I've been helping my daughter's preschool class create their painted furniture piece for their school's annual art auction, the largest fundraiser of the year for their school.
Our piece is inspired by a book called "Mrs. Spitzer's Garden" by Edith Pattou and illustrated so wonderfully by Tricia Tusa. This book is about a wise teacher who knows many things, she knows children and she knows about gardening. Mrs. Spitzer knows how similar they are and how they can flourish if tended lovingly.
We started out by reading the book which I happened to find in one of my many Target shopping expeditions last fall. My daughter loves books so I try to find an interesting mix of great children's books for her. So we read the book aloud in class then I brought out a bag filled with little paint bottles with lots of colors. The kids task was to pick their favorite color. We had a fight amongst the girls over pink but luckily given pink is one of my favorite colors I have just about every shade and hue of pink possible. Problem solved!
Then the next day I came in and I asked each child to create what kind of flower they would want to be on the piece. They were fantastic the kids were imaginative, creative, and lots of fun to work with. At 3 and 4 years old their creativity is fabulous as well it should be at their age. These kids have so much fun together not only are they visually creative but through creative play they can create some of the most fantastic stories and "rules" for their games they create. It made me really embrace creativity in every form again like never before.
Every class creates their own masterpiece on a piece of unfinished furniture. Some opt for mosiacs, some opt for wild painting, others are an explosion of color and pattern, others are just simple and sweet. We are wildly creative. The kids have had a blast painting their own flowers on the piece the last few days. We also made handprint butterflies where I painted their hands in their favorite colors and then pressed them onto the piece. I lightly outlined them and put in the butterfly bodies and they came out great.
I'll post pictures when the piece is finished which should be tomorrow because the piece has to be turned in finished on Thursday! Yikes.
So the last few days we've been painting and I've been dragging the piece around on my little cart and I hear comments from the teachers and parents that they love the piece but feel they lack the creativity to think up something unique on their own, like their creative well is run dry. These women are creative everyday when dealing with our children, Let's face it, creativity is what gets you through when you are dealing with a room of cranky little ones! Practicing creativity is what makes learning fun and enjoyable for everyone!
Everyone is creative in their own way, never lose that, never forget that. Creativity is what makes life interesting, what makes our country so great. Creativity can never be lost it can only be gained and encouraged. It can be supressed when we are in a state of panic or stress like right now given the state of our economy but when people start to think outside the box, let go of limitations, let it all out on the line creativity is the thing that turns straw into gold and simple little ideas turn into multi million dollar enterprises. Everything starts with creativity. Own it, be responsible for encouraging creativity!
So your task is to let go of the limitations around you and go forth living a creative life. Spend a few bucks and buy yourself some flowers, plant a pot of herbs so you can be more creative in the kitchen, go to a museum or a botanical garden you haven't visited in years. Adventure outside of the normal rat race you are in everyday. Do atleast one thing creative everyday, it doesn't have to be a great thing, I admit there are some days where my most creative action is drawing a little cartoon on my daughter's snack bag! But she loves it and it brightens her day. When you think about it on an emotional level, creativity is love.
CREATIVITY - own it, live it, and never never make apologies for it!
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