PROJECT TITLE: Feelings of Fashion

(Term 2 and Term 3, 2024)

School Name: Hollywood PS

Teacher’s Name: Arielle Nunis

Year Group: 5

Number of students: 28

Creative’s Name: Kelly Canby

Creative Practice: Children's Book Author/Illustrator

Main Curriculum Focus: HEALTH

Project overview

At the start of our Creative Schools adventure, we discussed “emotions” and ways to manage emotions, analysing how emotional responses influence interactions with each other and contribute to building healthy, positive, relationships with fellow classmates.

In term two, students discussed a range of emotions, including those that trigger intense or unpredictable responses, and from those discussions we took elements that we could channel into our creative projects.

We began with discussions about wearing masks, in a figurative sense, to sometimes  cover how we feel and to put on ‘a brave face’, then moved on to discussions about our heart and how negative feelings can often weigh heavy on them. With the head and heart in mind, students worked individually and in pairs to create  physical forms of protection by way of head and heart shields. They did this by sketching out ideas then using a combination of materials found in nature and materials brought in from ReMida to construct their pieces.

In term 3 we broadened our thinking and our project to include more voices and ideas, working in larger groups to write poetry, create stories and paint what it felt like to be human and to have human emotions. The result of all this exploration was brought together in the final few weeks where students created a head-to-toe piece of wearable art that represented the range of human emotions from fear to joy to strength and so on.

Over a few sessions we discussed the impact healthy eating can have on our moods and energy levels and used those foods to paint and print onto fabric adding an extra layer of meaning to our wearable art. We talked about the effects of caffeine on the body then used tea and coffee to dye fabric. The intention, and what I think the students did so well, was take information being taught from the curriculum and turn it into tangible pieces of art that had depth and meaning.

“The best! It’s my favourite subject. It’s loads of fun. We do so many creative things like paint, we make costumes, we play games and it’s so much fun.” Student

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How did we make the curriculum come alive?

Mostly by making it fun! We allowed for a lot of play, a lot of investigation and rarely set expectations on to how we envisioned the final creative pieces to look.

We used music to help reinforce the messages being learned and created a safe environment in the classroom for ideas to be shared without judgement.

“In normal art lessons we choose an artist and recreate their work. In Creative Schools we do such fun things like making an outfit. I have my unique style and get to do that in Creative Schools. Creative things have always been really cool to me.” Student

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

Our first two sessions were about brainstorming ideas on how to best represent and display visually the 5 Habits of Learning. As a group we decided on vines which represented growth and learning. Students were provided materials and used those to create long threads of vine that we draped around the classroom walls. After every session, during our reflection, students were asked to think about which habit had been central to that session then take a corresponding piece of coloured paper to make origami flowers that were then attached to the vine. Each week were able to see which colours were leading and which colours we needed to focus on some more. Students loved watching their vines bloom over the course of our Creative Schools sessions.

“I’ve learnt to work with a team much better. I’ve learned to persist. I’ve made a lot more new friends.” Student

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How did we activate student voice and learner agency?

Students were only told that our project was to create wearable art pieces around the theme of feelings, the rest we left almost entirely up to them, including the name of our project. We had many class votes and students were asked to think about ideas and submit those to the group for discussion and decision.

When students asked for assistance, we saw that as a chance to discuss ideas and options, guiding students to draw their own conclusions and resolve problems through their own investigation and thinking. We encouraged group discussion and asking peers their thoughts when solving problems. Also, no solution or idea was wrong and we made sure to deliver that message each session to encourage creative risk taking.

“It’s been so fun! I love seeing the collaboration of the children. They are already quite a  social group and all get along, but seeing them being collaborative and creating together has been great to see. They have surprised me with their creative solutions. Kelly has been amazing and she is so great with the kids. Having a Creative Practitioner has been beneficial.” Arielle Nunis/Teacher

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WHAT WAS THE IMPACT?

(What was the impact of the project on different stakeholders and how do you know? Try to provide evidence for each area you identify.)  

Student: I think the students learnt to trust their instincts – we saw this by observing their problem solving. Often they would begin a task saying it couldn’t be done or they didn’t know how to do it but when given the opportunity to examine different ways of doing something, they achieved it.

Teacher: Arielle told me she had noticed a lot of the quieter students coming out of their shells, speaking out a little more and taking a bigger part in group activities. On the flip side, she also noticed on or two of the students who usually had difficulty focusing, really hone in on tasks and sticking with them from start to finish in the 90 minute session.

Creative: I realised that children are a lot smarter, and a lot more capable, than we sometimes give them credit for. I was surprised, at least once every session, by the brilliance of some of their ideas. I saw resilience in real time and was warmed by the generosity of students to help each other when needed.

“I think everyone is learning it’s been cool for everyone to be at another level. They are a lot better. One kid who is very shy he has learnt to be more bold. Everyone now thinks about what they can do and are sharing their ideas.” Student