WEBVTT - This file was automatically generated by VIMEO. Please email info@talestoolkit.com to report problems. Hello. Hello everybody. It's great to see you. I hope you all having a great time in school at the minute. I imagine you all getting ready for Nativity plays and countdown to Christmas and Elf on the Shelf is gonna make an appearance very soon. Um, so yeah, so I'm really lucky to have, um, Ruth Churchill Dow here tonight. Um, Ruth is the founder of the award-winning company, early Arts uk. Um, and she is a trainer, um, an author, um, previously worked as a teacher. Um, she also does hang gliding and plays of violin, so multi-talented. Um, and me and Ruth met over a year ago now, wasn't it? A conference. So, yeah. And had lots and lots in common and we've had lots of Skype chats about how we can change the world and make more creativity in schools. So, so yeah. And Ruth we're really lucky tonight 'cause um, a lot of the work that Ruth does really links with what you're do Mattel's toolkit. So lots of stuff around movement and music and story and kind of creativity and coming up with ideas. So I think Ruth's going to talk tonight about how we kind of fit in that language of expression through arts, and I think it's gonna fit really well with a lot of the stuff that you're doing. Mattel's talk. So I'm gonna hand over to Ruth, um, and I'm gonna put my photo down for a little bit and leave it over to you. So there we go. Yep. Oh, thanks. Thanks so much, Kate. That's absolutely brilliant. And, uh, thank you so much for having me because, uh, it's, uh, it's just been brilliant watching Tales toolkit grow, and I'm just such a huge fan of everything Kate's done. Huge fan of the whole sales toolkit toolkit anyway. Mm-Hmm. Um, the, the thinking behind it, the messaging behind it, it's just fantastic. So, um, just a massive congrats to you for coming so far and, and being so brilliant. Really. I love it. Thank you. We like this mutual appreciation. Yeah. And we'll change the world. We'll get there. We'll, we'll have to stick together. Yeah. We find the right people. Yeah. Ready. So thanks everyone for your patience. That's great. Um, it's such a pleasure to share this, uh, whole area of creativity with you today, and I hope that what I can offer will bring some ideas, but also bring some inspiration and a new sense of confidence in your own creativity. Um, so these are my two many moons ago, and of course they love to explore boxes and who doesn't it? At two and four years old. Um, and they loved the limited space with which, uh, they had to explore the sides to decorate the box. Um, they loved the sturdiness of the box and the fact that they could, you know, lean their little bodies against it and it would hold up. Um, and they really enjoyed lifting flaps inside and out and, and hiding in them like the fences. And yet being in control of being able to open up those flaps and see the light again whenever they wanna. And of course, course, the thing about cardboard is that it's got that kind of dual layer of insulation with the corrugated bit inside two, uh, cardboard walls. And that retains heat. And for a little child or a a baby, um, that's a really beautiful thing because it kind of emulates a womb type environment, warmth. Um, they've got, you know, just really muted sounds when they're deep inside it. Um, and basically it can be anything they want it to be. It's something that they put their mind on and they're in control of. So as a, as a, a tool for creative expression, a cardboard box is brilliant because it ticks all the right boxes for helping children to feel safe and secure whilst they want to make their creative mark. So I find these two fascinating. And of course, you know, they're teenagers now, so they carry on. Fascinating me. Um, but, uh, um, it, it's just great to see how children's minds develop. Um, and I think it's really important to just try and listen to children and understand them. Of course, as Plato said, you can discover more about a person in an hour of play than you can in year of conversation. And how true that is. Now, something that I often ask, uh, people about teaching or training is, um, what they feel is the difference between their own sense of play or their own sense of creativity. So have a think of that for about that for a moment. And just think, if I were to ask you on a scale of one to 10, uh, how would you rate your sense of play when you're working with your children? Um, how would you score yourself? So would you score yourself right up at the 10 mark? Yes, I'm very playful with kids with play every day. We have a great time. It's very interactive and so on. Or would you be sort of halfway, well, we like playing, but we have a lot of observation and assessments to do, and that kind of gets in the way of playtime. Or would you score yourselves right down at, at the low end and say, oh no, play is just, that's for kids, isn't it? That's not my thing at all. Um, so have a think about where you would score yourself on that rating scale. And then I'm gonna ask you again, on a scale of one to 10, how do you rate your own creativity? Are you the sort of person that, um, rates yourself as 10 in creativity, yet we're breaking out all the creative tools every single day and we just cannot wait to get in there and see what happens? Or is it five-ish? You know, we, we quite creative. Uh, we like to, you know, do a bit of painting every now and again and, and some new storytelling and all rest of it. Or is it sort of down in the ones and twos? You know, we we're just very confident with that. And we've got somebody who does that for us, and they come in on a Wednesday afternoon and, and that's what they do. Um, so I'd be, I'd be really interested, uh, in the chat room if you wanna sort of type in where you see yourselves, uh, on a rating of one to 10. And I'm really interested in this because every time I ask early years practitioners, um, generally not always, but generally there's a sense that they feel very confident in their sense of play and their play, uh, ability that their ability to spot children to play schema, their preferences, play styles, and their ability to, to sort of support that. Um, whereas generally with creativity, um, some earliest practitioners and teachers feel slightly less confident about that. It's, as I say, it's not always that way around sometimes. Um, it's completely the opposite way around. And that really is a great surprise for me. Um, artists on the other hand tend to feel creativity is their thing, that they can access it, they can tap into it quickly, they can get deep down into what stimulates and inspires them. But when it comes to play that, that's something that's a bit scary because, you know, that could mean anything, couldn't it? So it's interesting how, you know, sometimes we have the same perceptions of each other's side, each other's view, but from other side, if you like. And I often wonder, you know, what's the difference between playing creativity? Is it that you see play as a process of learning creativity as something that leads to a product in learning? Um, or is it that you see that creativity is in the realm of artists and people who've got those art skills? Is it that you think that creative innate talent for just being creative when the moment strikes? My feeling is that we are all very creative. We've all been born with the same potential to be incredibly, um, and that there isn't any real mystique about this. Uh, it's just that my personal belief is that yes, there are, people are incredible, but I think actually we've all got that potential to be creative. And it's really important to develop that self-belief because then once we've experienced that, how that creativity can transform the way we train our children, then it's easier to, uh, emulate that environment for and with our children to ensure that we are getting their most creative self out of them. So Donald Wincott, who is a autistic child psychologist, said it's in playing and only in playing the individual child or adult was able to be creative. There we go. And it's only in being creative that the discovers itself and wincott believe that if you suspend the play, then it makes possible the invention of fresh meaning by which you meant, it enables the child's true personality, their real thoughts and ideas expressed. And we often see that in creativity. Um, I know that when children draw and when children paint, you see really what deep down inside of them, they perhaps just haven't gotta that stage where they can actually articulate through words. And some of us demonstrate a natural preference for one hemisphere over the other. So if we're responding in a more logical way to something, um, for instance, uh, if I asked you, uh, what did you have for breakfast this morning? Some of you may respond immediately, oh, I had cornflakes, or I had weer bits. Um, others of you maybe have, have a preference for the right hemisphere of the brain. And you may be thinking, this is a trick question, why is she asking me this? And you're starting to ask, look at all those possibilities. So you may be the sort of person that has a preference for the right hemisphere, um, and in fact, the brain has to move from the right to the left hemisphere all of the time. And children do this with ease, but it's actually quite a bit harder for adults, um, because our neural pathways are more established by the time we've, uh, really reached, uh, the end of adolescence. Uh, but what we do know is that really effective thinking and learning and very creative learning needs to engage the whole of the brain. Um, and, um, there was a team called the, the National Strategies Team, uh, that wrote the first birth to three matters, um, guidance, which then became the foundation stage. Um, later on when we had the, uh, the Labor Party in government all those years ago, I dunno if you can remember that. Um, and they, they had a very, very clear message about creativity. And they said, when young children are encouraged to think creatively by following their own lines of inquiry, exploring possibilities, making new connections and solving problems, they are developing the skills for lifelong learning in this way. They develop confidence in themselves, both as thinkers and as learners. And this approach demands practitioners who take the time to tune into children's thinking and trust the richness of children's ideas. And I really love that because it just makes me think that actually, you know, our job is just to provide the best environments, the best resources, the best skills, and the best relationships possible, as well as a belief in our children's potential so that we can really help to nurture their creativity and that of their families as well when we're enabling them to continue their, uh, their creative learning at home. Um, and the way to do that is really to, first of all, make them feel safe, but also to make them feel empowered and motivated to share their worlds with us. And this is endorsed by, um, sat Tim Brickhouse, who, uh, was, um, one of the authors of the foundation phase guidance for creative development in Wales. And he said, you know, the arts are quite simply a magic key for some children. And within the hands of gifted committed practitioners, they're the key to all children. Not only do they open the mind of the learner, but they then reveal a cornucopia of endless delight, challenge and opportunity. And when he says gifted practitioners, you know, he doesn't mean in terms of being artists or dancers or singers, but gifted just in terms of giving time and listening to young children, trying to help them understand the world. And at the same time seeing the world from the child's perspective and trying to understand them. And if you've got that in place, if you've got those skills and that time and that space, and when you are showing empathy and being authentic with, with your children, um, then you've got everything you need to unlock their creativity, because that's what it takes to lead to deeper levels of engagement, um, and increase, uh, communication with, with young children. Now, I've, I've worked with seven ways that I think are the most common ways that young children learn that it doesn't by any means, encompass all the ways that they learn, but these are the most common ways. So first of all, I think they learn holistically. You know, they're learning from everything all around them, all at the same time. They're not compartmentalizing things into maths and science and arts and so on. So they're learning from all the things that they take in, uh, uh, through their senses all the time. And they're also learning from the experiences that they're having. So both negative and positive experiences. They create a holistic environment, an environment where they're learning by doing. And that's also incorporating their active learning. Um, and a lot of active learning. Uh, we see children repeating things again and again, and there's a very, very good reason for this, which is that they're reestablishing the neural pathways, the neural circuits, and those connections in their brains. And when they make those connections, that's what helps them to make sense of their learning and, and the context of the world around them. So for instance, just to give you an example of that, um, there's one fact in my brain, and that's that my name's Ruth. Um, about a year ago, another fact came into my brain, and that was that Kate's name was Kate, and that she ran a company called Tales Toolkit. Now, those were completely separate facts, uh, not joined up or connected in any way, shape or form, but as I started to repeatedly, uh, talk to Kate and look at the work she was doing, and, uh, understand what she was doing, those facts were joining together and creating a context. Um, and that context deepened each time we talked about the issues to do with learning, with literacy, with creativity, and so on, because we both realized that we're speaking the same language. We're, uh, sharing very similar values on this. And we're both very passionate, uh, about supporting children's creativity. So by repeating those, uh, conversations and those ideas, we are strengthening those neural pathways. And that's exactly what children are doing. When two facts come into their brains that they need to make sense of, they sometimes ask you to repeat things again and again and again. So you'll have children that want to read the same book, want to watch the same DVD, want to sing the same song again and again and again. If it's at all possible, please do, do that with them, because that's such a brilliant way of them just learning how to make those connections and build the context that they need to make sense of it in their brains. So I haven't really got time to go into all the, um, the neuroscience around that, but that's also very fascinating. Um, particularly so at the moment. Um, so children are sensorial as in using all their sensors simultaneously. And in fact, that's the first way in which they start to learn. Um, uh, whilst they're in the womb in gestation, um, they are already tasting things. They're already hearing things, they're sensing things through a sense of touch. All of those senses are developing in the womb. So it's a very, very powerful form of learning for them. And really one of the main reasons why children continue to use their senses once, once they're born, um, very much more strongly than any other, uh, any other learning, um, approach. Um, of course, they're forming connections, they're combining facts, feeling senses and experiences. And what they're trying to do is to take the existing knowledge that they already have and build it into new knowledge so that it helps to make sense of new things that happen, new things they see, new things they create, new things they learn, and so on. They're exploratory learners. They're finding out all the time how things work. They're testing theories why this, why that, why the other, they're trying to identify solutions and settings that are brilliant. Settings will be the ones that stand back a little bit and just really try and help children to come to the conclusions themselves without too much scaffolding, although some scaffolding is obviously very necessary. Um, and children are very, very expressive learners. You know, um, first of all, they're taking in effect, they're memorizing it. Um, they're storing it in, in different memory parts of their brains. There's about four different memories now, and then they're recalling it. And this comes through expressive learning, where they're articulating the things that they're making sense of, the challenges, the questions, the thinking that they've got and so on. So it's not rocket science to understand this, but it really helps to, to do so because it helps us to understand what sort of learning styles our children prefer, and therefore how we can help them meet those learning styles, um, and, uh, and meet their needs more, uh, more easily so that they're much less frustrated. Um, and it's really interesting to have a, a think about what creative learning looks like. Um, and I love thinking about the work of Professor Tina Bruce, who talks about six key characteristics that can show when children are deeply imbued in creativity in play. And I think children, I think we all have very naturally creative abilities, but I think children really grasp that very well. Um, and we can see when they're playing, because their creative play is very intrinsic. You know, it's triggering their natural drive, it's driving what they want to do naturally. And creative activities are really powerful tools to enable children to become very deeply immersed in their play. So when you see a child drawing with their tongue sticking out the, the side of their mouth, which my daughter used to do all the time, you know, it's, it's a sign that they're very deeply immersed in that creative activity, and that's absolutely brilliant. Um, and not just in Western cultures, but right across the world, we see pretend activity as a very innate and natural pheno phenomenon. I can't even say it long words. It's too late for long words. Um, and really when we're seeing them pretending and, and doing make believe and role play and so on, it's where children are becoming active participants in their own worlds and not just passive participants in ours. And that's a really important part, um, of their learning. And when they're, when they're playing creatively, they're also sharing those creative experiences. They're strengthening attachments, they're strengthening identity and belonging. And of course, when a child feels safe within their relationship with us, they will take more risks and they'll challenge their own learning, which is a, a brilliant place to be because they're not getting bored, but they're not, you know, the learning's not too hard for them. They're not getting frustrated. And in that safe relationship, that's where a child feels loved, they feel listened to, they feel taken seriously, and their confidence and their language will absolutely flourish. So there's something very, very precious in sharing those magic creative moments with children where that imaginative spark is understood and shared by both. And it may be that you don't have a language for it, it may be that you don't really understood what just happened, but it's nevertheless a very important, uh, experience to share between each other. And of course, creativity helps children investigate. It helps 'em take ownership of their ideas. And this is important in terms of helping them develop mastery. So, you know, for a young child who's really got very little control over its own environment at a at an early age, it's really important that it has periods of time and space to be in control of its own learning, to be able to conquer his fears, to, to build his confidence, to overcome scenarios that he thought he wasn't capable of, um, to answer his own questions. It's really a great way of giving that child a chance to feel in control and to develop his sense of mastery. Um, and that really gives children a, a, a very good journey towards self-regulation as well. So, for children whose behavior is extremely challenging, it might be really worth trying out some activities that give them that sense of mastery, give them that control back, um, in, in a, a small way, because it really gives them a sense of, of being trusted and being validated. Um, and that leads onto them then taking ownership of their learning, which is really important when they're doing this. They gain a sense of purpose about who they are, and that leads to a much clearer understanding of, um, of what they're doing there. So, um, it just helps to, uh, manage those behaviors, um, a little bit more successfully. Um, and creative experiences do challenge children to reach their potential because imagination, imaginative, creative play helps children to function at much higher levels than normal. Being curious, problem solving, coming up with new possibilities. And of course, we need to give children the time and space to develop these areas of learning as that new and the old knowledge is joined up over time. So, some of you might have heard of a, a theorist called, um, chick sent me Highly, which, um, is a very difficult name to pronounce, uh, but he talks about the concept of flow. And when children are deeply immersed in their play, um, they're able to achieve this sense of flow where, you know, the play just goes on and on and on, and their creativity is absolutely blossoming and flourishing. They're coming out with new ideas every few seconds even. And it's very exciting to observe this, and it's really important that we give them opportunities for this. Otherwise, we're only, only, we're only going to see their learning happen at a very superficial level. So rather than reinforcing the skills and the knowledge that they already have, we need to put creative provocations in place, if you like, that enable them to discover new areas for themselves that releases that flow and stimulates further thinking. And this kind of challenge is really exciting for them. Um, again, it comes back to the theorist Ky, who started a theory called, uh, the Zone of proximal Development, which he was intending, um, to stop teachers, um, forcing limits on children's learning by being very instructional. Um, and the zone of proximal development is really, um, the, the space and time in which child is challenging their own learning or their learning is being challenged by the scaffolding that, and the facilitation that's offered by the educator. Um, so it's not so easy that they're bored and it's not so difficult that they're frustrated and they just don't want to do it. But it's that place in between those two areas of boredom and frustration where they're challenged, they're excited, they're, they're vigorous about their learning, they're stimulated, and they just carry on being curious about everything. Um, and that, that zone of proximal development, um, he didn't finish that theory because unfortunately, he died at the age of 38, which was very young. Um, but it was carried on by, uh, Jerome Bruner into the whole, um, area of scaffolding and how we can step in and enable a child to reach a higher level of knowledge than they previous, previously had, but then also know when to step back and let children just run with that knowledge and discover things for themselves so that it's not about us giving that knowledge to them. Um, and creativity is also about that sort of whole area of imagination. Stimulating, creative, and cri critical thinking is absolutely crucial in life. It affects everything a child does. It affects everything we do as adults. So for a child to be independent in their choices, in their decision making is brilliant, because then they don't always have to ask, um, somebody else to work out the answer for them, and they don't always expect to do that. So the more we support children's independent thinking through creative activities, um, so we can help 'em to ask, you know, what's important about doing this? How does it work? What happens if I do this? You know, learning cause and effect, which perhaps comes with a slightly older child, um, but just learning about consequences of their actions is a very, very important skill for, for thriving in life, not just for surviving. Um, so it's an example of two children that we worked with in, um, a setting in Greater Manchester. Um, both of these children, uh, were nonverbal insofar as they chose not to use words to express themselves. Um, one of them had a very high, uh, high level anxiety disorder, um, and they were both with friends with each other. So, uh, we were working with some artists early as artists in this particular setting. And, um, we set out these great big drums that we've made from, uh, barrels that we've got from, uh, the Manchester Scrap store. And, um, Shelly, who's the girl on the right hand side, started painting. And, you know, when, when children get all the colors together and start mixing them up, and it sort of ends up being a brown sludge, and that's absolutely brilliant, because they're looking at the process of mixing colors. It's all cause and effect. Um, so don't worry if you just end up with that brown sludge, you'll know that there's been a really interesting process that's got 'em to that stage. Um, so anyway, they've done a lot of mixing of paints. They've got to the brown sludge, as you can see. And of course, Shelly decides that painting the drum is just a bit boring. Now, she's past that stage in her own approximal element, and she hasn't quite gotta to the, the challenging bit yet. So she creates a challenge for herself, and she says to herself, you know what? I wonder what would happen if I just painted my hand? What would happen with that paint all over my hand? And of course, she's doing it with a very thoughtful expression on her face. And Sue on the left sees what Shelly's doing, and she thinks, great, this is brilliant. I'm gonna paint my whole forearm, nevermind my hand. So they've got the paint brushes, and they're applying the paint, and they're, you know, using different motions to get their hands and their arms absolutely covered. And you can see in the top right picture, they are loving this. They're ecstatic with joy about the fact that A, they've probably broken a few rules or, uh, instructions, uh, in terms of what they were, uh, given to do. Um, b it feels strange, you know, having that slimy paint in your fingers, it feels a little bit strange. So that's quite exciting. And c you know, this is just something new that it's innovative, it's something they've discovered that they haven't perhaps done before. And then Shelly, that you can see in the bottom left picture decides, actually, do you know what? I'm gonna take this to the next level. I'm gonna do something completely different. I'm gonna paint my lips. 'cause, you know, my mum puts on her lipstick every morning, so if she can do it, I can do it. So off they go, off they go. Shelly and Sue start painting their lips with the paint and the paintbrush. And you can see in the bottom right hand corner, they are absolutely loving this. But Shelly's decided that she's got some paint on her tongue, and eh, it doesn't taste very nice. Um, and that ends up being the end of that activity. But through that activity, they have shared a language that's really gone way beyond words. You can see in their gestures, in their eyes, in their facial expressions, their whole body language, and in the actual, uh, choice of activity that they're choosing to do, that they're sharing meanings that go way beyond words. And this, for me, is a really good example of where creativity is absolutely fantastic for children with special educational needs or with health, uh, with poor health or with different mental health, um, issues. Having a creative activity to be able to focus on something they enjoy, something they love doing, something they can get immersed in can sometimes be a brilliant way forward for them to articulate and express themselves. And to be honest, nine times outta 10, when we're working with children who choose not to speak verbally, um, when we've worked with them with an artist, they have ended up, uh, verbalizing quite a lot of their expression after a period of time because they, uh, the focus has been taken off what the issue is, and the focus has been put on what they're really enjoying and what really triggers and stimulates their creativity. So I think it's a really important tool for that as well. Um, story building will be something I'm sure you're all familiar with. It's great for developing language. It's great for articulating ideas. Um, if you've got phonemes and graphemes that you're using, um, with language and literacy, um, story stones are brilliant for that. They're great to help children see the shapes of letters. Um, and of course, um, uh, we know that there's research out there to suggest that once children have grasped, grasped the shapes of letters and the way they fit into words, that's a really good indicator of their learning years down the line of their success in learning. So, story is great. Using something as simple as stones helps them to decode the words, helps them to deal with emotions and social situations. And it's also great if you've got children with English as a second language to help 'em, 'em, to see the words, because a lot of our children are very visual learners, and they'll need to see them using their visual center before they can actually articulate it using their verbal center. So it's another way in which we can really help their brains and their bodies draw. And of course, creative movement is brilliant in terms of reinforcing who our children are. You know, it gives children a chance to, to really explore their fantasies and their own worlds, their, their story worlds, and so on their alternative worlds, if you like, which is a place children go to, to help make sense of the real world. Very often, um, when you see children making play scenarios, um, in sort of very fantastical ways, um, it's really often quite a, a a good way of giving children a chance to make sense of events that they've seen in their daily lives, things that they've experienced, but they don't really understand. And what they do is they will create a safe space for themselves, or there is a safe space for them where they feel relaxed and happy in your setting. And then they'll start to explore some of these real life scenarios. So it might be, you know, why mommy and daddy shout to each other this morning, or it might be why they heard something strange on the TV on Coronation Street, or whatever it might be. It's something they might not yet understand because they have developed socially and emotionally, um, the maturity to, to reason that out. But creating those kind of alternative worlds through movements, through role play and story and so on, gives them a chance to do that. And very often you see children create lots which are a real over exaggerations of everyday life. Um, and that's important as well, because it's about harnessing their imaginations in a way that is often ignored in a very structured classroom. And yet it's really fundamental. So where we've got children living in an easily directed culture, where they're more used to passive experiences or directed experiences, you know, these are great ways of stimulating their imagination beyond the functionality of, of everyday things. So we need to kind of move ourselves out of the way, get rid of our inhibitions, and tell our stories through the body so that we can encourage children to do the same. Um, so this is little Daniel whose dog died unfortunately. Um, and his, uh, his mum came in and said to his key worker, um, I wonder if you could just keep an eye on Daniel. Um, we're a little bit worried about him because his dog died on Wednesday, and this was Friday, and he hasn't really said anything about him. Um, um, he was very close to his dog and we're just a bit worried that he hasn't expressed, you know, any emotions about this situation. So obviously the key worker, no problem. And they kept an eye on him. And the whole of the next week went by, no mention of the dog whatsoever. Um, no reference to, uh, you know, this in everyday language or, or in his conversations. Um, and then the following week, the practitioners, um, decided to set up a, a very creative environment with, um, um, foil strips that children were wrapping themselves up in, and particular, uh, materials that children could use for role play. Um, and they had some dressing up clothes, and Daniel decided to put on the ballet dress. Um, he, he decided that that would be his choice to dress up in the ballerina outfit. And he went over to the music area and he picked himself up a tambourine, and he just started twirling. There was some music on in the background, and he started twirling and twirling and twirling to the music. Um, and you could say he'd got circular schema, and he was, you know, he was showing that in the way he was using his body. But actually as he twirled, he started banging the drum, banging the tambourine, and as the music was playing and he was dancing to it, he started to just sing a very simple song about his dog. And he said, you know, my dog died last week. I loved my dog. My dog's dead, and he's now in the garden and he's gone to heaven. And it, it was just a very, very simple song like that. And that was it. And he sang the song, he made it up as he danced, and he danced it out. And then at the end of the session, he put everything away, took his ballet dress off, and just got on with it. And, um, he just seemed to be happier. He seemed to be more peaceful after that. And I think that was a really, really exciting, um, observation for his key worker to be able to say to his mum, you know, he's gone through this whole thing of, of singing it out very, very simply, very calmly in his own way, but that was his way of using that creative experience to express his grief. And he perhaps wouldn't have said anything about his dog had he not had that opportunity to just get lost in the music and in the dance, and just to let that emotion come out. So all of those sort of creative approaches are really, really important. And we need to be able to, um, express ourselves with our whole bodies. You know, our children don't care what we look like, and they certainly don't care what they look like when they're moving and dancing, so we shouldn't either. And there's lots of stories that we can use to enable children to use their whole bodies, um, and to even just use gestures or little hand and feet movements or the whole of their gross motor, um, skills, their coordination, their balance, and so on. All of those very physical, um, skills are being developed when we help children move, and particularly when we're helping them move, uh, story that they're very familiar with. So you've all watched, um, that fantastic video of, uh, dancer Jay Pollett, um, working with a, a primary school in Nottingham. And he was working with, uh, four and five year olds, uh, many of which have lots and lots of challenges, um, both in their home life and with their ability to learn in different ways, ways. Um, and that was why they asked Jay to come in to just play with the children through movement and dance, and to see how well the children could learn to communicate using their whole bodies. And you will have seen from that, uh, recording, I mean, it's just one of my favorite pieces of video to watch the way he enables children to respond using their bodies and to speak a beautiful language of dance just by modeling the dance for and with them at the same time as them. Um, and to use all of that sort of very nonverbal language. But how expressive were they? You know, we saw incredible expressions right through to, um, the little chap in red on, on Jay's right hand side on our left as we watched the video, didn't quite get the idea of, of sitting up on his haunches. And Jay didn't say to him, now this is what you do. You, you lift your bottom up on your knee and stand, sit up on your knees. He just showed him several times, very patiently so that the little boy would understand through his body how to do that action, because telling him the words could go into his brain, but that wouldn't have any impact. Jay was really keen to help him develop his physical body language to be able to move and express himself. And he did that absolutely beautifully. And the other thing to say about that video is that, um, how brilliant were the staff? I mean, they were amazing. They did leave their inhibitions behind, um, and they were, you know, some of them were right outta their comfort zone, but they were moving beautifully. And so inspiring for the children, because the one message that gives to the children is that this is a valid form of being, you know, this is absolutely valid. What you are doing, the way you are moving, the way you're using your bodies, the way you're enjoying getting immersed in this dance is completely valid. Um, and, and take being taken seriously. So that's a very important match for the children. So dance is really important for that. Um, music and singing is really important. Um, and there's a lot of neuroscience now that shows that, um, the part of the brain that is activated when children play music or sing, is the same part of the brain that is activated for different mathematical processes. So things like creating patterns and sequences, um, looking at how shapes and spaces work together, spatial awareness, they're all firing neurons in the same path of the brain that you do when you're using music and doing the same sort of work on patterns and rhythms and sequences and tones and so on. So that's really exciting because for me, that shows us how fundamentally important it is for us to offer those, uh, musical and creative opportunities for children, because it just has an impact on so many other parts of their learning, and it's just helping them solve problems all the time as well. Um, we've talked a little bit about stories, um, and drawing is really important as well, because it, it just helps children to create symbols to make sense of things. And there you go. There's my daughter that you can see sticking her tongue out, uh, while she's drawing. She used to love drawing, and in fact, she could hold a pencil very, very early on, um, before she could move with my son. It was the other way around. He wants to move all the time, uh, which is very common in boys that their sense of physical development comes first and then their cognitive development and fine motor development comes later. Um, but it's really important to have that opportunity to draw and to make marks so that children can recognize their feelings and can really help to manage their emotions. Um, Angela NINGs written a brilliant book on children's drawings, and she says, when a young child draws, they're offering us a window into their developing understanding of the world and their relationships to significant people things and places around them. And I think that's a lovely way of understanding it. Um, and Vivian Gus Paley, who's an early years teacher, uh, in America, um, or she's retired now, she used to be, she wrote a fantastic book called The Boy Who Would Be a Helicopter, which I definitely recommend you read. It's quite thin, it's very quick to read, and it's just so inspiring. And she shows how young children's stories express deep and significant ideas, ideas that we might miss if we are not actually enabling them to tell their own stories. Um, perhaps not verbally, but in all sorts of different languages. So it's always interesting to, to see how young children do use very creative languages. And of course, lo Malaguzzi, who was the founder of the Reggio Amelia approach in northern Italy, talked about children having a hundred languages, by which he didn't mean, you know, French and German and Spanish and Italian, he meant the ways in which children express themselves physically through the gesture, through different art forms, through even just a slight twitch of the hand, or a slight movement of the foot. You know, it's enough for them to know that a child is thinking about something or wants to respond to something, particularly as I say, with special educational needs children. If we, if it's, if there's a a an obstacle in the way of them being able to articulate what they want to say, it's really, really important that we give them a voice through other means. And of course, the creativity is a, is a brilliant way to do that. So, in summary, um, creativity helps children to become confident and motivated. It supports their emotional wellbeing, very good mental health. It helps 'em with their communication skills to express their thoughts, their emotions, their feelings. And it helps 'em to build respectful and positive relationships. Because by expressing themselves and then listening to others express themselves, they're starting to build that sense of empathy. And they're sharing ideas with each other, sharing those experiences. It's a great way of giving them chance to innovate, to experiment with new ideas, new techniques and materials. And as we've seen, you know, lots of children experiment with the properties and materials, particularly with malleable materials and paint and that sort of thing. They're developing their own sense of identity, that individuality, making their mark on the world, not just seeing what, how the world works around them, but how they fit in inside it, both on a local level and at a community level. It helps 'em with teamwork. You know, story building and role play is just brilliant for teamwork and helping them to take turns and to wait for others to be patient, to make choices. All of those critical collaboration skills that they're going to need in life. And we've talked a lot about, um, the, the idea of curiosity and independent thinking. And that's so important, having that critical sense so that they can make choices because they can map out the opportunities and the options that are right in front of them. But it's also about having fun. And I can't stress this highly enough. You know, creativity isn't, doesn't need to be extremely hard work or very challenging or particularly skilled. It, it's got to be about having fun so that we can really motivate ourselves as much as motivating our children as well. So this is about believing in ourselves as confident and creative leaders of our children's learning. And at the end of the day, that's really important that we can move our practice on as educators, as well as helping our children progress. And it starts with us enjoying our natural creative abilities as storytellers, as story makers. Some of us might be crafters, some of us might be dancers, some of us might be singers, whatever it is, we can really use that for our greatest potential in the early years environment and really help our children to see that that's a valid and important way of being. So don't be put off by the terms imagination, arts, creativity, fantasy, play, role play, make believe, whatever it is, they're all just processes of learning. They've got different techniques, different skills behind them. We can learn some skills more easily than others, but it's all about processes of learning. And they all have a very real and a very tangible impact on young children's learning. So we should enjoy it as much as they do. And in my experience, once adults experience the power of the arts and of being creative, it really has an impact on our own confidence, on our own self-belief, and on our power to think creatively and to act independently. And once we get that sense, it becomes much easier to recreate that environment for our children. So I like to say that smart settings nurture a culture of creativity. So that's it. I'm nearly finished. I'm just gonna say that we've got lots and lots of creative learning packs on our website. Um, and those are all 50% off just over the Black Friday, cyber Cyborg Monday, whatever you wanna call it. But it'll be for the next couple of weeks anyway. So there's 20 packs, um, one in each art form that you can go in and have a look at. But don't look at all obliged to spend any money and do try before you buy because we've got a free sample pack on den building on the website. So go and fill your boots, download that, have a go. Um, that's our most popular pack and I know that lots of will will already be into that sort of thing anyway. And another freebie, 'cause we love freebies. Uh, we've got this 10 top tips to improve your creative teaching. So if you'd like to download that, please feel free. It's got 10 different activities that you can use with your children or just to, um, inspire yourselves and just have a go on building collections, working with color, uh, looking at musical environments, looking at outdoor play environments, all of that sort of thing. So go, um, yes, the website's there, early arts.co.uk/creativity-guide. Um, so sign up for that and download it. There's loads and loads and loads of free resources and research on early Arts co uk and it's there for you guys to use. There's no money that's needed. There's no subscription. It's all completely free. So please do, um, fill your boots, as I say, and just enjoy, um, looking at, um, at all the different resources that there are. Um, and finally I'm just going to end with a, a lovely quote by a creativity guru called Charles Handy who said creativity is not solely about the new. It also involves opening ourselves out to ideas, influencers, and resources that are all around us that we cannot control totally. Yet that can be harnessed, making our lives richer and more sustainable. And I just love that because I think it sums up everything that I believe passionately Mm-hmm. About how important creativity is for all of us. That's it. Thank you very much. Thank you, Kate. Thank you. Thank you. No, that was great. That was great. And the quote's really nice actually because it fits really well with a lot of what the teachers are doing that they're just picking up everyday items and creating stories from them. So that's great. And I think as well, I probably want to say about the schools is that we found that the early adopters in terms of tells toolkit, are probably some of the most creative schools. 'cause they're the people that are innovative and willing to take on new ideas. So the people that are here, I think are very open to all of this, which is great. So, so yeah, well, well done to all the schools I think that have taken it on. So I just wanna say thank Absolutely, yes, you for that. Yeah. So brilliant. Yeah. But no, lots and lots of interesting things that you're saying there. So, um, I'm just wondering if anybody's got any, any questions that they'd like to ask. Just before we go, um, I know that, um, Charlotte Prince was asking about, um, if there's anything else you wanna add in terms of challenging children. I know you touched quite a lot in terms of children with special needs and, um, with kinda behavior problems and stuff, but is there any kind of top tip in terms of challenging children? Um, I think one of the best things with, to use with, um, challenging children is, uh, role play. So that, um, when you've got a child that's, uh, displaying challenging behaviors, it's more often than not a demonstration of an unmet need and to get to the bottom of what that need is, and therefore to meet that need, um, you can often turn it around and ask the child to act out the situation that they've just, uh, challenged if you like. So if you, um, perhaps offer them some props, some accessories, like a hat, a bag, a scarf, a piece of material to wrap round themselves to become a character. And then they can put themselves, uh, they can put their situation in a more objective scenario and just ask them to pick a couple of friends and to act out that situation that they've just created and ask them to come up with the ideal solution to that, that situation. So if they're grabbing something, if they're drawing all over somebody else's, um, um, drawing, if they're kicking somebody, just just bring them into a space, uh, give them some props and just ask them to act out what they've just done. Mm-Hmm. And it just absolutely remarkably quickly changes around the way they see what they're doing. And it really helps 'em to develop a sense of empathy because they're seeing it objectively for what it is, even if they, you know, become a character to do it. And you can ask them the questions about how do, how do you think this could, uh, have a, a nice ending? How could this have a good ending this story? Um, and just get them to think themselves about different ways of behaving, because if you are telling them how to behave, they're not actually owning it, but if they're discovering how to behave and, and what elicits a much better response from the other children in that story, then they're taking ownership of that, that behavior. So, yeah. Mm-Hmm. I would say use role play. It's great for that. Brilliant. And I think also, I think in role play, you often find that for a lot of the children with challenging behavior, there might be things going on for them at home that lead to that. And often through role play, you can find out a lot more about what's going on for them at home. So, so yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, I think that's an interesting one. So, so yeah. Thank you, Ruth. Thank you for kind of sticking with us for a little bit longer too, so, so yeah, it's really interesting tonight. Yeah. A big thank you. And thank you for everyone that came along. Brilliant. Thanks so much, Kate. Thanks everyone. Bye-Bye. Yeah.