Creativity and cognition go hand in hand

In my course, Art, Music and Movement for Young Children we talk about process versus product. We discuss open-ended learning opportunities. These phrases become a mantra for Early Childhood Teachers who are serious about making art experiences into learning and development experiences rather than simply craft products to take home to Mommy and Daddy.

    "Creativity becomes more visible when adults try to be more attentive to the cognitive processes of children than to the results they achieve in various fields of doing and understanding." Loris Malaguzzi.

The founder of the Reggio Emiglia program tells us that creativity and cognition (thinking) are interrelated. As the old song says, "...you can't have one without the other...". Why do teachers of young children still ask them to replicate their own craft models, such as snowmen, jack-o-lanterns, Christmas trees et. al? These practices, proven to be less then optimal for learning and development, persist in preschools and even kindergarten classes throughout the country. As many teachers point out, these activities teach children to follow directions. Granted, they do, but let's not pretend they are art experiences, or exercises in higher order thinking because they are most emphatically not. They are cute presents a child brings home to his or her family. And frequently they aren't even done by the child. The pieces are cut out by teachers, and teachers tell them where to put the glue! Where is the creativity cum cognition there?

I can get rather bent out of shape about this. Steam comes out of my ears when an adult student tells me that a colleague takes a piece of paper from a child and puts it in the "right" place after the child has failed to do the activity "correctly".

Above is a partial picture of a dearly creative youngster. (Privacy is sacred, y'all) She began with the picture of herself with rainbow hair. Then she proceeded to convert herself into a "squid". I asked her if her squid had rainbow hair and she said, of course! But then she did something that perhaps a teacher of the cookie-cutter craft mold would have been anxious about. This girl began scribbling color all over the paper. As she worked, she told me that the squid lived in rainbow water. I asked a few more open-ended questions and she made it clear that the squid had to have color over and around her because, " she lives in rainbow water". The picture began looking like an aquarium from another planet. Blue, green, read, yellow, orange flowed over and around the "squid", which had tentacles hanging from the former body of our artist.

Here is the cognitive process at work. Here is a child drawing her conception of what it would look like if the ocean were rainbow colored and a squid lived in it. Both words and marks flowed from this girl. She was in the midst of artistic process. At our school, no one will ever tell her the ocean isn't rainbow colored, and that she can't turn herself into a squid. She knows that better than anyone.

"Your children have so much personality!"

Here you see a girl drawing a line in the dirt of our playground. She is focused, and calm. The dirt is endlessly fascinating. It holds many treasures both in and on it. Soon she will go off to climb or collect other treasures, and stop again to experiment with other tools, both manufactured and natural. Her friends do the same, both boys and girls. There is time for this in the day because it is essential to the growth of her mind. She will need to discuss what she discovers later in morning meeting, or at lunch, or during activity time. And she will have the opportunity to try out her drawing using other media. She will extend and expand on what she has learned outside.

In our day we discuss every aspect of our curriculum with the children, and they easily offer tips and suggestions to us. Everyone has a say. We ask important, open-ended questions and expect answers not only at the time but after, while we are on the playground, for instance, or at lunch. We eat with our children and everything is discussed. I don't mean to make it sound like a graduate dorm! The children are under five and conversations can become silly and even naughty! But they know that anything they say has value to us, and we will take their comments and questions seriously, whether about the construction project across the street (is that a dump truck?), the lines they are drawing in the dirt (I can make a rectangle!),and the food we are eating (ugh! you brought mushrooms?). Perhaps partly because of our program's emphasis on individual inquiry, and partly because each teacher is open as a person to the children, our children have a reputation to the various adults who come to observe. A former college student of mine said, "they are lively, but so well-behaved". And each year those who come to observe for both state and county licensing say something even more interesting. They say, "They have so much PERSONALITY!" 

I think this says volumes. When the state and county regulators go to other childcare centers do they see children who are not as inquisitive, not as lively? Do they see children who are marched through the day doing coloring and worksheets, or going from activity to activity every fifteen minutes or half hour? Do they have concrete playgrounds instead of outdoor environments? 

Possibly we just have more interesting children coming to our center!  I can't say for sure, but I must admit, they do have so much personality!

Cob Isn't Just for Corn

Children stomping on mud. What more could a child want? But stop for a minute and wonder: If children stomping in the mud could result in building birdhouses, sculptures, even playhouses, would this be an optional fun activity for young children or part of a learning project that touches on all developmental domains and content areas?
Consider the following: Our children discovered, while digging in the sand under the climbing equipment, that there was clay at the bottom. They knew that we were going to be building cob birdhouses and they wondered if the clay they found could be used for such a purpose.
Cognitively, they were making plans to use something they had (as far as they knew) discovered for the first time. They knew that cobbing required clay, made into mud.  Their playground playhouses were made of the stuff, and they were very familiar with its use. So when they "discovered" a lode of clay, they volunteered to mine it. Working purposefully, they continued to dig, placing clay into a bucket for the work that was to come. I love seeing the children work so intensively to create something that is needed. Children are so often asked to do activities that have no relation to real life. These activities are implemented by well-meaning teachers in order to teach skills and content, but the work the children do has no relationship to the adult world. When our children discovered clay, they made a connection from what they were doing to something larger than themselves and their learning needs. They knew they were a part of the larger community that created an environment for living things.

The next step was to collect the clay, and measure the hole they had dug. We gave them tape and a long shovel so they could mark where the hole came to on the shovel. Later inside they would compare it to a tape measure, learning that they had dug a hole fifteen inches deep. Here were math skills used in service of the larger project. Some of the children carried the collected clay into the school where it would be combined with shredded paper and water to make the material for the birdhouses. The recipe for cob is clear. There is a certain ratio of clay to paper (or straw) needed. The children helped work out how much more clay was needed. More was needed, so while we used old clay from our crafts closet, the children continued to dig for more.

After kneading outside and in, the cob was applied to a wooden frame that will eventually become a birdhouse for our playground. This is a work in progress, but more learning is to take place as the children use their journals to reflect on what they themselves have contributed to the project.

All subjects are covered in a project-oriented curriculum. All domains are covered as well. Yet we do not use cute materials or teacher-made felt-board sets to teach. We teach, and the children learn, through their own serious and focused efforts to contribute to the larger world.

The Rhyme is the Thing

Sometimes my fondness for a children's book drives my approach to teaching children. Since I particularly adore Mittie Cuetara's book Terrible Teresa and other Very Short Stories because it uses a form of poetry I loved as a child, I use it to teach rhyming, sequence, and creativity. Children love the farcical stories that each four-panel cartoon tells. Their favorite is the title story,"Terrible Teresa"  which ends with the line, "you must go to baby jail", and has a drawing of a toddler in a crib. They laugh the side-splitting laughter of the newly initiated fan of comedy. They want to emulate this. What can a teacher do but provide the opportunity, materials, and help so that they can do it?

First we demonstrated the process by pinning four papers to the bulletin board and asking the children to suggest a protagonist. Once they agreed on one, we had them generate ideas for the first line of the poem, to be written on the first panel. My teaching partner, Sue, wrote the line and drew the character, a whale. Then we pointed out the last word in the line and asked for as many words as possible that rhymed with the word. I wrote these on the dry erase board. The children supplied ideas and we suggested ways to order the wording so that the rhyming word was at the end of the line. After perhaps five minutes we had a four-line poem, and rudimentary illustrations. Several children asked if they could write and draw their own "Terrible Teresas".

The next day we put out small rectangles of white paper.  I invited two or three children at a time to the art table to create their own story, using the same method we had used with the large group. The difference was that the children drew their own illustrations and generated the ideas for the poem, along with rhymes. Some children needed more help than others, of course, but it was very exciting to see that they "got" the idea. Each child wanted to continue until they had completed four panels, even if they had to wait until the next day to do it. We now have eight of the children's stories mounted on construction paper taped to the wall outside the classroom where parents can admire them. Those who did not do stories are now motivated to try, because they want to see their work displayed. Peer pressure is a powerful force in teaching!

Using  humor with children is motivating. They want to emulate models that are clever and strike their funny bones. From this adorable quality comes rich creativity, and the practice of diligent work.

Here is the text of the above story, written by a five-year old:

"Rainbows made him scaredy-cat.
He told him Mom about that.
On the rainbow his skateboard sat.
He slid down and fell flat."

It doesn't scan like James Thurber, but by gosh, it is good stuff for a preschooler!

Learning sequencing skills through the Arts

I want to tell you about a project that started with a child's need to understand the concept of sequence. There are eight hundred ways to teach this concept but this one involves many children, puppetry, storytelling, and art.

Older preschoolers love stories and understand so much about what is going on in them, even though they don't all communicate what they know. If you ask a child about a story you will hear an episodic account, and if you ask for a story you will get something like a dream or a joke. Perhaps a combination of both! If a child does have a story to tell it will include elements of other stories and loved elements of their own lives. You might hear a beginning, middle and end, or you might not! (Joke: "Here's my story: 'Once upon a time...THE END!!'" Insert gales of laughter here!)

Sue wanted to do Three Bears,  and puppets. I wanted to do the children's own versions of Three Bears, and a book of all of those versions with illustrations. We ended up with both.

Sue has a rap she does of the story of the Three Bears. All of our children adore this and it was a good place to start because music cements learning in many different centers of the brain.  The children enjoyed several good versions of the story in book form, especially Byron Barton's simple picture book which we placed in the library for morning reads with departing parents. Repeating the story allowed the children to internalize its structure. I gave a short lesson in Morning Meeting on how every story has a "who, what, when, and where". I explained that each of them could write their own version of the story of the three bears and that all they had to do was change the who, the what, etc. and voila! They would have their own story. I wanted to teach beginning, middle and end, but wasn't satisfied with any of the methods I saw online.

I woke up the following morning with an image in my head for teaching story structure--the head of a horse was the beginning, the middle was the middle of the story and then end...well, as Sue said, the end was the "horse's ass"! I drew a large horse in the meeting area for the children and continued to take story dictations. The array of stories, with characters ranging from three chickens to three elephants, and interlopers ranging from vampire bats to pigs, was staggering. Few outside of early education know how four and fives can generate so many versions of an old fairy tale that everyone knows.

Sue, meanwhile, was asking children to choose which of their characters they would like to represent as puppets. These were made from scratch out of materials brought from home. We used no models or lessons in how to create the puppets. In keeping with our Reggio philosophy, we provided materials and consultations. No two puppets were alike, and each was a recycler's dream! Baby food containers, plastic bottles, paper towel tubes and even beer bottle caps became torsos, legs, arms, and eyes. Our idea was to ask each small group to write a story including each puppet, thereby asking the children to attempt to leap their characters from their own stories to the group story. After this the puppet show would commence, creating one of two culminating projects. The other would be an illustrated book of the children's parodies of the Three Bears. I asked each child to create a drawing with markers of a scene from their story. This helped with the sequencing objective because I needed to communicate to each child that they needn't draw the whole story, but just one part of it. With coaching they rose to the occasion eagerly!

In the end we had a colorful book of Three Bear parodies for our library, and a hilarious puppet show in school. My group's story was totally collaborative, and I worked to help them achieve their own goals, making some conciliatory suggestions when no one wanted their character to be "the bad guy".  In the course of the creative process situations from several stories the children had studied appeared in this work. Perhaps you will notice them, having read my blog about other lessons. Here is my group's story using their "Three Bears" characters:

"Once upon a time there was a man who lived in a house in the woods with his pets: A panda, a bear, and a chicken. They lived all together in a tree house. A hungry wolf came by and started sniffing around their tree so they lowered a rope to catch him by his tail. "Got him," the man said. "He'll never eat us, now", said the others. The wolf said, "If you let me down, I won't eat you and I'll be your friend!" So they let him go and made friends with him. They decided to go to the beach. While they were there they met a duck who gave them a tour of the beach. They saw surfboards and went surfing. A little fish jumped onto their surfboard and started gasping for air. They all shoved him back into the water. "Thank you, " he said. Then the man, panda, bear, chicken and wolf went home to their tree house. The fish and duck made friends and played on the beach. The End."

My group created a story with a beginning, middle, and end that included characters, settings, and structure. Learning through the arts, being immersed in an environment of literacy and creativity, they easily used their learning to create something new. How good is that?

Learning Naturally

Outdoor learning is the name of the game at my center. We have an amazing array of possibilities linking classroom to playground. Our playhouses are cobbed. We have piping all around the fences so that we can attach a hose to any outlet for making wet sand and mud. Our shed, also cobbed, has a garden growing on its roof to keep it cool in the summer and warm in the winter, and a gutter system for dripping rain into a rain barrel! Our children are encouraged to get wet and dirty, not discouraged from it.

Last week we put out easels. We brought out paint, glue and water for the children to mix and encouraged them to collect natural materials to include in their art. Using natural materials in art is not new. When I was first aider for my daughter's Girl Scout troop we encouraged the girls to find natural materials to make centerpieces for the tables on camp-outs. Usually this consisted of a jumble of leaves and pinecones but it served its purpose: Natural beauty arranged as artistic expression. I was skeptical of the artistic worth of this enterprise but now I am coming to see how amazingly this practice encourages children to explore nature, satisfy their curiosity about the sensory qualities of sand, dirt, leaves, plants and sticks. It's sensory learning but more important it contributes to a sense of connection with nature.

The approach at our center blends the outdoor learning movement with Reggio-inspired teaching and learning quite "naturally". Which among our outdoor artists will grab hold of the idea and run with it? How will our teaching staff continue to provide opportunities for these particular children to realize their creative vision? These are liberating questions for teachers who are tired of inventing artificial learning activities with no relationship to a child's reality.

Our teaching is more labor-intensive than paper and pencil teaching. While we have cupboards to hold many different types of materials, including traditional buckets and shovels but also including tubing and pipes, we must haul many inside materials outside, such as paint and paper, brushes and paint cups. What we provide outside is also always an important question. Never satisfied with what we have, we look for better ways to provide the necessary environment for children to work for long periods of time building, creating, and exploring.

We meet daily to discuss who is doing what both inside and out. We don't always agree on how to go about things, but we come to consensus rather quickly. In early childhood, which spans children's development through age eight and therefore through third grade, can traditional schools meet the challenge of providing rich learning experiences through the natural world while using computers and textbooks at the same time? Can teachers collaborate to follow the child's lead? I believe so, and am sure someone will tell me who is already doing it. I am eager to hear from you!

Integrating Language Arts

Sue and I did a three-day brain gym training ("Brain Gym 101"). We are interested in whole brain learning, as our field has long espoused teaching "The Whole Child". As far back as 2004, when Educational Leadership devoted a whole issue to this special subject, I have tried to teach children as whole individuals. In the Early Childhood field we teach that a child learns through play, and that play involves all aspects of the brain and body. Play is the serious work of childhood. I maintain that play can also be the serious work of adulthood, if by play you mean being alive and creative. 

In a previous blog post I recounted an encounter with a graduate of our progressive preschool program who was  now in a (good) public kindergarten. He marveled at the difference between his experience in our program and his present one, where he was told he couldn't play because he "had to learn". More recently a former student visited our playground and told me he had only "fifteen" minutes morning and afternoon to play outside. Our children are in for a rude shock when they enter the "real" world of education.

It doesn't have to be that way, of course, but, as teachers have lamented for years, only non-educators need apply when policy is made. These policies are forced on schools and schools must respond with less movement, more worksheets, more focused lessons on content areas (Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies).

Above is a picture of a plate crudely crafted on our carpet with that magnificent magic tool of early childhood, masking tape. The children were interested in food preparation and (surprise!) eating, so we decided to sneak some content into the mix by introducing the new dietary guidelines. You can see that words are printed in each quarter-plate for the food categories (Content areas: Language Arts; Math). The first day I asked the children individually what food they wanted to "be" (no sweets, boo hoo) and then invited them to stand in the appropriate quarter. The children debated among themselves where each of them should stand, which made this collaborative (Content area: Social Studies). The next day I had laminated pictures of food for them to place in the quarters. We discussed cooked and raw foods (Content area: Science). In each whole group activity the children were moving, talking, listening, and reading. Oh, and learning, too. 

I believe that for Sue and myself the Brain Gym training reminded us of the importance of movement for teaching the whole child. Sometimes teachers fall asleep. That is, we go into automatic pilot and do what we usually do, such as talking..talking...talking. That's when we need to wake up in our own bodies and teach from "The Whole Teacher".  If would be excellent if we could send policy-makers to Brain Gym training, or any other workshop on developmentally appropriate teaching and learning, so that they could "wake up" to their own learning potential. They might concede that whole-brain learning is right for children, too.