Fostering Creativity :: Curriculum

Child and Adolescent Development Model

Units:

Fostering Creativity

Part of Unit: Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum and Learning Experiences for Children

Lesson Plan Overview / Details

Students will define creativity, participate in a activities that foster creativity in order to understand its importance in developing problem solving skills, and evaluate activities for their ability to foster or inhibit creative thought, ideas, or expression.

Lesson Time

One class period: 55 Minutes

Standards

California Career and Technical Education Standards

Consumer and Family Studies (CFS) Standards Detail

ECDFS-10.5 Students understand the value and methods of providing infants, children and adolescents with play and developmentally appropriate learning activities.

ECDFS-10.5.1 Identify and descsribe the purposes ofplay and learning activiteis to the physical, social, emotional, and intellectural development of children and adolescents.

ECDFS-10.5.2 Identify factors to consider when selecting , purchasing, or creating play and learning materials that are develomentally appropriate for children.

ECDFS-10.5.3 Evaluate facilities equipment and materials for their contribution to a child's development.

Objectives and Goals

Students will be able to define creativity in their own terms.
Students will understand and be able to explain the importance of fostering creativity in early childhood development.
Students will be able to identify the caregiver's role in providing opportunities, using questioning strategies, and modeling behaviors that encourage creative thought and expression in young children.
Students will be able to evaluate an activity to determine if it will foster or inhibit creative thought, ideas, or expression.

Activities in this Lesson

Note to Teacher - Other
Materials needed:

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg

copies of pages from The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (these can be accessed online)

Art supplies/materials and paper

Optional:

Blank books (for creating alphabet books)
Warm-up Activity - Hooks / Set
When students enter the classroom, they will need to get a piece of paper and a pen or pencil to respond to the following prompts written on the board:

Name as many things as you can that are blue.

Name all the things this object, "L", could possibly be.

Solicit students to share some of their responses and ask students to put a mark by any of their responses that match any of those they hear from their fellow classmates. Continue to encourage students to respond. Hopefully, there will be some creative responses.

Example: "Cold fingers might be blue" might be a creative response while "Eyes are blue" would be less creative. "The letter 'L'" is a less creative response than "A stick and its shadow" would be when describing the object drawn on the board.
Define creativity - Other
Have students work in small groups to create a definition for creativity. After students have been given an adequate amount of time to decide on a definition and write it down, direct them to write it on one of several pieces of chart paper posted around the room with the markers provided nearby.

After students have finished recording their definitions for the class to study, have a discussion allowing all groups to question and refine their responses.

Expose another chart paper with Webster's dictionary definition of creativity as well as a few other definitions. Compare the many definitions for creativity, and encourage students to choose the one that best suits their ideals and purposes, or write a new one. Have students write their own individual definitions, allowing them to combine thoughts from any of the combined definitions you provide and/or those of the class.
- What is Creativity? [ Download ] Webster's definition as well as varied others show the broad spectrum with "creative" responses to this question.
How to foster creativity & Implications for caregivers - Lecture
Five ways to foster creativity will be offered through lecture format. See lecture outline/scripting for your information. Read it and summarize it in your own words as you share the information with the class.
- What Caregivers Can Do [ Download ] Importance of creativity and implications for caregivers
- Fostering Creativity Lecture Outline [ Download ] Details five ways to foster creativity
Story writing/illustrating activity - Projects
Provide two opportunities for students to practice an activity that fosters creativity.
1. Using the children's book, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg, read the Introduction to class and show pages of the book to students. Have copies of the book's pages for students to view while writing stories for one of the pictures.
2. Provide Art supplies and paper and allow students to create illustrations for Alphabet books. Each student would be given a letter page, "A is for..." to complete and draw.
Wrapping it up - Closure
Have students share and express how they feel these activities encourage creativity.

Ask students what it was like to create in one of the two ways provided. Encourage students to offer other variations for extending the activities using modalities that might have been more to their personal style of creating, for example: creating a play to go with the picture, etc.

Assessment

Assessment Types:: Teacher-Made Test,

Short teacher-made quiz will be given to assess student's understanding of the importance of creativity, ways to foster creativity, define creativity. Students will also be given one activity and one parental response to a child and write a paragraph evaluating each for its ability to foster creative thought, ideas, or expression.