Getting crafty!

Most people who know me know that I love to do all sorts of crafts. One craft project that I am currently working on is a "beanbag" chair for my reading corner of my classroom. This chair will be filled with stuffed animals rather than polyform beans, so I will be able to take out the contents and wash both the contents and outer shell should the need arise (i.e., a lice outbreak in the school).

While working on this current project, I enlisted the help of my son Alex to help me do something creative with my leftover scraps. Alex is a very bright, resourceful, and creative child, so I knew he would come up with something good. Alex took one look at the scraps and decided that they looked like pizzas. He used fabric markers to decorate the scraps to look like pizza slices with toppings.

After decorating all of his pizza slices, I decided to teach Alex how to hand sew. He is now turning his leftover scrap "pizza slices" into a pizza pillow! We are very excited to find out the end result!

One of the things I try to do as a teacher is to make sure my students have the opportunity to indulge their creative sides. I do several projects in which they are drawing, coloring, or doodling something, usually to accompany a story or research paper of some sort. I also like to give them the opportunity to be a little more free with their creativity as well. I do this by having a writing center in which they can feel free to pick a writing prompt and make up their own story or write a story of their own. I also allow my students to free draw or color in coloring books when they are done with all of their written work. I am always amazed by the outcome when children are allowed to be free with their creativity. This really allows them to think outside the box and discover passions they didn't even know they had.

The importance of creativity in children is really coming to the forefront lately, and with good cause. Of course students need to know how to read, write, and do arithmetic, but with the way the society works today, you have to be a very creative person to really make an impact in this world. You need to be able to think of ways to solve problems that were not previously considered. Here are just a few articles I have found on the importance of creativity in children:

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/Why-Creativity-Now%C2%A2-A-Conversation-with-Sir-Ken-Robinson.aspx

http://www.edudemic.com/creativity-in-the-classroom/

http://www.parenting.com/article/creative-play

In short, try to allow your child the time to be creative and discover new ways to make, create, and build. They will activate new areas of their brains, and you will be blown away by the results!