#children's creativity

[harvestheart]

Chase Contemporary is a contemporary art gallery established in 2017 with two prominent locations– Soho and East Hampton

[creatubbles]

Arts integration might seem like such a daunting task to introduce to your classroom, but it truly is not a new concept. Since preschool, and throughout higher learning, teachers have tasked students to sing songs and dance, create models and structures, draw and design replicas, perform plays, take photographs and complete many other creative assignments. We took at look at 3 essential rules to remember when integrating art in your classroom.

1. Find a theme

Teachers should remember not to reinvent the wheel and first, consider the lessons that they are already teaching. For example, a teacher might be interested in introducing drama into their history class. They should focus on the events, political current, arts movements, literature and society of the timeframe already being discussed in class. Now, students can easily script and play out a historical event within the context of the lesson, recreate an act from an existing play or create their own based on a historical character of the time. Solidifying a theme will help students focus and formulate a deeper connection between the arts practice and the core lesson.

2. Focus on learning content deeper

When students learn and use information is different ways, more of the new information is embedded into their brain. Aside from the simple fact that students better perform with lessons that they are motivated by, learning through arts integration is actually linked to increased retention. So, teachers not only see a significant increase in engagement and participation, but also an increase in achievement. Projects that involve art organically empower students to problem-solve creatively, approach the material from many different angles, gain a unique understanding of the lesson and metaphorically, bring their projects to life.

3. Be brave enough to relinquish control

Relinquishing control is a scary thing for most teachers — but comes with the territory of allowing students to learn and perform creatively. A common concern for teachers is on how to assess students’ work that involves art. There is a set rubric for grading formal essays and multiple choice tests. But, there isn’t a customary way of teaching through art or grading the outcome. Open-ended arts projects need more careful evaluation, trust in students’ capabilities, room for exploration, discovery and excitement, and the ability to take a step back and watch students flourish on their own.

What happens when teachers relinquish a bit of control?

Novel studies is incorporated in the standard language arts curriculum for schools in Winnipeg, Canada. Traditionally, a class of 20 some students is tasked to read a novel of the teacher’s choosing and individually complete the same assignment, focused on character development and other literary devices.

One teacher librarian decided to ask the students what they wanted to change about novel studies and how they’d like to be involved in the decision-making process. Together, with a bit of negotiation, the students decided that they’d like to work in small groups and choose their own novels. The teacher provided the class with mandatory criteria for the projects, but allowed her students to represent the artifacts of the various novels in their own ways.

In the end, all of the groups’ projects greatly exceeded expectations. Two groups completed their assignments using Minecraft. Another group wrote a sequel to their book. The final two groups took makerspace approaches, creating a physical model and a plasticine one. Whereas novel studies previously called for a standardized way of learning and responding, it now elicited 100% engagement, excitement and collaboration between students. It also allowed student to problem solve in their own creative ways, gave them the responsibility of researching and creating their designs by integrating art, and let them trust and nurture their own intrinsic creative curiosities.

Oftentimes, teachers tend to underestimate the creative capacity of students. Quite honestly, there is a kind of safety in worksheets, guided lessons and prescribed lectures. And besides, relinquishing control inevitably elicits more work for teachers. However, the benefits of allowing students to exercise their own creativity through self-guided, autonomous approaches outweighs the convention of formal lecture methods of teaching.

A great example of this was carried out by two male students in the class. At this particular time, the students were reading a novel in which trench warfare was at the core of the story. The students decided to create their own models of these trenches on Minecraft and share it via a Wiki page that the teacher created. The students visited a nearby war museum to research trenches and soon found out that their designs were flawed. They learned first-hand that trenches were created in a zigzag pattern instead of a straight line, as they initially thought. The students were so eager to correct their mistake, they took to Minecraft as soon as they got into the car on the way home.

Integrating art, providing autonomy, nurturing student creativity, providing a platform to spark curiosity — all while acting as a guide…

That’s a mouthful! But, it can be easily done through the Creatubbles platform. Teachers of any subject can create engaging, arts-integrated lessons over Creatubbles, like art algorithms, or a collaborative mural project to celebrate athletes. Students can write and illustrate their own stories to record over, make a short animated film exploring science, create their own music scores for history lessons, or insert their own unique artwork into a Minecraft build. Students also have the autonomy to find other creations that excite them, get inspired and connect with other schools around the world to send encouraging feedback, ask questions or collaborate.

Of course, teachers are wary of giving students free reign when using external tools — for good reason. Everything shared on Creatubbles (including messages) is monitored by our team. As well, teachers can act as a guide, creating dedicated galleries for student projects, facilitating collaboration between classes and managing each of their students’ accounts.

The post Integrating arts in your classroom appeared first on #stateoftheART by Creatubbles.

[creatubbles]

Phonto is this week’s featured app for the Creatubbles Weekly Challenge! The Creatubbles team encourages each and every one of you to participate in our weekly challenge! The challenge is open to anyone who wants to exercise their creativity, is looking for inspiration or simply wants to have fun.

What’s it all about?

Each Friday, Creatubbles will post a new weekly challenge over Facebook and Twitter. Creatubbles will choose a free web app or mobile app that anyone can download and use to make their creation (or multiple creations). Once you have completed your creations, submit it to the gallery. It’s that simple!

Take a look at our Creatubbles Weekly Challenge Gallery to get inspired by creators from all around the world.

Phonto – The latest Creatubbles Weekly Challenge!

  Here’s how to participate:

1. Use the Phonto app (iOS, Android) to create your masterpiece and save your creation.

2. Sign into your Creatubbles account. If you don’t already have one, you can sign up for free at www.creatubbles.com.

3. Select the yellow + button and add your creation by uploading an image or video file.

4. Go to the Creatubbles gallery, at https://ctbl.es/challenge and submit your Phonto creation.

5. You can edit your creations and name them. Also, be sure to note that your creation was created by Phonto in the description!

6. Submit your Phonto creation then share it with your friends.

Note: Your creation will be added to the gallery once it is approved by a member of the Creatubbles team. Remember, creations with faces will not be approved.

Summer Sky – Created by Trine, Denmark

Can I participate in previous challenges?

You sure can! Visit the Creatubbles Weekly Challenge page to check out previous challenges.

Or feel free to check out the creations in the Creatubbles Weekly Challenge Gallery what to see what others have been posting. Take a look at the description section to see which app they used to make their creations. Visit the website or download the app and start creating! Then, upload to our gallery to share with our global community.

We can’t wait to see all of your creations! Sign up for a Creatubbles account to get started.

The post Phonto | Creatubbles Weekly Challenge appeared first on #stateoftheART by Creatubbles.

[ka-var-dak]

Открытки Pop Up к Новому Году

На последнем занятии этого года дети делали открытки в стиле Pop Up. То есть придумывали объемные конструкции внутри открытки.

пример из интернета

Сначала ребята делали эскизы и экспериментировали на обычной бумаге А4.

Задание оказалось интересным, и атмосфера была такой предвкушенческой) Не все успели закончить свои открытки в классе, но в кой-то веке ВСЕ забрали свои работы домой. Это вообще очень показательно.

Тимофей как всегда рисовал своих любимых миньонов)

обложка

внутри

Лена сделала уютный уголок с камином

Рита — снеговика

Катя нарисовала такого замечательного персонажа и елочку, уловив рождественско-пряничный стиль. Правда, не успела сделать открытку.

Гриша сделал окно-телевизор в комнату, где живет какой-то не случайный кот (он из какой-то игры, но я не в теме).

обложка

внутри

Ну а в конце занятия мы обменивались подарками:) Но это осталось за кадром)

[comfortspringstation]

The biggest atrocity of all is to indoctrinate our children into a system that does not value their creative expression, nor encourage their unique abilities...

Always embrace the unique gifts and talents of children. They can offer the world so much more than the system gives them credit for.

[kathryn-mccann-blog]

Valuing Creativity

  Working in an Early Years setting I get to experience the make believe worlds of children, the places they go and the people or animals they become whilst never leaving the room. Sometimes funny, always imaginative I am amazed at the scenarios they dream up.

  Role Play is a crucial part of children’s early learning, and I feel that sometimes it isn’t valued as such.

  At a recent open night for prospective parents held at my workplace I was asked, “So is it just playing or do you set aside time for learning maths or English or anything?” I tried to explain that within early years education learning was facilitated mainly through child led play, and while we organised many activities for the children to participate in, these would mainly be practical and hands on.

   I assured him that early mathematical language and understanding was integrated along with scientific concepts and projects and pre-writing activities. I explained that children’s role playing often gave us an insight into their abilities and interests. Furthermore, I explained that we don’t simply let them get on with it and take no notice, but instead observe and record what is being said and how the interactions are helping the child’s development. We support them in making necessary props which encourages design and finer motor development, as well as engaging them in conversation about their play, expanding the vocabulary used.

  I’m not sure whether the father was convinced as I felt that he was looking to see written worksheets for Maths and English but it got me thinking about how under-valued creativity and imagination can be as a gateway to development and learning.

  The development of imagination supports one of our most fundamental and necessary skills- to understand symbols. Symbolic development is essential to fully appreciate the world we live in and central to learning and thinking innovatively. For example, pre-writing is dependant on the understanding that letters are not simply marks on paper but that they hold a meaning.

  It is unsurprising that symbolic development is emergent as role play, as children create uses for objects to support their play. I often see ironing boards reinvented as speedboats and stacks of chairs enlisted as spacecrafts. Conversations reflect their new roles and before long the narrative is in full flow and the ironing board is being dragged around at top speed and the chairs are half way to the moon! This early reflection of creative thinking uses a variety of skills and builds on a number of visual, auditory and tactile experiences. Ideas built around a theme of play can be built upon to help children understand other concepts.

  Another misconception I feel many people hold is that creativity is confined to the arts. Creativity is all about coming up with ideas and seeing things differently, not just about composing a piece of music or creating a piece of artwork. This is something that is discussed by Tina Bruce and I feel that it is important to recognise that creativity should be sought and recognised across the entirety of the curriculum. Work with set answers and testing can only get children so far. There needs to be ample space for experimentation, expression and trial and error so that children can learn from personal experiences.