Creative Development

[Guest]

Hello!

I am setting up a focussed assessment for next week - I would like the children to create 3d structures and intend to cover this through making puppets. So ...

22-36m To begin to combine materials - ok - good, achievable; 30-50m To create 3d structures - ok - good, achievable; 40-60+m To work creatively on a large or small scale - yes, I guess that too will be covered - BUT surely, the two earlier phases are also covering this, should they 'achieve' in the earlier phase then they will also be achieving in 40-60+m?

Am I being really thick here? Is there something I have missed?

Any advice would be very welcome!!

[Cait]

I generally look at the later DMs as being something that's child initiated, rather than something that I've thought of. SO for this one I'd be looking for the children to work creatively on something they've conceived , so for example, they may decide they want to make a den outside, so they go about collecting the resources they want to achieve their end result. Or they may decide they want to make a card for Mum, so they collect all the materials they need and create something that has a meaning to them, rather than just randomly sticking stuff on a piece of paper. Does that help at all? Do you have many children in the 40 - 60m bracket?

[Guest]

I generally look at the later DMs as being something that's child initiated, rather than something that I've thought of. SO for this one I'd be looking for the children to work creatively on something they've conceived , so for example, they may decide they want to make a den outside, so they go about collecting the resources they want to achieve their end result. Or they may decide they want to make a card for Mum, so they collect all the materials they need and create something that has a meaning to them, rather than just randomly sticking stuff on a piece of paper. Does that help at all? Do you have many children in the 40 - 60m bracket?

 

Thanks Cait - yes, that helps enormously! I do have several children in this bracket including an EAL child who is 'reception' age (was four in May).

Thanks again! x

[finleysmaid]

devonmaid i would tend to think of this DM as a construction type activity so 22-36...sticking bits on a toilet roll tube!! 30-50 they create a rocket out of simliar materials 40-60 they can create a 3d model of a rocket(with details explained!) and then create another structure (or a related one) on a large scale with boxes/cardboard/materials etc etc so maybe a 3d rocket 'tent' so the third stage is much more sophisticated than the first....i think just using one activity to assess all 3 age groups is tricky. I don't often find myself setting up activities for assessment purposes only ( except at the end of year if i am really missing info...usually a PSRN DM

[catma]

I think the problem is that you are trying to assess very wide developmental stages with one activity and looking at the product as the outcome - really you would be better off observing the children over time and then asking yourself is this what I typically see, independently. A one off activity doesn't give you the breadth and depth to make a secure judgement, just as it is in the EYFSP for scale points.

 

Creativ Dev is more about the creative thinking I feel - exploring, using, imagining, choosing.....Cx

[Guest]

I wonder if there were some big boxes hanging around would any of your little ones decide to make a puppet theatre? Just a thought...

[Guest]

I agree with Catma much better to gain insight this way. We never do large adult directed for groups of children as the individual interests are so diverse

Edited November 30, 2011 by Suer

[Guest]

we tend to plan broader experiences for children, then let them lead the way they go with it, observe and link it to DM afterwards. So we may put out all the materials for something we have in mind but then see what the children actually do with it. So I frequently have one child who spends a lot of her time writing and mark making and beginning to write her name and that is what she gets out of my activity, on the same table a child snips and snips and snips the paper into tiny pieces, so practicing cutting skills, and another one cut out each picture on the page, glued them onto another piece of paper, and wrote her name, before filing it in her tray. All 3 different DM statements and ages.

[Guest]

Thanks to everyone for your comments - that's so helpful.