In Monday’s Creative Explorers class the tamariki were making yarn letters: wrapping yarn around large cardboard shapes. They could choose different yarns, colours and textures, but the activity itself was a little less open-ended than most of our sessions.
Towards the end of class I noticed a child squishing her finished letter V so the lower part bent inward.
“What is your plan?” I asked.
“I’m making furniture,” she said. “I’m making a chair.”
Now, in school (and, I dare say, in far too many art classes) that would often be considered wrong. I mean, we were making yarn letters, weren’t we?
But how could I possibly see fault in what she’d done? She wasn’t ignoring instructions out of stubbornness…she was inventing, adapting and giving purpose to the materials in front of her.
She was doing three beautiful things at once: experimenting with form, solving a practical problem, and following an idea that mattered to her.
Looking closer, this is what happened:
She was experimenting = testing what yarn and cardboard could become.
She was problem-solving = bending the V just the right way to create a stable seat.
She was taking agency = making something meaningful to her, not just something that’s “correct.”
Too often, there is still this common misbelief that when children repurpose a task, they’re being “naughty” – when instead, they’re thinking. They’re learning how to transfer skills, how to imagine alternatives, how to be resourceful. Qualities we want them to develop and carry throughout their life: creative confidence, adaptability, and agency.
What does this mean for us as teachers and parents? Here are three small changes that make a big difference:
- Notice before you correct. Ask “What is your plan?” and really listen.
- Create flexible expectations. Give a clear prompt while welcoming deviations.
- Provide materials and a space that encourage tinkering, experimentation, and play – not perfection.
If we make every activity a narrow “right” answer, we teach compliance. If we let tamariki bend a letter into a chair, we teach possibility.
And with that, happy playing and creating,
Franzi
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I’m Franzi, a teacher, creative, and a child-at-heart. I’m on a mission to keep children’s (and your) creativity & joy for making alive. If you enjoyed this post and want to support what I do, pick one of these right now:
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