Know

When do you feel most creative? Is it indoors or outdoors? When you are alone or with others? While the answers to these questions will vary from person to person, there are elements that make environments more conducive to creativity. Corporations understand this: There is science behind the colors that are used on walls, the arrangement of furniture, and the way employees are organized. Experts know creative environments lead to more creative employees, which increases productivity. For a manager of a child and youth program, having more creative staff can lead to more creative children and youth.

As a Program Manager, you have many resources in this lesson at your disposal to cultivate creativity. As you have learned in other courses, you set the tone for your program. If staff members see you excited about learning new things with a willingness to embrace novel ways of doing things, they are more likely to do the same.

Communicating

Have you ever been really proud of something only to have that feeling of accomplishment fade with someone’s comment or glance of disapproval? The words you use, the ways you communicate them, and the items that get displayed in your program send powerful messages as to what you value. Communication is very important in your work and the ways you can promote creativity. When it comes to communicating and creativity, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• People can tell when you are genuine. If you do not believe it, do not say it.
• Be aware of your body language and facial expressions.
• When observing in classrooms, ask open-ended questions of both children and staff to better understand what they are thinking when they are creating.
• Spend time during staff meetings asking staff to share creative experiences in their classrooms.
• Share some of the creativity happening in your program by putting it on display and highlighting it in your family communication.
• Get excited about what’s happening at your program and others will too.

Using and Reconfiguring Space

As a kid, did you ever turn your living room into a fort or create a reading nook off your kitchen? If so, then you used the environment to meet your needs. Environments are so important to all aspects of your work that there is an entire course dedicated to this topic. When it comes to using and reconfiguring space to cultivate creativity, here are a few things to keep in mind for your program:

• Be open to using space in new ways.
• Create inviting spaces where children can connect with each other.
• Take the indoors outdoors and the outdoors indoors.
• Provide space for long-term projects.
• Create interest areas outside of classrooms to give children the opportunity to explore new surroundings for hands-on activities.
• Start a reading circle to learn more about the Reggio Emilia and Montessori approaches; both of which place great emphasis on the environment and its connection to development and learning.

Watch and listen as these program leaders describe how they make the most of their program spaces to encourage children to explore their creativity.

Materials that Promote Creativity

Creativity gives children a chance to think about the world not just as it is, but as it could be. When your program provides children with interesting spaces and materials, you are giving them the tools to create and to understand the world around them. You might think an empty cardboard box is ready for the recycling bin, but to a child that box can become a house, a submarine, a spaceship, or any number of fascinating places.

Think about the spaces and materials that inspire your own creativity. Perhaps you enjoy looking at websites like Pinterest and imagining ways to create new things, design your home, or organize your life. Perhaps visiting a craft store makes you excited about creating homemade greeting cards or knitting a new sweater. Perhaps the home improvement store makes you envision all the renovations or projects you could do. Part of what makes these experiences inspiring is the variety, novelty, and beauty of the materials. You have choices, and your mind begins to play with all the options available to you. When spaces and materials are organized well, they inspire without overwhelming. Children are similarly inspired. As a program leader, you serve as a resource for staff members as they choose material to include in learning spaces.

When it comes to choosing materials to cultivate creativity, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Invite families to share art, music, foods and celebrations that are meaningful to them.
• Be inclusive of cultures when choosing learning materials, particularly cultures represented in your program. Be aware that there are some items that may have cultural implications. For example, some cultures might frown upon using food items for play, such as putting dried beans in a sensory table. Building relationships and having ongoing communication with families is an effective way to ensure that your program is an inclusive and culturally responsive space for children.
• Purchase items that can be explored, transformed, and combined in numerous ways.
• Provide age-appropriate loose parts for children and youth to use and explore.
• Suggest a common item, such as a potato masher, and ask everyone in the program to give creative uses for the item. Post the responses for everyone to see.

For more in-depth information on materials for each age group, refer to the direct-care tracks in this course.

Variety of materials

To spark creativity, children need a variety of interesting materials. Inexpensive, everyday objects can inspire creativity: buttons, thread spools, pinecones, PVC tubes, wood blocks, fabric samples. Work with staff members to think creatively about materials they already have. Families may also be willing to donate simple recyclables like milk caps, laundry detergent lids, paper towel tubes, or empty boxes. In a child’s eyes, a box of milk caps can transform into a spaceship, jewelry, or a whole new world of their own creation. Materials and tools for art expression can include an assortment of crayons, play dough, yarn, markers, paintbrushes, scissors, glue, colored pencils, pens, and paper in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors. Include paper punches, staplers and tape dispensers for older children. It is essential that children are able to choose from a variety of materials to learn what media work best to express their ideas.

Novelty of materials

Remember the old saying, “Variety is the spice of life.” Something new promotes interesting questions. Support staff members in discovering new materials that children have not used before. Perhaps you have an old overhead projector or a record player. Let children imagine what the items are and what they are used for. Encourage families to lend interesting items from their homes or workplaces, such as snorkeling flippers or a unique tool from the kitchen. These items can all be sources of wonder for children. Look at your world through a child’s eyes. At the most basic level, novelty of materials also means rotating and introducing new materials regularly. This can mean different colors of paint, adding something textural to paint to change its properties, and more. It can also mean bringing in interesting scrap papers, magazine clippings, or found materials. Materials should be inviting yet challenging; they should present increasing challenges as children grow and develop.

Beauty of materials

Beauty can be inspiring (DeViney & Duncan, 2010). This is true for adults and children. Help staff members create peaceful, home-like spaces, then encourage them to help children express their creativity within those spaces. Help staff members consider the joy children find by exploring the interactions between objects like prisms, mirrors, color paddles and natural materials. Organize and display materials in ways that make them visually appealing and invite children’s interest. You might try framing children’s artwork in attractive ways, or creating unconventional or immersive displays that reflect the ideas children are currently exploring.

Cultural relevance of materials

You must also help staff members consider the cultural relevance and cultural responsiveness of creative experiences. Let us take a moment to think about the phrase “culturally responsive creative materials.” What does that mean? Culturally responsive materials are those that help children see themselves and their families. Culturally responsive creative materials are materials that appeal to all learners from all cultures. Children should be able to see themselves, their families, their homes, and their communities in some materials each day. Staff members should provide a wide variety of open-ended materials. Open-ended materials are objects that can be used in a variety of ways: beads, strings, wires, tissue paper, fabric samples, tiles, etc. These open-ended materials might be items that come from children’s homes that can be recycled in creative ways, like detergent caps becoming building materials, lids or tabs becoming accessories for jewelry, and blankets becoming a fort or tent. Staff members should also be on the lookout for creative cultural experiences: perhaps a family member plays an instrument and offers to give a demonstration, a family weaves and will teach the group a simple project, or a family leads a cooking demonstration.

Displaying Artwork

Displaying art is a way to allow children to share their creative work. There are many benefits to displaying artwork such as:

• It enriches the environment and provides ownership for the children.
• It gives children a sense of pride and confidence.
• It encourages and inspires children to be creative.
• It gives children, families and visitors a way to connect across age groups and classrooms.
• It challenges children to do their best.

There are many ways staff can display children’s work throughout the learning environment and shared spaces. A few examples are:

• Use a wall or bulletin board to display work.
• Hang pieces throughout the environment with rope or ribbon and clothespins.
• Frame pieces of art and hang them on the wall — consider rotating pieces out so all children have a chance to be featured.
• Use shelving or tables to display three-dimensional items, such as sculptures or pottery.
• Create interactive displays that encourage engagement and feedback from family members and visitors.

When displaying work, remind staff to give children the chance to create a nameplate with their name and the title of their piece. This will show that they value their work and allow them to feel proud of their creative accomplishment.

Supervise & Support

Facilitating Community Partnerships

Utilizing community partnerships is a great way to cultivate creativity at your program. It is fun to learn from others who have a passion or expertise in something different. As a Program Manager, you can connect staff and families with a number of community-based resources and partners. Here are a few ideas of ways to use community partnerships to cultivate creativity:

• Look at arts organizations in your area. Many arts organizations have outreach programs designed for children and youth.
• Invite guest speakers, performers or artists in residence to share their expertise on topics related to children and youth interests. Local universities and the Internet can be an easy way to locate experts in a particular field.
• Ask businesses in the community to donate items that can be creatively recycled at your program.
• Field trips to common places, such as grocery stores, can sometimes lead to uncommon discoveries.

Engaging Families

One of the best ways to engage families at your program is to acknowledge something you saw their children do. Staff should regularly share information with families about their child’s creative efforts. For example, “Kai spent 15 minutes choosing beads and stringing them onto his necklace today.” You can model this practice for staff in your interactions with children and families. Here are some other ideas for engaging families in the creative process:

• Provide information to families using a variety of communication methods on how to support creativity in children.
• Develop a series of “Make-n-Take” workshops where families can get creative with their children.
• Enlist the support of families to help with long-term projects, using the expertise within your program and community. Use a survey to learn about families’ interests and then sponsor a Creative Fair with workshops for families based on their survey responses.

In Summary

As a Program Manager, you want children and youth to set their ideas free. Staff who take children’s ideas seriously, applaud children’s efforts, and encourage children and youth to try new things unleash creativity and innovation for life.

The following video demonstrates the power of an integrated curricular approach for cultivating and sustaining creativity. It follows a group of preschool children over the course of several weeks. Listen as these educators demonstrate how to incorporate children’s interests and provide high-quality experiences that encourage creativity among children and youth.