Main Curriculum Focus
Science (seasonal changes in our environment affect everyday life)
Cross-curricular links
Aboriginal Culture - specifically local Noongar culture and language, Language - Vocabulary, Movement, Visual Art, Music, Self-regulation.
CONTEXT
Treeby Primary School is a brand new Primary School in the recently developed suburb of Treeby, South of Perth. It has been built on an area previously mined for mineral sands. The Pre-Primary class are a high energy group. Naturally for their age, it can be hard for them to focus, work together effectively. Teacher Danielle Eitzen is an experienced specialist visual art teacher who is very enthusiastic about Creative Learning. She sees this class weekly. We also have the class EA, Abbie Schultz, with us each week, who has been able to support the learning.
WHAT WE DID
Project Overview
Over the course of the project we built up layers of learning about the seasons we were living through in real time, in Treeby, Perth. Our aim was to provide a range of opportunities for expression and building our knowledge of the Noongar seasons. This was intended to address the Cross Curriculum Priority of embedding Aboriginal cultures in learning. Given that Treeby Primary School is a new school in a new suburb, it felt important to develop a connection with place, by encouraging their observations of their environment and how it changes with the seasons. The project encompassed science, visual art, music, movement and language through the range of activities.
How did we make the curriculum come alive?
We used multiple approaches to consider different aspects of the seasons of Makuru, Djilba and Kambarang. This allowed us to introduce and repeat and consolidate the learning over the weeks. We used our bodies to represent plants, animals, weather; we experienced different sensory stations and collected students’ words to describe what they saw, heard, felt and smelled. We built mini mia mia (shelters) and tested their effectiveness against wind and rain. We made percussion instruments and played them as a group to make the sounds of a rain storm. Through Djilba and Kambarang we worked towards designing and creating decorated cloaks – bookas. We ended up with six painted bookas to represent the six seasons.
In Kambarang, we became snakes waking up from their long period of inactivity. We looked at the patterns of scales and recreated them using different techniques – using playdoh, paper collage, vegetable slices.
The new school site is lovely, but the natural elements are very neat as they are so new. We brought in as many natural items and materials into the classroom as possible for exploring and observing and for using as building materials.
The challenge with this class was to provide the opportunities for self-expression whilst maintaining some key routines which supported the children to experience the learning. Activities with lots of choice or very open-ended were difficult to facilitate meaningfully with this group who are used to a lot of structure.
Group work is also difficult for these young students and they need opportunities to build their teamwork habits in a scaffolded way. Beginning to build this with care and attention could be one focus for next term.
We ended our project with a celebration of the six seasons, sharing our knowledge a Year 3 class, their teacher and the Principal. It was an unrehearsed sharing session to try to show the range of learning that had taken place – we went from Makuru to Djeran, using actions, sounds and props. To end, Danielle asked the Year 3s (who had not experienced Creative Schools) to identify when they had seen the Pre Primary students using different Creative Habits. This was very powerful and has encouraged Danielle to think about connecting different Year Groups work together and reflect on each others’ Habits of Learning.
How did we make the Creative Habits of Mind come alive?
We started our project by working as a class to come up with actions to represent each of the 5 habits. Exploring the meaning of the habits together, various students came up with different actions and were very proud to have them adopted by the whole class. This was really helpful as we could revisit them in games, discussions and reflections throughout the project.
Using these actions, Danielle and I made posters and cards with stick people representing the habits. These were then used in different contexts throughout the project (from Snap and sorting games to group activities like Habit Musical Statues).
With these strategies in place, it was possible to weave the language of the 5 habits into our learning and individual conversations, knowing that the students’ understanding was secure and growing. We were able to spotlight and celebrating growth in this area for different individuals.
Most weeks we completed our session with a sticker reflection. I made a large board representing Makuru for the early weeks featuring a large rain cloud - at the end of the session, students would choose a coloured sticker and stick it like a drop of rain on the board to represent which habit they had used most. Once we were in Djilba, we introduced a board to reflect the new season - students’ coloured stickers were like flowers blooming. Students enjoyed the process of applying the stickers, and displayed some real thoughtfulness in making their decisions.
How did we activate student voice and learner agency?
Allowing student ideas and feedback (direct or indirect) to shape the learning was important from the start. The fact that the students’ themselves devised the moves to reflect the 5 habits was clearly instrumental in them being enthusiastically embraced and remembered week to week.
The main ‘making’ projects we carried out - building mini mia mia shelters and decorating their book as - allowed students the opportunity to shape their own product and find their flow. The sessions where these were taking place were the calmest and happiest for everyone in the room. This is clearly a very positive way to approach learning for these students, allowing them to be independent.
Continually encouraging their thinking about their own learning and choices was important - I could see some students growing in this way. Like student X who at the end of one session observed: “Sometimes I was good at listening and sometimes I wasn’t.”
WHAT WAS THE IMPACT?
Students
“It’s not just playing. It’s learning. It’s fun learning.” (Student)
The students as a group were engaged and excited by the activities and different resources. The layered approach to learning felt effective, allowing us to build up the information over the weeks - students became more and more familiar with Noongar words and able to recall and use them e.g. Walken - rainbow. Simultaneously, they are growing in their awareness of the habits of learning and could apply them to themselves. Some of the most striking impacts could be seen in individual moments with students.
I saw one student E. watch her mia mia collapse as she tested it with water spray. She had been proud of her structure and it was clearly a tough moment. “I feel really sad because mine has fallen apart.” With just a little encouragement, she persisted and began rebuilding her mia mia.
Teacher
“Creative Schools has given me greater confidence as a leader. Next year I will mentor other teachers to take it on.” (Danielle Eitzen, Teacher)
“We’re seeing different students shine every week.” (Danielle Eitzen, Teacher)
A student like S, who normally would not contribute in class, was able to answer a question confidently and led by Danielle, the class as a whole celebrated this: “Moorditj, S!”
Creative Practitioner
There has been so much learning during this project. Working with this age group was new to me (apart from as a parent) and it was a true creative challenge to respond to their needs. My practice - and natural medium - is writing and these PP students have very limited writing as yet, so it was great to explore a range of expressions of their ideas.
I have been really struck by which sessions felt gave students the most opportunities to learn: the sessions with the simplest structure and the space for students to find their flow making and doing. There have often been challenges in behaviour management with this group, but in the individual sessions it is much less difficult for students to settle and focus. To introduce very deliberate steady, staged learning into these situations feels like the best approach.
The other aspect which worked very well was the layering of learning, not expecting ideas and words to be absorbed within one session, but returning in a variety of ways each week and building up.
School
Within Treeby Primary School there is also another class of Year 2s, working with another Creative Practitioner, Shona McGregor. Danielle and I often chat to the handful of other staff in the staffroom after the session about what we have been doing. Shona and I facilitated a Professional Learning session for all staff early in Term 4, focused on the Five Habits and on Teaching for Creativity. It was warmly received, with many staff keen to incorporate the ideas into their practice.
Parents
There was a school-wide Learning Journey event in late September, held after school, which allowed parents to come and see their students’ learning. The artefacts of our sessions were on display.
Another means of communication with parents is the large Easel board outside the classroom, which parents can see at drop off each morning. Danielle created displays towards the end of our project.
.png)