About our project: Maps, Codes and Treasures
In everyday life, we are constantly surrounded by codes, maps, visual diagrams and instructions. You just need to know how and where to look. In their Creative Schools project focusing on HASS and English, our 32 Year 4 students explored the very essence of being creative. It’s more than art, it’s a way of dealing with the world and life.
What happened?
Under the guidance of teacher Tristan Jones and visual artist Anne Gee, our students spent most of the initial term exploring different types of creativity and how ideas can be generated through looking at maps and codes. We made braille messages with playdough, wrote instructions with student made invisible ink, as well as natural inks we cooked up from fruits, vegetables, and ground rocks. We researched Morse Code and created unique alphabets. Students compared the outcomes and processes of creating individual works versus collaborative pieces and how, working in and for a group requires patience, compromise, communication and conflict resolution.
I just love all of this and it’s not just art. You gotta make your team work and talk to each other.
- Student
I like being outside. If you need to talk louder to your group you don't get in trouble.
- Student
The final aim was for the class to design and deliver a Map and Treasure Festival event for other classes, to share and celebrate the end of our project. The students assumed complete control over the ‘event’ they wanted to plan: what age group they wanted to design it for and what elements of code-breaking, map reading or adventure hunting they wanted to include. They designed activities for all age groups from treasure hunts for Pre-Primary with visual picture card clues through to cryptic ‘escape room’ style challenges for Year 6s.
How did we use the Five Creative Habits of Learning?
Before developing our Habits focus, we identified class strengths and areas in need of strengthening with a simple survey:
Consequently, our sessions focused on three of the Five Habits: imagination, inquisitiveness and discipline. Naturally the habits of being collaborative and persistent were also explored. We designed our warm-up games and activities to give students opportunities to experience these Habits in shared, meaningful, and reflective ways: from simple charade guessing games to code-breaking and interpreting alternative ‘languages’ and ways of communicating. We used colour-code dots, post-it notes and Lego creations to represent the Learning Habits. At the end of the project students assessed different activities completed in class and aligned them to the Habits they felt were pertinent to the task.
Imaginative is my superpower, I like creativity. I think about so many creative things. Weakness for me is being inquisitive, I’m not questioning a lot of things yet. I need to practise that one.
- Student
What did we discover?
I love discovering new things. Every single time we have a Creative Schools session we do new things.
- Student
Creative Schools is so different, it’s about learning in a different way.
- Student
Anne doesn't just want one answer or the first thing in your head she wants you to build your idea and make it thicker.
- Student
We talked a little about our sessions not really being about art and making stuff but learning how to work together: collaboration, coming up with different ways of thinking. About 'inquisitive’ problem-solving. About not giving up and try, try, trying again when things don't work, being resilient and disciplined.
I like being messy and making things and Anne tells you that it's not the final one to keep just experimenting, you're not getting a mark for it, then I try much more stuff.
- Student
I don’t like answering questions because I feel like I don’t know the answer. Creative Schools is helping me with this. In our group we have to think about lots of questions and think about the answers.
- Student
We asked the kids to think about where and how they could use these skills in their lives:
When your brothers and sisters are fighting or wrecking your stuff, instead of getting mad what else could you do that lasts longer?
When you play sport, different teams can beat you in hard ways and you can pull your team together and talk so everyone is on the same page.
When you're in trouble for doing something that you weren't supposed to do you might be able to explain why you did it and get to do it after all.
If you wanted to get a job you can use the words (Five Habits) and explain that you can do them all and they will pay you a million dollars to work for them.
The impact on the Teacher/Creative partnership & the school
The program was great fun, enjoyable very immersive for students. As a result of this project I now feel more willing to take a risk. I think if this was embedded into the curriculum this approach would cause education to change.
- Teacher
I’ve always loved maps and my papercut maps are quite different to traditional maps, so it was fun to share these with the students and see how they then took ideas and developed them in all sorts of different interpretations. I learnt a great deal about codes and alternative secret languages. I loved learning alongside the kids and showing my own sense of awe and wonder and discovering new things.
- Creative Practitioner
Involving the other classes in our final event was a good way to share our project more broadly. We stepped outside of classroom wherever possible and this too attracted attention and teachers, staff and children who often popped over to see what we were doing.
- School
Main Curriculum Focus: English, Humanities and Social Sciences
English: procedural texts, verbal, written and coded instructions
HASS: Historical and modern day use of maps and codes
Cross-curricular Links:
• Design and Technology: event planning, design process, map making
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