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Teach

"Without this playing with fantasy, no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable." - Carl Jung

Materials that Promote Creativity

Creativity gives children a chance to think of the world not just as it is, but as it could be. When your program provides children with interesting spaces and materials, you are giving them the tools to create and to understand the world around them. You might think an empty cardboard box is ready for the recycling bin, but to a child that box can become a house, a submarine, a spaceship, or any number of fascinating places.

Think about the spaces and materials that inspire you in your own creativity. Perhaps you enjoy looking at websites like Pinterest and imagining ways to create new things, design your home, or organize your life. Perhaps walking through the craft store makes you excited about creating homemade greeting cards. Perhaps the home improvement store makes you envision all the renovations or woodworking projects you could do. Part of what makes these experiences inspiring is the variety, novelty, and beauty of the materials. You have choices, and your mind begins to play with all the options available to you. When spaces and materials are organized well, they inspire without overwhelming. Children are similarly inspired. You should help staff members consider the materials they choose.

Variety of Materials

To spark creativity, children need a variety of interesting materials. Inexpensive, everyday objects can inspire creativity: buttons, thread spools, pinecones, PVC tubes, wood blocks, fabric samples. Work with staff members to think creatively about materials they already have. Families may also be willing to donate simple recyclables like milk caps, laundry detergent lids, paper towel tubes, or empty boxes. In a child’s eyes, a box of milk caps can transform into a spaceship, jewelry, or a whole new world of their own creation. Materials and tools for art expression can include an assortment of crayons, play dough, yarn, markers, paintbrushes, scissors, glue, colored pencils, pens, and paper in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors. Include paper punches, staplers and tape dispensers for older children. It is essential that children are able to choose from a variety of materials to learn what media work best to express their ideas.

Novelty of Materials

Remember the old saying, “Variety is the spice of life.” Something novel promotes interesting questions. Consider helping staff members discover materials that children have not used before. Perhaps you have an old overhead projector or a record player. Let children imagine what the items are and what they are used for. Encourage families to lend interesting items from their homes or workplaces, such as snorkeling flippers or a unique tool from the kitchen. These items can all be sources of wonder for children. Look at your world through a child’s eyes. At the most basic level, novelty of materials also means rotating and introducing new materials regularly. This can mean different colors of paint, adding something textural to paint to change its properties (like shaving cream or sand), and more. It can also mean bringing in interesting scrap papers, magazine clippings, or found materials. Materials should be familiar yet challenging; they should present increasing challenges as children grow and develop.

Beauty of Materials

Beauty can be inspiring (DeViney & Duncan, 2010). This is true for adults and children. Help staff members create peaceful, home-like spaces, then encourage them to help children express their creativity within the spaces. Try framing children’s artwork in an attractive way, for example you might create a gallery of creations in a school-age program or preschool. Also help staff members consider the joy children find by exploring the interactions between objects like prisms, mirrors, color paddles, and natural materials.

Cultural Relevance of Materials

You must also help staff members consider the cultural relevance and cultural responsiveness of creative experiences. Culturally responsive materials are those that help children see themselves and their families. Culturally responsive creative materials are materials that appeal to all learners from all cultures. Children should be able to see themselves, their families, their homes, and their communities in some materials each day. This does not mean that staff members must fill their classrooms with items representative of every culture. What it does mean is that staff members should provide a wide variety of open-ended materials. Open-ended materials are objects that can be used in a variety of ways: beads, strings, wires, tissue paper, fabric samples, tiles, etc. These open-ended materials might be items that come from children’s homes that can be recycled in creative ways, like detergent caps becoming building materials, lids or tabs becoming accessories for jewelry, and blankets becoming a fort or tent. Culturally responsive classrooms also ensure that displays, music, and books represent the richness of children’s homes and communities. Art from local artists can be displayed alongside children’s own art and art gathered from around the world. Global music played at rest time and gatherings can expand children’s appreciation for a range of sounds and instrumentation. Staff members should also be on the lookout for creative cultural experiences: perhaps a parent plays the sitar and offers to give a demonstration, a family weaves and will teach the group a simple project, or a family leads a cooking demonstration. Cooking and enjoying a meal can be an amazing way to connect with families while nurturing creativity.

Helping Staff Provide Environments that Promote Creativity

The physical and social environments staff members create play a large role in creativity. These settings guide the kinds of new ideas that emerge from children. The space under a large outdoor play structure, for example, may become a cave, dungeon or café. It is important to help adults see their environments as spaces in which numbers, letters, art, peers, snacks, and music can all be integrated into balanced learning experiences (Bently, 2013).

Consider the spaces in the videos below. How do they help promote creativity?

Spaces for Tinkering and Creation

Many of the things you do to promote cognitive development and social-emotional learning also spark creativity!  Activities that promote STEAM learning (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) require a great deal of creative thinking. Consider working with staff to develop “Tinkering Spaces” or “Makerspaces” in your program. These areas offer a space for children and youth to explore their thinking and work through design challenges. Tinkering spaces offer a range of interesting, everyday materials that can be used in interesting ways (Heroman, 2017)

• Tape
• Cardboard
• Measuring tapes and rulers
• Funnels
• Balls, marbles (based on children’s age)
• PVC pipes and tubes
• Ice trays
• Simple tools to be used with adult supervision (screwdrivers, hammers, pliers, hot glue guns)
• Materials to build with (craft sticks, straws, wood scraps, paper cups, chopsticks, corks, pipe cleaners)
• Materials to connect (binder clips, rubber bands, string, yarn, Velcro, twist ties)
• Materials to decorate (googly eyes, feathers, fabric, buttons, thread, felt)
• Materials for mixing and experimentation (bowls, beakers, eye droppers, spoons)
• Materials for light and shadow play (flashlights, unbreakable mirrors, color tiles, projector, small objects)

Tinkering and creativity can be blended into your curriculum. Consider these examples:

• A toddler classroom is exploring objects with wheels. An area of the room is set up with a variety of tubes, large pieces of cardboard, and wood blocks. Toddlers can explore building pathways to roll balls and toy cars.
• A preschool class has been reading about birds. At free choice time, a table is stocked with materials for children to try making nests. The guidelines are that the nest must be strong and large enough to hold three plastic eggs. Children experiment with different ways to hold the nest together and different materials for cushioning the eggs.
• A school-age program has been studying robotics. A volunteer works with youth to build simple robots from circuits and a variety of everyday materials.

Watch this video to see an example of how one school-age program partners with a local science museum to offer creative tinkering experiences:

Displaying Artwork

Displaying art is a way to allow children to share their creative work. There are many benefits to displaying artwork such as:

• It enriches the environment and provides ownership for the children.
• It gives children a sense of pride and confidence.
• It encourages and inspires children to be creative.
• It challenges children to do their best.

There are many ways staff can display children’s work throughout the learning environment. A few examples are:

• Use a wall or bulletin board to display work.
• Hang pieces throughout the environment with rope or ribbon and clothespins.
• Frame pieces of art and hang them on the wall — consider rotating pieces out so all children have a chance to be featured.
• Use technology. With permission, make children’s art part of your program’s website, newsletters, and promotional materials. Use apps that let deployed family members or other loved ones view children’s artwork online.
• Use shelving or tables to display three-dimensional items, such as sculptures or pottery.

When displaying work, remind staff to give children the chance to create a nameplate with their name and the title of their piece. This will show that they value their work and allow them to feel proud of their creative accomplishment.

Engaging Families

You can also provide spaces and materials that encourage families to be creative. Cultivating creativity in your program helps model ways families can structure their time, interactions, and spaces. Help families think about:

• All the different ways to answer questions or approach tasks; there are often few right or wrong answers or approaches
• How to ask questions that spark creative thinking (“How does that work?” “Why?”)
• Making room for spontaneous events and changed plans; jumping in puddles or looking at rainbows can spark creative thinking.
• Being curious. Encourage families to ask questions of you, your program, and your community. Model “I wonder…” statements: “I wonder how that works,” “I wonder why that is the way it is”
• How to see creativity in everyone. Help family members see themselves as creative beings: they solve problems, they look for ideas. Give opportunities to learn new things and try new skills.

You can work with your management team to plan activities that promote creativity for families. For example, your program could plan a gallery walk to display the children’s artwork in the program spaces. During the event, you could have art experiences for families and siblings to participate in. Perhaps you could invite a local jazz band or a local college musical group to perform for your families; invite families to come dance together. You can also work with classroom or program teams to think about ways they can share ideas with families. Newsletters are great ways to offer a few tips in a “Creativity Corner.” Also, encourage families to make the most of your program’s open-door policy. Make sure they feel welcome to join their child in creative activities in the classroom or program. See the Families course for more ideas about how to engage families in your programs.

Meeting the Needs of ALL Learners

All children are creative. Your programs must provide opportunities for all children to express themselves and to interact with interesting, creative experiences. Consider the children and youth in your programs who have disabilities that impact their development, health, mobility, communication, attention, or sensory experiences. Just like each child is different, each creative experience can be different. Universal Design for Learning applies to creative experiences just like it applies to other types of learning experiences. If you take a Universal Design for Learning approach, you make sure children have multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression.

Engagement: children and youth can participate in creative experiences in many different ways. Throughout the day, they have opportunities to be creative through movement, voice, writing, listening, drawing, creating, problem-solving, and other means. Children and youth have choices about how and when they engage.

Action & Expression: children and youth can show what they know and what they think in a variety of ways. There are opportunities for children and youth to show their learning through poetry, mixed media, dance, painting, sculpture, advocacy, engineering, etc.

Representation: adults give children and youth directions in many different ways, and there are many different ways to access information. Staff may verbally describe an activity, provide a sample, participate alongside children, or show a video. Picture cues may provide reminders or instructions about how to use materials. For some children and youth, a bit of structure can make open-ended activities more meaningful and accessible. For example, you may provide a sample, or you may break an experience down into simple steps that occur over multiple days.

Sometimes, children benefit from accommodations to help them interact with materials and environments. Consider these examples (Campbell, Kennedy, & Milbourne, 2012; Sandall et al., 2019):

• If a child has a hard time drawing or painting, consider taping the paper to the table so they do not have to hold it still.
• Tape foam around the handles of paintbrushes or markers so they are easier to grasp.
• Provide experiences on a variety of surfaces: the floor, a vertical easel or wall, a low table, etc. You can even tape large paper to the underside of a table and let children lay on their backs and paint overhead.
• Add bright or textural materials like Mylar to art materials. For some children with visual or hearing disabilities, materials that crinkle or have bright colors can increase their interest.
• Pair children up with a partner for creative experiences.

Model

Seeking Out Innovative Materials and Resources

You can model creativity for staff members by helping them find new uses for materials. Take the lead on checking with a local recycling center; many offer programs that provide interesting, recycled materials for educators and child-care programs. You might also have interesting materials in your program, community or installation. Packaging materials, boxes, crates, carpet tubes, carpet samples, fabric swatches, picture frames and many other materials can all be repurposed into interesting materials for children and youth. If an office or business has recently moved, perhaps they will donate old letterhead as scrap paper. Check with university or business surplus offices. You never know when you might come across a functional overhead projector, typewriter, tape recorder, easel, podium, or other piece of equipment that can become a medium for creativity. Of course, always be sure to check materials for safety before use. Depending on your location, you might also find resources from a local children’s museum, science museum, or art museum. Many offer on-site educational experiences for children or staff.

Making the Most of Space

Help staff members understand that creativity happens everywhere; they don’t need a special space or time for creativity to occur. They don’t need to wait for a visit from a guest artist or for time in a fully equipped art studio. The most meaningful and creative experiences happen wherever children are engaging with interesting spaces and materials. Help staff create fluid spaces, so they can shift or reinvent according to the needs of the children (Bentley, 2013). For example, if many children are interested in building structures with new modeling materials a staff member has provided, help the staff member adjust the space so there is more room for creation. Some spaces might serve multiple functions. Help staff brainstorm how a space for large-group activities can also be used for other creative purposes. See the Learning Environments course for more information about arranging the environment.

Also help staff members understand the importance of display. Materials should be displayed attractively and at children’s eye level. Walk around the room or program spaces and make sure that staff display:

• Children’s artwork and creations. These materials should be displayed attractively. Consider helping staff find or create simple frames to showcase work. Also remember to look for three-dimensional creations like sculptures, machines and structures. Artwork should be displayed attractively at the children’s eye level, so children can enjoy the beauty and access the materials.
• Culturally representative materials. Artwork from a variety of cultures can inspire creativity. Help staff locate materials to display that connect with the children, families or content of their programs.

Highlighting Local Artists

You can use your role to nurture curiosity and appreciation for local artists. Look around your community: are there local murals, sculptures, or buildings that represent your community? Can you bring elements of community art into your program indoors and outdoors? Can you highlight the artistic contributions of Black and Indigenous artists whose work may have been overlooked in your community? Are there disabled artists in your community that you can highlight in program displays and events? Have military families in your program traveled around the world and learned creative skills or approaches that you can highlight in your program? Consider options like:

• Hosting a slam poetry event for youth and families, hosted by local artists
• Developing an artist-in-residence program to mentor youth
• Encouraging youth to get involved in creative displays around the building, community, or installation (designing murals or sculptures, singing or performing at events)

Observe

Now, you will have the opportunity to view creative environments and materials across infant, toddler, preschool, and school-age settings.  As you watch, think about how you would provide feedback to each staff member or team about the ways their environments and materials promote creativity.

Now let’s look at a contrasting example. In the next video, you will see two different classrooms with art activities that are relatively product-oriented. There is an end product in mind. As you watch, though, compare how the materials and environments facilitate different levels of creativity in each clip.

Finally, let’s watch a few clips from school-age programs. Note how open-ended materials make a difference in children’s engagement and learning. Also notice how adult facilitation helps children experience success during a creative time.