Art on Parade!

I'm so excited! I'm already implementing some great new ways to foster creativity. I brought plain white flags and "trumpets" to class today for the students to design. I made the flags by taping wooden dowels to strong white paper. I made the "trumpets" by rolling up large white construction paper. Right from the start, I let the students come up with ideas as to what the trumpets were for. They thought of hats and all sorts of costume ideas, telescopes, and funnels to name a few. I gave the students only white and red paint so they could experiment with the way the paint mixed together and they could focus on the design. It was very important that they had the freedom to explore. While we were making the flags, a student glued some of the shapes together to create a snake. If you look closely you'll see a red circle on top of the red square. Samuel told me the circle was an egg that the snake had swallowed. I was amazed at how many creative ideas they came up with when I wasn't looking for a specific outcome. At the end of class we took our flags on parade and displayed them on the fort, or the castle, or the clubhouse, whichever the students decided to call the play structure outside.