Crafts: Empowering Creativity in Elementary School

My name is Maria Hung, and I am the Director of Elementary Education.  I was one of the founding teachers when the program opened three years ago. I teach Math, Gardening and Crafts.

This is the second semester that I am honored to hold space for Crafts. What I love the most about this class is the fluidity, as every class the students have the opportunity to explore their artistry, voice their ideas, and reaffirm their uniqueness.

Because we gather as a whole group with ages ranging from six to ten years old, this semester the classes offer stations with a variety of activities: free painting with tempera or watercolors, free drawing, mandalas or zentangle coloring sheets, origami, rock painting, jewelry, light catchers, creating fortune tellers, sculpting using modeling clay, making playdough from scratch, making a toy using recycled materials, and finger knitting.

I am impressed with the ease our students have embraced the rhythm of our sessions. Some students, especially our younger friends of group A, want to explore the multiple stations available while the older students of group B have started to focus on just one activity to fully devote their time, creativity and attention to detail to their creations.

This layout has been the platform for our older students to step into leadership as some of them have expressed the intention to lead a station for the younger friends, or to bring ideas of projects after reading a book during circle time.

Willow led a station teaching how to make a Fortune Teller with great success! Waylon and Graham practiced their spelling in the cute messages they wrote.

Peter Hamilton Reynolds is one of my favorite children’s authors, and when we read The Dot, one student shared the idea to spend a Craft class coloring and drawing dots to remember that we all are artists and to celebrate our creative spirits.

I am looking forward to finishing this fall semester full of wonder!