We had a wonderful time presenting at the 2010 Striving for Excellence Conference.  Below you'll see a list of resources generated by the people who participated in our workshop as well as the handout we provided.

Resources and Materials:

Recycled Materials

Communtiy-Donated Materials

Clear bin for stroing materials

Shower Curtains (Ikea)

Squeegies, Sponges, and scrapers

Ask kids to help clean-up

Shop yeard sales and garage sales

Books:

Not a Stick by Antoinetter Portis

The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater

The Dot by Peter Reynolds

Books by Leo Leoni

Developing Creative Environments Indoors and Out
Bay Area Discovery Museum at Striving Excellence 2010

Bruce Simon- Director of Education
Kathleen Sheridan- Connections Manager
Heather Posner- Public Programs Manager

The qualities we use to describe creativity, explore, discover, immerse, imagine, and connect are innate in all children.  By supporting children through open-ended, child-directed, authentic experiences we allow these qualities to flourish and thrive.  Even in an education system dominated by standardized curriculum and assessment, these qualities are requirements for children to develop a complete set of skills and aptitudes to successfully manage the challenges they will face as they grow and develop.  As with literacy and math, the first five years of a child’s life are tremendously important for the enhancement and support of creative development.

The below except from an interview with Seth Godin clearly illustrates the role confidence and fear of failure play in nurturing creativity.
There are two secrets to creativity:

1. Understand that there's no gene for it. No cultural or family history required. Creativity isn't a gift from above; it's something that everyone is capable of.

2. The only thing that prevents your creativity from showing up is fear. Fear of being laughed at, fear of being wrong, fear of seeming uninformed. So many creative exercises and habits revolve around overcoming that fear.
For me, the single best thing you can do to become more creative is to be wrong more often. Creative people are wrong all the time (look at Apple's long string of failures). The goal is to create a safe place to be wrong, a way to be wrong without destroying yourself. [Along these lines, I remind myself to enjoy the fun of failure.] The more wrong I am, the more often, the better I seem to get at being creative.

Explore
When children explore they are laying the foundation for creative thinking.  They are collecting experiences which they can reflect on later.  They identify problems, use adaptive reasoning, and ask questions.
•    Mix’ n ’Match Collage

Discover
As children make discoveries they demonstrate divergent thinking, make things no one else has, test out ideas and theories and combine elements to invent new and novel innovations.
•    Baking Soda and Vinegar beakers

Immerse
If a child is immersed in something they will work for long periods of time without seeking any interaction, may use private speech, or take pauses to contemplate what lies in front of them.
•    Make your own story book


Imagine
When children use their imagination they create narratives, invent fantasies, and endow lifeless objects with personality traits for use in dramatic play.
•    Mask Making

Connect
As children make connections they are working on pattern recognition, and synthesizing information into concrete actions.   Children learn by studying other people and practice social skills as they collaborate on projects
•    Not-A-Box

Tips to ease facilitating projects like this:
•    Plastic shower curtains and tablecloths
•    Limited supply available and add more as needed
•    Accept the mess and ask for help
•    Hand washing bins


Group Brainstorm
Challenges-
Resources and materials-
Books and inspiration-
New ideas-
Resources

Bos, Bev. Don’t Move the Muffin Tins.  Turn-The-Page Press, Inc.  Roseville, CA.  1978.

Bos, Bev. Together We’re Better. Turn-The-Page Press, Inc.  Roseville, CA.  

Chalufour, Ingrid.  Worth, Karen.  Exploring Water With Young Children.  Redleaf Press.  2005.

Chalufour, Ingrid.  Worth, Karen.  Discovering Nature With Young Children.  Redleaf Press.  2003.

Schirrmacher, Robert.  Art and Creative Development for Young Children.  Thomson Delmar Learning.  2006.

Gandini, Lela. Topal, Weisman. Cathy. Beautiful Stuff! Learning With Found Materials.  Davis Publications Inc. Worcester, MA.  1999.

Children’s Books

Beaumont, Karen.  I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More.  Harcourt, Inc.  Orlando2005.

Kirwan, Wednesday.  Nobody Notices Minerva.  Sterling Publishing Co. Inc.  2007.

Lehman, Barbara.  The Red Book.  Houghton Mifflin Books.  2004.

Portis, Antoinette.  Not a Box.  Harper Collins Childrens.  2006.

Tauss, Marc.  Superhero.  Scholastic Press.  2005.

Supplies

•    Carolina Biological Supply
•    East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse:
4695 Telegraph Ave.
Oakland, CA 94609
•    Discount School Supply
•    Dollar Store
•    Scrap (Scroungers for Reusable Art Parts):
801 Toland Street, San Francisco * entrance on Newcomb between Toland & Selby

This entry was posted on 02/02/10 and is filed under Heather Posner.
Tagged: Creativity