Supporting creativity
Practitioners are supporting creative development when they:
* notice that children are taking an interest in something in their world
* plan to extend this interest through discussion with the children and provision of materials and tools
* allow children sufficient time to work
* value the process and the child's immersion in the experience
* do not focus excessively on the end product.
Case study
Bernadette Duffy provides a recent example from Thomas Coram Early Childhood Centre.
Danielle, a member of staff, noticed that some of the children were interested in the movement of the trees in the wind. Then they started to show an interest in the wind chimes hanging up in the baby area. They wanted to make some of their own.
She helped the children to use all their sense to explore the chimes. The children investigated different places to hang them and the different kinds of sounds that were produced by different strengths of wind. They looked at the materials the chimes were made of, and explored how they felt.
Danielle encouraged the children to develop their own ideas and then she provided the materials. One of the children wanted to use seashells and discovered how difficult it is to make holes in them. All of the children came up with their own designs, in the context of lots of discussion and sharing of ideas. This was a long process, and it resulted in many different wind chimes being made out of different materials and to different designs.
What was important was the way the children became totally immersed in their ideas without anyone rushing them to finish. Children were making connections they had not made before as they worked. They were bringing together all sorts of new information, such as the different sounds that various materials produced. One of the chimes was made of metal, another of shells, and another out of a combination of different materials. Each chime they made was unique.
