voice and learner agency?

With each activity, we allowed the students to work at their own pace and never made it about the end product. Both creative practitioner and teacher took time to step back to allow the children to process information and to problem solve on their own. We encouraged individuality and personal style when it came to working on their creations and to allow them to find their own way of showcasing their learning.

With our reflection at the end of the session, we gave the students the opportunity to have discussions amongst themselves and to share with others their struggles or what they’ve learnt for the week.

“Creative Schools is helping me thinking of new ideas.” (Student)

“Initially they were struggling to work in groups. So we are working on that each session to help them develop those skills. They are a mixed group of year 2/3 and initially they didn’t want to work with students who weren’t in their year group. This has all started to change. We are working with clay. In the beginning of Creative Schools, they would say “mum is gonna be mad at me getting messy”. Now they get stuck straight in and they are loving it.”  (Isabelle Yong/Creative Practitioner)

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WHAT WAS THE IMPACT?

Student:

Before we began the project, Ms Stein mentioned that the classroom had a “too hard” basket. Being a mixed group of Year 2s and 3s, there were also times the children struggled to work together in groups. It was our goal to focus on collaboration and persistence and that goal was definitely achieved.

It has been amazing seeing the growth and the change in these students and seeing how well they now understand the importance of the five habits and how they can apply those five habits to anything and everything they do. They have thoroughly enjoyed each session and looked forward to each week with full of excitement and imagination to bring to the table!

Teacher:

Ms Stein has been an absolute pleasure to work with and she has the most amazing group of students who adore her. Each week, she was more than keen on all the crazy ideas I came up with! Ms Stein had been implementing some of the things she’s learnt in her other sessions outside of the creative schools and you can really see the benefits of it in the classroom.

Creative:

This program has been absolutely amazing to be a part of. As someone who owns a creative workshop space, I work with many people of all ages and to be able to apply the five habits into my workshops has been a huge benefit. It’s not only something I apply in my everyday life but also something I get so excited to introduce at my workshops because you can see the light bulb going off when someone understands how those five habits are so important in everything that we do.

School:

Winthrop Primary School has been involved in the program before and it’s so great to see them be involved again this year. They now plan to do a whole school project where they can get everyone involved.

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“Every week the kids are so excited for Creative Schools. I’m getting so many ideas for when I start teaching. I’m in my third year of prac teaching. I’m sorry I’ll miss out next term on what they are doing.” (Prac Teacher)

“We don’t have Creative Schools all the time. I feel like it’s the best day when it’s Creative Schools. I’ve been doing Creative Schools at home. I’ve been making things.” (Student)