Art and craft projects for the classroom
Posted on Monday, June 11, 2018
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Children's Laureate Lauren Child is calling for a focus on creativity in children's lives - inside and outside school - and is using Children's Art Week (9-17th June) to launch a series of free creative resources.
The download is the first in a series of resources called Staring into Space that can be used at school or home to help parents and teachers encourage creative thinking. Child believes that creative thinking helps us to problem solve, to understand who we are, how we relate to those around us and the world in which we live. It is now widely recognised that creativity is as important as literacy or numeracy. She explained, "Time needs to be made for accidents, we need to be aware that just having a go has a value. Chance interactions can lead to something bigger. "While it is easy to say that I have put nurturing creativity at the centre of my aspirations for my time as Waterstones Children's Laureate, finding a way of putting that into practice is not. "One way of trying to do so is to look closely at the ideas of others, consider what the artist wanted to achieve, the thoughts behind their work and the materials used. With these six resources, we have tried to gather up books which reflect the theme of my mission. "The books explore delight in thought and discovery. They are all at once philosophical, artistic and highly personal. I hope both adults and children will find these six resources inspiring and enable them to create their own projects, in schools, libraries and museums." The Staring into Space resources have been put together by Lauren Child and teacher and creator of arts and crafts, Josey Scullard alongside The BookTrust. The six resources focus on books as a starting point and inspiration for creative ideas. The six books are: A World of Your Own by Laura Carlin (Phaidon); Into the Forest by Anthony Browne (Walker Books)' Do! By Gita Wolf, Ramesh Hengadi and Shantaram Dhadpe (Tara Books)' The Onion's Great Escape by Sara Fanelli (Phaidon); Clarice Bean That's Me and The Princess and the Pea by Lauren Child (Penguin Random House). The resources can be found via the link, below, www.childrenslaureate.org.uk/staringintospace and are available free for everyone to download. Children's Art Week runs from 9-17th June in schools, galleries, museums and community groups. It offers children and young people, together with their teachers, parents and carers, the opportunity to get involved with a very broad range of practical art activities with artists and makers. Lauren Child is an ambassador for Children's Art Week. Lauren is also a commissioner for the Durham Commission on Creativity and Education which is a collaboration between Arts Council England and Durham University that aims to identify ways in which creativity, and specifically creative thinking, can play a larger part in the lives of young people from birth to the age of 25, both within and beyond the current education system. The Commission hopes to find out what already works well and where there might be gaps that can be addressed.
