http://drisbell.com Earl Childhood Educator, Author, & Speaker Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:58:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://drisbell.com/2012/creative-thinking-in-young-children/#comment-31 Andrea Valentine Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:58:46 +0000 http://drisbell.com/?p=258#comment-31 One approach I employ in my early childhood classroom to encourage budding artists and creative thinkers is to listen carefully to what the children are interested in or talking about with one another throughout the day. An example of this occurred a few years ago on the playground. Several children noticed that they could see something other than the sun during the day. This, of course, was the moon. The children were excited to find out that the moon could be seen during the day. During naptime, I found all kinds of different materials that could be used to create artwork around the children’s interest in this topic. That afternoon some children chose to create collages, some used crayons, markers, or pencils, and some used paint. Other children used clay and stamps to create artwork that expressed this newly learned scientific concept. The children stayed engaged in their projects for much longer and were still excited when their parents picked them up, each showing their parents their artwork, while explaining that sometimes you can see the moon during the day! One approach I employ in my early childhood classroom to encourage budding artists and creative thinkers is to listen carefully to what the children are interested in or talking about with one another throughout the day. An example of this occurred a few years ago on the playground. Several children noticed that they could see something other than the sun during the day. This, of course, was the moon. The children were excited to find out that the moon could be seen during the day. During naptime, I found all kinds of different materials that could be used to create artwork around the children’s interest in this topic. That afternoon some children chose to create collages, some used crayons, markers, or pencils, and some used paint. Other children used clay and stamps to create artwork that expressed this newly learned scientific concept. The children stayed engaged in their projects for much longer and were still excited when their parents picked them up, each showing their parents their artwork, while explaining that sometimes you can see the moon during the day!

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