Creative Play

Creativity. One might think it's automatically a part of all art rooms. I don't agree. To me, creativity is tied closely with choice and critical thinking. In following many art ed blogs and Instagram feeds, I see plenty of lessons in which every child's art LOOKS THE SAME. To me, that doesn't teach creativity. I'm not entirely sure it teaches art. I apologize if this is reflective of your style of teaching. It's just not mine. 

Over the summer, I attended the "Teaching for Creativity Institute" at the Columbus Museum of Art. As an educator, I've been studying creativity along with my elementary art colleagues in my district. I learned quite a bit at the institute, but I learned just as much simply being in the museum. CMA has done some major renovations and additions recently. One of the renovated areas was the kid's area of the museum. It was absolutely filled with items for creative play. This was something I wanted to include in my classroom this year. 

I spent quite a bit of time researching different creative play toys. I wound up purchasing about eight different kinds of materials specifically for creative play. I started the year with only some plain wooden blocks. They were on my list to purchase, but another teacher wanted to get rid of them! Score! I explained to my classes that the blocks would be available to use for early finishers. I assumed they would go over with the younger kids, but I wondered if the older kids would be too cool for wooden blocks. Quite the opposite happened. Every single student wants to play with the blocks. The variety of creative uses for the blocks is astounding. 

Open ended creative play is largely missing in schools today. Kids no longer get to just be kids. Creative play gives students the ability to make their own choices in what they make. They are only limited by their imagination. Since I introduced these creative play options, very few students choose to do free drawing if they finish early. I love seeing the enthusiasm for creativity. 

What do you do to allow creative play in your classroom? I'd love to know!

5th Grade Plush Monsters & Tiki Mugs

Time flies when you're teaching 5th grade. Between having longer projects in general, having a student teacher, massive amounts of springtime testing, and random end of the year interruptions, we wound up not having time for both of these projects this year. I was forced to make a decision. Do I try to do a shortened version of both? Do I just choose one? Do I teach both at once?!? Yeah, I did that last one. It's surprisingly doable.

My 5th grade classes were split about 50/50 about which project they wanted to do. I've been trying to incorporate more choice into my classroom, so this was a good opportunity. 

It couldn't have gone more smoothly. It just worked out that the days I needed to demonstrate major steps on clay, kids on the sewing project were able to work more independently. I was really happy with the outcome for both projects. I really didn't feel stretched too much at all. 

Download my Tiki Mug lesson plan!

5th Grade Art Career Choice Project

When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be a paleontologist. I liked art, but my elementary art "program" was hit or miss. I think a parent even volunteered to teach art for a year or two when our art teacher was out due to budget cuts. I had a basic idea of what art was about, but I had no idea that it could actually turn into a job someday. Even throughout high school, I really didn't have a good understanding of how many careers are associated with art. Then I went to Columbus College of Art & Design.

I want my students to know that there are all kinds of art careers that are out there. I designed this project as a way for students to familiarize themselves with art careers and also a culmination of skills from elementary school. 

After learning about various art careers, each student had to fill out a fill out a project proposal sheet. They designed their own project around a specific art career. I wanted my students to have as much input as possible for this project. At the same time, I wanted to make sure each student planned a complex enough project for it to take 5-6 art classes. I reviewed each proposal, made notes for the students, then let them get to work the next class. 

Even with almost every single student doing something entirely different, I was impressed by how smoothly the project ran. The first week was a bit of a struggle helping each student get started with different materials, but the following classes were incredibly smooth. I only wish I had started the project a week or two earlier. We wound up running out of school year before some kids were able to finish. 

A purse made for a little sister.

Painting of birch trees using watercolor and colored pencil.

House model using various papers. Check out the amazing level of detail on the inside!

Baseball team logo redesign.

A fashion line by a very talented girl.

Fashion design - small model.

Personal art museum using miniatures of art he did this year.

Horse sculpture made from sticks. Wow.

Video game cover design.

Watercolor and tempera painting.

Students creating clothing samples.

Writing a game program using characters he developed!

Everyone was super busy with their projects.

I didn't write a true lesson plan for this project due to the fact that it was different for every student. If you want to give this project a try, using the project proposal form with your students would be helpful.