0.2 Part two: special topics  (Page 7/39)

Reggio also emphasizes group projects and team approaches to solving problems. In one Reggio school in Italy, for example,the children thought that their playground was boring. They brainstormed ideas to make it more interesting - with the teacher as guide and observer -and decided to create an amusement park for birds. The idea turned into a year-long project in which the children built a bird-bath complete withfountain, learning about hydraulics in the process.

Tools for teachers

Given what is known about young children's learning and about their amazing competence to express their visions of themselvesand their world, how can the classroom be modified to best support children's emerging creativity?

Time - Creativity does not follow the clock. Children need extended, unhurried time to explore and do their best work. They should notbe artificially rotated, that is, asked to move to a different learning center or activity when they are still productively engaged and motivatedby a piece of creative work.

Space - Children need a place to leave unfinished work to continue the next day, and a space that inspires them to do their best work. Abarren, drab environment is not conducive to creative work. Rather, children's work is fostered by a space that has natural light, harmoniouscolors, comfortable and child-sized areas, examples of their own and others' work (not only their classmates, but as appropriate, also theirteachers' and selected adult artists), and inviting materials.

Materials - Without spending great amounts of money, teachers can organize wonderful collections of resource materials thatmight be bought, found, or recycled. These materials can include paper goods of all kinds; writing and drawing tools; materials for constructionsand collages, such as buttons, stones, shells, beads, and seeds; and sculpting materials, such as play dough, goop, clay, and shaving cream.These materials are used most productively and imaginatively by children when they themselves have helped select, organize, sort, and arrange them.

Climate - The classroom atmosphere should reflect the adults' encouragement and acceptance of mistakes, risk-taking,innovation, and uniqueness, along with a certain amount of mess, noise, and freedom. This is not a matter of chaos, or of tight control, but insteadsomething in between. In order to create such a climate, teachers must give themselves permission to try artistic activity themselves, even when theyhave not been so fortunate as to have had formal art training or to feel they are naturally "good at art." Through workshops, adult education classes,or teamwork with an art teacher or parent, classroom teachers can gain the confidence for, and experience the pleasure of, venturing some distancedown the road of self-expression in a medium in which they did not know they could be successful. Their skill will then translate into the work with thechildren.

Occasions - Children's best and most exciting work involves an intense or arousing encounter between themselves and their inner orouter world. Teachers provide the occasions for these adventures. Children find it hard to be creative without any concrete inspiration.Instead, they prefer to draw on the direct evidence of their senses or memories. These memories can become more vivid and accessible through theteacher's provocations and preparations. For example, teachers can encourage children to represent their knowledge and ideas before and afterthey have watched an absorbing show, taken a field trip, or observed and discussed an interesting plant or animal brought into class. Teachers canput up a mirror or photos of the children in the art area, so children can study their faces as they draw their self- portrait. Teachers can offer childrenthe opportunity to check what they have drawn against an original model and then let them revise and improve upon their first representation.