Creative Schools 2025

I showed the class my hand made name sticker with a list of pictures and words that told a story of things I loved. Using large A5 stickers and colour markers students wrote down their name and things they were passionate about. 

We then walked around the room to find others with similar likes or ones that fascinated us or we didn’t know about

5 Habits Stick Games

Sets of 5 Habits are written on coloured related popsticks. Each child takes one. 

-Walk around the room and find a matching pair - explain to each other what that word might mean.

-Walk around room to find some one with different stick - explain the word to partner - how are these words similar/different.

-Find a group of 5 different coloured sticks explain an example of each.

We shared the ideas and thoughts of the class referencing the poster.

Act out a Habit Students then formed groups of like colour sticks (eg 5 kids with purple/collaboration) - these groups then had 5 mins to go off with their group and prepare an act to describe/explain/exemplify their Habit.

Once we regrouped the class set about guessing which Habit matched which performance and why.

Part 1 - Tiny Things 

I showed all the little bits that are left over after I’ve done a paper cutting -lots of tiny unusual and mostly unrecognisable shapes. 

• sort these pieces in some way that makes sense so that others can ‘read your thinking’

• look/decode/read each groups thinking about how pieces were sorted

• fill a tiny 5cm x 5m black card square with an arrangement that the student found visually appealing

• Arrange these cards to create a group piece 

• The group then gathered around their masterpiece and we discussed how they were all unique arrangements but together they formed an impressive large scale installation. 

We discussed exploring and experimenting with no fear of getting it wrong, or thinking it was going to be assessed or graded made it easier to try different ideas. 

Super Powers and Kryptonite 

Standing either side of a long tape line stuck on the carpet - we went through a visual process of measuring our super power habits (ones we do well) and those which were our kryptonite (trickier Habits to master and maintain) kids stepped forward and back to indicate personal strengths and areas they found hard - I asked peers to reflect on people who might have under estimated themselves and this was a great discussion. 

Things we wonder about:

- how to invest in shares and how that works

- why there are 3 different theirs and why maths is hard

- how Ben Franklin made the light bulb

- why space is infinite and how loud the Big Bang was

- where the earth came from

- the future and aliens 

- why stars explode

- getting jobs and travelling

- is death an illusion and is everything everything?

- space and nature

- the world and galaxy

- how gravity makes us stick to earth

- the future and cricket

- the first people on earth

- next year and nature

- the future and science 

- 

Gemma and I met for 90 mins prior to the session and I met Heather the Principal and the coordinator, did a campus tour and physical resource trek. We have mapped out the first 3 weeks and are still keen to let the kids develop the larger planned event and the big burning question. We’ve adjusted a few dates to work around swimming lessons and clashes with public holidays but we have a few weeks back up so plenty of wriggle room. 

Great group of kids - delightful! 

The kids’ self assessment of their own strengths and weaknesses was pretty spot on and match that of Gemma’s (that we discussed earlier when we were on the professional learning day). Not so collaborative - don't like the loss of control over everything in shared projects, persistence when things get challenging is a focus too. 

We are doing a session about how we are connected and how our paths overlap and paths we travel so Gemma is sending me a class list of addresses so we have a vague idea of the broad spread of where kids live. We are also looking to get journals so we can document the Kids process and give them something as a take-home piece

I met with the specialists and the art teacher who came in to visit and also made a point of going in and having morning tea earlier in the staffroom to meet other staff members and explained a little bit about the program and my background 

Creative Practitioner Name: Claire Davenhall                               

School: Rostrata Primary School

Teacher: Nick Barnett

Year Group: 5

Number of students: 32

Meet Claire and introduce the Creative Habits 

Find the creative you. Students draw themselves and label how they use the creative habits in their daily lives, think of when they collaborate (playing sports) or are persistent ( green thumbs at growing veggies) or are inquisitive (asking Google lots of questions) etc.... Then we can ask them to share their drawing with the person sitting next to them for 2 minutes. It's a great way to get to know the group! 

Make Needs/Wants poster

In pairs each choose a ‘destination’ and create a poster with the needs and wants of that destination. 

Destinations: 

Antarctica, Tropical Rainforest (Amazon), Desert (Sahara), Deep Ocean (underwater research station), Mount Everest Base Camp, Outer space (International space station), Arctic tundra, Dense Urban City (Tokyo, New York, London), Remote Island (Galapagos, Pacific Atoll), Savannah (African grasslands), Jungle village (Papua New Guinea) and Volcanic Region

Then they paired up with another group and created a Venn diagram and compare the differences and similarities between the needs and wants of the two different destinations. 

We guided them with prompting questions:

 What are the absolute essentials for surviving in this destination?

Which items would make life easier but are not strictly necessary?

If you could only bring three things, what would they be and why?

How do people who live in this environment adapt to their surroundings?What are the biggest challenges people face in this destination?

How would extreme weather affect your needs?

If you were stranded here, how would you find food and water?

What would you do if your most important survival item got lost?

As a reflection they have to tell us which creative habit they used in this task and we can give them their first tokens which they placed in their piggie bank jars and save for market food day! 

We didn't get chance to Divide the students into 5 groups - each group cuts out creative token/coin and hide a them for another group to find. Each week students will gain a creative habit token/coin and place them in their piggie bank jars and save for market food day! 

They all had very interesting creative you pictures, we decided to stick them on their folders.

We will look at supply and demand - Asia and Australia food (Basic and Luxury/ Yummy and Yucky)  to create Food fusion ideas. Rank the foods.

Supply challenge there is a drought and the rice has run out… the sea is polluted you can not eat seafood! NOW ADAPT your ideas…

Create 3 ideas and then a final idea 

30 circles template - to brain storm ideas

Cards- to create a game  3 basic and 3 luxury ingredients

News letter… we have started Creative Schools and year 5 student ill be working with Creative Practitioner Claire Davenhall

This warm up is designed in keeping with the idea of a silent task at the beginning of each session and to link with subject content.

1. As students enter the room, the Creative will hand out a political flyer with one of the following words ‘ - government, rights, responsibility, voting, citizens, political party and opinion polls

2. At each table will be an A3 piece of paper also with the word

3. Students will need to find their group

4. Groups will be 4 people with possibly two groups of 5

1.   Using only the coloured markers you have been allocated, in your groups, write down as many words or ideas onto the A3 sheet regarding the word you were given

2.   You only have 90 seconds

3.   After the 90 second timer, take your markers and rotate clockwise to the next station

4.   You have another 90 seconds to add your group ideas and words to the next sheet of paper 

5.   You can not repeat something that is already written

6. Continue this process until you have completed all stations

7.   You have 10 seconds to rotate between rounds

8.   At the last station, add up how many answers each group came up with based on their marker colour and add this to the table on the board

9. Optional prize for the winning group

1. Welcome to creative habits. Which creative habit did you use during this activity?

2. Why do you think this?

3. Add it to the score for your group

If time doesn’t allow for the above reflection, write it onto a post it note - creative habit and why? This is your leave pass to go home. 

Successes 

• Groups were seamless! They created their groups without debate and worked collaboratively

• Transitions between stations was awesome

• Quantity of content

• Understanding of content

• Strategy

• Competition

• Jacob reading out the definition

• There wasn’t time for students to get off task

Challenges 

• Initial resistence from one person to being forced to change groups

• Time

• Bamboozled about finding groups based on the flyer. Initially unable to spot the difference.

‘Working in groups and general participation was beyond anything I have experienced before’ … Creative 

Sometimes we will need to wait a few minutes for them to settle so that they get all of the instructions. There is a definite colliding of Australian and US politics and an obvious influence of social media. They responded really well to the speed of activities as it doesn’t allow time for off topic chatter. Students were curious about some of the examples given and would ask for an explanation. Today, students weren’t provided with any content yet they were able to generate their own ideas and consolidate them succinctly. 

‘You don’t want to stop them because they are just on roll’ …Teacher

Finding a partner

1. I need to to find a partner

2. However, your partner must be the same height as you

3. Find your partner and sit down opposite each other

Who are you?

1. To get to know you, I need to recognise your faces. 

2. You will each be given a piece of paper and a marker

3. We are going to teach your hand and eye to talk to each other without your brain interfering (because sometimes our brain gives us the wrong information and tries to trick us).

4. Pretend there is an invisible piece of string between your eye and your hand. Each time your eye moves in a direction, your hand needs to move the same way so that as your eyes look at your partner’s face, your pen follows.

5. You must keep your pen on the page, like a magnet.

6. Creative to demonstrate with the Teacher

7. Pass your sheet to your partner for them to write their name on.

Groups

1. Find a group who ate the same breakfast as you this morning.

2. Find a group who has the same favourite food as you. Sit down as soon as you have found your group.

3. Without any words, can you find a group who has the same pet as you?

4. In your group, how can you use your bodies collaboratively to create an image of a car, book, table?

How would you like to learn?

1. How many ideas can you come up with that make you feel calm?

2. Double check, do they make you feel calm or energised?

3. If you were in charge of a school and could decide how everyone was going to learn about Health, how would you do it?

Creative Habits

1. Introduce each of the Creative Habits using the poster

2. Can you give an example of how you used this habit today?

Successes

• Participation in the activities

• Creative thinking in using their bodies to create objects

• Wanting to do the drawing activity twice

Challenges

• Same students generating ideas

• Keeping excitement contained when asking questions of giving instructions

• Some really reserved students

• Mixed capacity for processing instructions

• Varied reading skills - pre-primary through to year 3 level

The quick movement between physical activities kept the class participation high and held their attention. Need to be mindful of ways in which students can get into their groups and settle quickly rather than get distracted. Getting them to sit or potentially using a creative skills pose will be worth trying. They are excited about having a new person in the classroom and are curious about what we could to do together as a health project this term.

What are student ideas for remembering the Creative Habits?

What are student ideas for ways that they would like to get better at the Creative Habits?

Use a timer when giving instructions to reduce distractions

Potential warm ups in the outside space where there is less acoustic noise than the transportable classroom

Reflection idea that has a repetitive nature and builds on creating a garden or nature space that continues to evolve within the classroom

Likert scale  -fun line up to get an idea of how likert scales work.

• Like dogs/cats - eg the right side is only like dogs/left is only like cats middle is both

• Height

• Birth months

• Taylor Swift music fan/foe

Marking a line across the classroom,  identifying the middle of the line as the school’s location. Students are to place themselves either side of the school in order of time it takes to get to school - to represent distance they live from school

Main Activity 

Students into 4 groups - teacher assigned Groups are given  a map/s of area in which all students live. list of addresses Task one -mark all students’ homes on map Task two - work out as a group how that map could be superimposed onto the large carpet floor area of the main hall.  (ratio correct) Task three - each group explains their idea to the class - class decides best way forward          Groups were randomly drawn from popsticks and the four groups set to work. Great ideas for superimposing the map on the carpet - start at the sides/from our own homes/kids talked about orientation and the need for a compass which was one groups first plan Task four - Division of tasks eg streets/compass orientation/landmarks         A discussion about scale happened and we stopped to talk about what ratio and scale meant. Kids decided to multiply the jigsaw map plan by 10 after measuring the hall space first to see if it would fit length and width-ways. We drew on the white board the maths invoiced eg 25cm on the paper map would mean 2.5m on the carpet. Ratio of 1:10 Task five - Students began to build the map with a plan to to add their homes with building blocks/cars/chalk and tape to mark streets. paper/materials to mark parks/shops/library/schools etc     This was a great time for Gemma and I to step back and watch the kids interact. Lots of stop re think/that’s not working conversation and the realisation that mapping the main streets had to happen way before thinking about their own house. See video on forum if it loads. The map has been left out for follow up session next week when I’m away for kids to build upon.

Reflection with the students  - 3 Fs Fun/Frustrating/Future

Paste your photo here.

After the session:

Planning with the Teacher and Ideas Moving Forward

Main Activity (one photo)

Timing was a challenge - they are chatty and full of ideas

Warm ups, next week do a first part individual/seated, second part together with others (gives them chance to settle in the room first)

Went well, students contributed a lot! But it was a change to their routine and so having someone new in the room made them be a bit more disruptive. 

We didn’t get time to do the reflection, brief intro of the 5 habits

We decided to use coloured sand in a glass jar to track the 5 habits.

Most engaged with brainstorming and collaborative activities. 

They liked working with their friends, Jasmine has strategies and a great sense of when to get them working in their rows or mixing up groups. 

Physical and sporty activities seemed popular in the brainstorming, they liked getting up out of their seats. Weren't as motivated when we raised games as we expected (they are competition motivated).

They liked us coming round and giving individual attention. 

Next week work with examples, an exercise to ideate and flesh out the project. 

Vote on project to happen tomorrow morning. Jasmine to email Andrea.

Incorporate the mathematical thinking process

1. Inquiry/problem

2. Identify the maths

3. Analyse data and sources

   1. What resources do I have

   2. What do I need

4. Apply knowledge and strategies

5. Reflect 

6. Communicate

Aim to have warm ups that encourage individual persistence.

Andrea will source jar and coloured sand (5). 

School facebook 

Compass (intranet) to raise awareness with families 

Andrea and Jasmine to share photos with each other

Introduce Claire and her exploration to Dirk Hartog Island and how they are restoring the land to 1616, before Europeans discovered it and introduced sheep and goats, which had devastating results for the land. 

Conducted a survey of the living flora or fauna in the schools, recording if it is native or introduced, is under threat of becoming extinct?

Students thought about the animals they had seen that lesson, and asked to cut out their shadow shape in the colour of the creative habits they had used the most during the lesson, then attached it to the learning wall. We ran out of time, only got 3!

So I had originally packed quite a bit in, so we didn't have time to introduce William Dampier, the English explorer, pirate, and naturalist, who was the first Englishman to chart part of the Australian coastline and the first European to scientifically study its landscape, flora, and fauna.  Will can start the lesson next week with next week and show examples from his field book. The warm-up will be whittling a drawing stick and making ink from rocks/leaves.

We only showed up to Side 9 on the powerpoint so we can show the rest next week.

The students loved showing me around and exploring. We found so much Fauna, black cockatoos, ring-necked parrots, willy wagtails, there was a dead grey kangaroo just over the road, which they all told me was seen on the way to school. They were very proud to introduce me to the class brush-tailed Phascogale! We also saw a bobtail, one of the kids tried to scare it, much to the disgust of the other students. They also found a swarm of bees, a huge grasshopper, spikers, millipedes, a skink and empty gecko eggs. They struggled to know the native and introduced types of flora.

I encouraged them to show me their discoveries, and I took photographic evidence. 

We didn't have much time at the end of the session for reflection, it took us a while to find the habits boards. We had a relief teacher, so I’m not sure he knew what that would look like.

I said we would spend more time on that next week. 

I think we need an ideas board for the types of animals they can draw and cut out their reflective animals.

I will email the teacher!