“Creativity is an area in which younger people have tremendous advantage, since they have an endearing habit of always questioning past wisdom and authority”

– Bill Hewlett

The art studio in our classroom continues to challenge us year after year. I have so many questions about how to support student learning, how to foster their creativity, and how to “control” materials without “controlling”

I have seen so many beautiful art spaces while visiting different learning environments. They are full of loose parts, beautiful materials, and different mediums for children to use in their representations. But how … without sitting there for the full day, do you slow children down? How do you support students in making thoughtful decisions and using materials purposefully?

Is it ok that a student takes 35 pompoms and glues them onto an egg carton? What are they learning? Are they experimenting with glue? Do they have a purpose that they are unable to verbalize? I see these “scenarios” so often and I am often at a loss as to how to interact. I watch, I ask questions, I try to find meaning in all experiences.

We have spent a long time in our art area slowing down children, asking them questions about their thinking, guiding them to think carefully about what materials they will need for their creation or art. I personally feel that we have done a lot of intentional work to support young children in this area of play.

We have set out small wooden bowls so that children will choose materials a few at a time to bring back to the table rather than bringing all of the pipe cleaners and using them at their disposal. We have presented materials in transparent jars and sorted them with the children by type or colour. The simple idea of sorting by colour really encourages children to make purposeful decisions. “What colours do I need?” they think, rather than sticking their hand into a mix of crayons and grabbing a handful.

Further, we slowly add to our art area. We began the year with pencils and sketching materials. We slowly added pencil crayons, crayons, scissors, glue, recycled materials. Each time slowing down to ask the children about the new materials, their purpose and how they can be used.

“Making a plan” is something that we encourage children to think through. I have seen other educators use paper and have children draw/sketch out their ideas sometimes record the materials they need. We have tried this a few different ways and I believe for some children it is helpful/useful. However, more often than not the children evolve their plan and make decisions in the process. When working on a larger project or idea we do encourage them to draft plans, but there are children who are turned off by this process or uninterested. So, we still aren’t sure about planning…does it need to be on paper? can it be a discussion? how detailed? how specific? how open?

Although this area is a constant learning curve for me, one thing I know for sure is that it is open ended. Sometimes we add materials to provoke children’s thinking, but never do we set out something to complete, copy, or “do”.

We have moved quite far away from “crafts” in our classroom. We don’t make turkeys at Thanksgiving or snowmen that all look the same once the snow falls. Although there is nothing wrong with doing a crafts. I see a place for crafts with family or friends at home. However, in the classroom we have thought critically about the purpose of crafts and their role.

Crafts do not encourage children to think outside of the box, they are prescriptive in that they encourage children to “all do the same thing”, and they (in my opinion) mostly teach children to follow directions. Moving away from this “craft” mindset also saves so many hours! We do not have to cut out hearts or circles for the children.

One drawback…parents LOVE crafts. They absolutely love to see little chickens coming home around Easter! Not all parents of course…and as we have moved through FDK into our 4th year our families are really starting to value and appreciate the children’s personal art/creations. But it was a journey of education for parents as well.

We try to document the process of the children’s creative expressions to illustrate the depth of thinking that can come from these experiences. We want the parents to see and appreciate the process that we get to experience in the room, so we try as much as we can to make the process visible through documentation.

We can learn so much about a child watching them create – are they resilient? will they brainstorm when things go wrong? what do they know about different types of materials? do they slow down and think about their decisions? do they plan?

I wanted to share an experience that came up in our classroom this year. I was really interesting and sort of crossed the path of “prescribed” and “child-centred”. One of our students shared that he knew how to make a hat using just a single sheet of paper. He took out a long paper and began to go through the steps that he had learned, at home, to create a hat.

His peers were amazed that with simple folds a hat could be created!

Other children observed him as he talked through how to fold and create a hat. Some children used a paper to follow his instructions and attempted to fold their own.

This student began supporting his peers verbally with directions and also helped them with the steps when needed.

Tape was added to make the hats more waterproof. The children experimented by getting the paper wet to see what would happen if they didn’t cover their hats and wore them in the rain. 

This area grew so popular and full of children that a list was created and when there was space and room the child running the area would go and get them!

Interestingly, not a week later the Oktoberfest assembly approached. The whole school was “making hats”. Normally we would opt out of a prescribed activity but when we chatted we approached the students to see what their thoughts were. They felt confident in making hats and a few students offered to help others who were having difficulties.

The different areas of academics that entered into this experience are incredible! There were so many areas: personal/social expectations, visual arts, mathematics, procedural writing, and fine motor persistence. 

This experience was interesting because on a surface level it seems and looks somewhat prescribed. The children are all making the same thing, following the same steps. Yet, it isn’t? The play came from a place of interest and was rooted in the children’s knowledge. We didn’t teach them how to make hats, to be quite honest I didn’t have a clue how to! They were empowered, excited and involved…what more can you ask for?

Final Reflections…

I don’t know if this post was helpful to others or at very least allowed you to see a bit into our art/creation area. 
Art and creation is more about the process than the product.

Materials should be available and visible. It is our job to continue to teach and support children in respecting the materials and using them.

When you get stuck along the way, ask the children! We have so many focused learning session that “zone in” on areas in our room that we want to talk more deeply about. For example, how do we keep art area organized? What new materials could we add? How do you use tape or glue?

I think ultimately, this area is not meant to be “perfect”. Art and the process of art is far from “perfect”. It is meant to be an area of the room where children can express themselves in another way. Art is a very personal way to express oneself and our thinking in different forms.

My goal for the new year…continue to embrace the learning and joy that is coming through in this area. Worry less about the materials being used and more about the process of their construction/creation. Continue to find interesting materials to add that will spark children’s creative minds! Continue to be proud that we do not support “prescribed activities” in an area that is meant to be open ended and creative.

“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up”

– Picasso