Child Designers - opening them up to their creative potential

One of the keys to high levels of engagement with children is inviting them to participate in activities that they can see have real world applications. When we allow them to 'act as if' in a lesson, they jump right in - and we see individual expression, creativity and imagination explode.

In this unit, these beautiful students were given the opportunity to work as designers across a period of 6 weeks. They were able to come up with their own fabric-based design and create a written plan (conceptual design, translation of idea to 2D), then a pattern (spatial awareness, proportion, scale, measurement). Next, students had to budget for and source their materials (planning, financial management, mathematics, organisational skills), before sewing the sample of their product (2D to 3D, manual life skills, problem solving, resilience, adaptability, success).

Don't underestimate the power of activities such as these. They empower children to see themselves as creators who can act upon the world, bring ideas into the physical and design things that have real world application.