Support Creative Development

1. Support Creative Development

2. Closely linked to our cognitive development - requires us to uses a range of higher level thinking skills - observe, solve problems, analyse, discover, hypothesise, predict, test and communicate our ideas. Allows us to express our ideas, emotions and feelings in ways that perhaps are difficult to describe in words Connected closely with play Integral part of each of the developmental areas - it involves inventiveness, imagination and originality in behaviour or communication Process ______________________________________ Product Creativity

3. What do you understand by the term creativity? • Individual - Original and unique • Expression of ideas / emotions • Communication • Link to culture • Seeing, understanding and responding to the world around us • Empowering – innovative solutions to problems

4. What can we do? • Provide environments for children where they are free to explore and investigate and are encouraged to find their own solutions, interpretations and ideas on how and why things are the way they are • View children as capable and resourceful • Providing spaces for children to engage in open-ended play

5. What is spirituality? • Basically it is part of our developing spirituality and desire for a world that is aesthetically pleasing.

6. What can we do? • Provide an environment that is aesthetically pleasing • Value that creativity and acknowledge it as something unique and beautiful • Provide children with a sense of satisfaction and peace, thus nourishing their spiritual and aesthetic self

7. Infants and creativity • Exploring and learning through their senses (Sensorimotor, Piaget) • Infants need an environment that stimulates senses and thus their creativity…

8. Toddlers and creativity • naturally curious about their world. They are into everything—finding out what things look like, feel like, smell like or sound like • begin to express themselves using a variety of symbols and media. • They begin to express their ideas and feelings through imaginary and dramatic play, paint, crayons, clay, blocks, music and movement.

9. What can we do? • provide opportunities for exploration and aesthetics - a range of art materials, including crayons, collage and finger paint. • provide opportunities for singing and dancing - playing simple musical instruments. • sensory experiences that will stimulate creative responses - tactile materials such as water, sand, clay, play dough and ‘goop’.

10. Preschoolers and creativity • Creativity allows preschoolers to extend their understanding of the world and come up with a variety of solutions to particular problems • preschoolers are intensely curious about their world and are forever finding new ways to solve problems and express themselves

11. By supporting children’s creativity we are empowering them to have some control over their lives and gain independence and we are supporting their feelings of self-worth. • We also are giving them opportunities to extend their cognitive skills.

12. What can we do? • Provide a variety of medium for children to explore • Dramatic play —children can gain an understanding of others in their community • respond to their creative pursuits in ways that encourage - ‘That looks interesting—would you like to tell me about it’ or ‘That’s an interesting way of solving that problem—I wonder what would happen if….’

13. Creativity and middle childhood School-aged children have now developed control over their bodies and they are able to remember much more than when they were younger. With encouragement they can extend their creative skills through a range of experiences.

14. What can we do? • Provide a wide range of medium – music, drama, art and craft, science experiments, exploration of environment, create stories etc • Encourage children to hypothesise - “I wonder what would happen if?”

15. Creativity and conformity • use open-ended questions and suggest rather than tell, children are more likely to become innovative and develop original solutions to problems • support and empower children in finding ways of accessing information and finding creative solutions • We also have a responsibility to foster within children their spirituality and need for aesthetics. .

16. Respect for children’s play • If we are really serious about caring and respecting children’s creativity, we ourselves need to look at creative alternatives within the structure of our own day.