• Create an art center in your classroom where children can freely explore and discover on their own with easy materials kept accessible for them. All you need is a table next to low shelves filled with tubs of supplies like crayons, glue, staplers, tape, scissors, scraps, colored paper, and collections of collage materials. Allow independent access based on the age of the children you teach. Older kids will have more materials and more freedom than younger ones, but younger kids can definitely work independently. Add a paint easel and tub of playdough to expand the possibilities.
• Emphasize the enjoyment and the value of the "process" of creating art, more than the results or the finished product. The finished results of a young child's work are not as important to that child as the exploration and experimentation that went into creating them. Products are usually an adult value, and once kids know they can explore and discover on their own, they stop worrying about how things must look. For example, a child may mix all the colors of the rainbow and make a brown smooshy painting. But think about what he saw and learned as he mixed all those colors together. The brown painting may not be much to look at, but the process he went through was thrilling for him, opening possibilities in creativity and thinking. It is important to add that children should expect to "make mistakes." It is in finding solutions or modifying their experiences that will make the value of creativity most evident.