A child was building a tower with building blocks and explaining what she was doing. The idea of adding houses was an imitation of something she had seen her older cousin do. Young children often imitate in order to build their skills and then get original ideas later.
This class was engaged in exploring 3D shapes as part of the Mathematics curriculum. The teacher gave them the story Changes, Changes by Pat Hutchin. In this wordless picture book, each page uses the same blocks to create different objects to tell a story. The students were then asked to create different objects with the exact same pieces of Lego. When they finished creating something using all their pieces, they took a picture with an iPad and then started again. They used the app Picollage to create the collages.
A Humanities class worked on determining the different perspectives of various stakeholder groups on the banning of all shark fin products in their city. Their community has a large traditional Chinese community and the ban is controversial. Students were taught about political cartoon devices and asked to create an original political cartoon that expressed one of the perspectives on the issue.
Students were asked to do found poems based on the story Fear. This student was able to build on the ideas in the story to develop his own.
Because the students were asked to share their ideas, the teacher could observe the extent to which the ideas are new to peers. This student’s ideas were powerful enough to have an impact on his classmates.
Students in a Technology Education class were asked to construct a functioning model construction crane like the ones dominating the skyline in their community.
This student and her group researched cranes online, did a design sketch, assembled materials, developed multiple versions of the design, tested component pieces, had to redesign a half-lap joint that proved too weak, and then built the crane. She incorporated a swivel scavenged from an old computer hard drive into the final design.
A class was asked to make mash-up poems based on Jack Prelutsky’s Stardines. All the students were able to come up with new ideas of their own based on Prelutsky’s model and elaborate these to develop poems. The ideas were new to them and their classmates.
The value to classmates, largely in the humour inherent in new perspectives, varied from poem to poem. This poem was especially entertaining for classmates.
This student has been working with Plasticine for over a month and shows no waning of interest. He is very animated when he tells his stories, moving the Plasticine props and puppets with his hands and making sound effects with his voice. His stories have dark themes, but his use of language is quite sophisticated: “The farmer survived everything because he’s invincible!”
This boy and girl were playing with the small animals in the block centre. The teacher, who knows that play materials with no obvious intended use or purpose can encourage children’s creativity, gave them some scarves. Although these were not obvious construction materials for the barn they were building, they immediately tried to incorporate them into their design. The boy was quite persistent at trying to make something work and eventually used them to make a second level and a roof for their building.
This student learned to make duct tape wallets from YouTube videos and has pursued this new interest with considerable tenacity. This is not a school project but rather an at home interest that he has shared with his teacher and classmates.