About our project: Nurturing Creativity
What’s one of the most important things about a good story? It’s being compelled to ask ‘what happened next?’ or to say ‘I can’t wait to find out the ending.’ For a group of pre-primary and kindergarten children, these were the apparently simple yet also complex questions that underpinned their Creative Schools Literacy experience.
About our class
This was a mixed early childhood group of pre-primary and kindergarten. The pre-primary kids did both terms, while the kindergarten joined the program in term 3. A total of 19 children participated. Most students were still learning how to ‘be’ within a classroom environment, which required a structure that allowed familiarity with the process and promoting confidence to take a creative risk.
What happened?
Each week’s main activity involved the children predicting the ending to a text on the children’s preferred topics of space or celebrations. Text formats included books, short film (no words), video, and oral narrative. Teacher Gracen Alberino and visual artist Louise Tasker set up a listening, drawing, writing, speaking, listening structure to each session. The children listened to/view the story, stopping short of the climax, then drew pictures of what they imagined happened next.
Students experimented with sounding out their story by writing the words or getting us to write them under their picture. They took turns reading their predicted ending to the class, sounding out their words. Then we would share the original ending. We selected texts that had unusual endings to enhance creative thinking. As the program progressed the children’s endings became more creative, some students starting to own the writing of their own ending. Every student wanted to share their ending and discuss other ending options.
We followed this with a weekly art activity that tied in with the theme of the chosen text. For example, we watched a short film about a lonely robot then, using paper bags, glue and cutting geometric shapes we created hand puppet friends for the lonely robot. Most art activities aimed to improve student fine motor skills, specifically cutting.
How did we use the Five Creative Habits of Learning?
The program focus made full use of inquisitiveness and imagination. Students selected words that helped them make sense of each Creative Habit. Our final art activity involved students creating their own Five Habits wheel (using their words) on shrinky film, to make a permanent tag for their school bags as an ongoing reminder. Warm-ups were usually team activities, promoting persistence, discipline and collaboration. For one task students worked in teams of three to try and get a sheet of paper into a cup using only pens and static electricity. The children experimented with how to create a static charge, the best materials, size of paper scrap to use, and distance/time charge would last. Student engagement and sharing of observations was high. Intro activities allowed for greater teacher observation and small group discussion.
What we discovered:
Lower class numbers for Term 2 (ten) helped us nurture student engagement and confidence, by getting to know individuals. The Kindergarten kids joining in Term 2 looked to their pre-primary counterparts as to the format of the sessions, and most quickly adapted to the behaviours being modelled.
Each students’ predicted endings were bound into individual books, documenting their progress as a record for assessment and to share with parents. Artwork was displayed within the class for parents to view during pick up and drop off, and later taken home. The ‘Predicting Texts’ activity was featured by Creative Schools during Book Week.
And the breadth of the children’s imagination and creativity progressed from comments like these:
That can’t happen! A ladder wouldn’t reach to the moooon.
- Student
A rock can’t be a pet!
- Student
To these:
I liked the idea of a brainstorm, a storm in your head, and all the ideas pelting down, smashing all around you.
- Student
The tooth fairies grind up the teeth, and shoot them out of canons to make stardust.
- Student
Main Curriculum Focus: Literacy
Cross-curricular Links:
• Language
• Literature
• Visual Arts
• HASS
• Science
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