In a school which I teach (Shall not mention which), I was required to write lesson plan for my arts & crafts lesson. I could not think of any objectives for my lesson. (Objectives have to start with "at the end of the lesson, children should be able to..." and the assessment has to be linked: "children are assessed on their ability to...") I was at a lost. My objective was to let them just explore and have fun! That's it!!
Then I was told, the objective of an arts and crafts lesson is to let children train their fine motor skills. Through pasting and painting. they train their fine motor skills. I agree that through arts and crafts, children develop their fine motor skills, but shouldn't the MAIN objective be focused on creativity? Do they need to be assessed on creativity?? Hello, children are waaaaaaay more creative than you, and it is these kind of highly structured close ended "ART" that we prepare that is squashing their creativity.
http://www.janetlansbury.com/2010/04/a-childs-creativity-how-i-learned-to-shut-up/
Learn to shut up, adults.
Just venting.
P/S: I have a huge stack of blank paper in class for children to JUST DRAW ANYTHING. They draw little lines and circles and can tell me what they've drawn. I label their artwork. And they love it! :)
