Last Friday, pupils were off timetable taking part in a carousel of activities for Crescent School’s Growth Mindset Day. Pupils were encouraged to think, approach and participate creatively as they took part in enrichment sessions to develop their skills in different ways.
You can read about some of their challenges and activities below and watch a short video of all the fun here: Growth Mindset Day
In RP they got creative with a range of construction equipment with a challenge to build a shelter for a small Lego figure. The children selected their equipment of choice and set to work, individually, in pairs and in small groups. It gave the children great collaborative opportunities, and it was wonderful to see and hear so many ideas being shared. Some offered suggestions and shared their experiences as they showed us what they'd made. They tackled challenges such as including a roof, shelter height, size and doorways and adopted a growth mindset as they adapted and amended their work to make improvements to meet the challenge.
Their physical challenge for Growth Mindset Day was to keep running around the playground perimeter and see how many laps they could do. It didn't take long before little legs started to get tired and there were lots of opportunity to talk about strategies to keep going when it got tricky - amongst the children's ideas were slowing down, walking for a while, having a drink, encouraging your friends and walking as a group to make it more fun. Everyone had to find a way that worked for them to complete an extra lap when it got tough. There was lots of talk throughout the day of their colourful brains and not being able to do things yet!
Class 1SS had to build bridges that a toy car could travel across. The creative use of tape, lollipop sticks, card and wood led to the design and build of three original bridges. The children were innovative and solved problems quickly. Great excitement was had at the end of the session as two out of three cars successfully made their journey across! In their physical task, the children were given the same pieces of equipment and had to design their own game and present how to play, how to score points and ultimately, how to win. They continued their creativity in the classroom by being imaginative with a ‘it’s not a cup’ activity. The children crafted things such as a castle, a rocket and even a turkey out of a paper cup! They had to think carefully about their design and how they were going to construct their ideas.
Class 1LS had an extremely enjoyable and productive day. They began by talking about their grey and colourful brains and then embarked on a range of activities which explored their ‘having a try’ and ‘yet’ outlooks. The children had to use only an A4 sized sheet of foil to make a boat for a family of Compare Bears to float in, which didn’t sink! There was lots of experimenting with different shapes and sizes and there was lots of perseverance and resilience shown when some boats sank initially. The children also worked with Mr Stapleton in small teams to solve problems together. They had to move a golf ball using only gutter pipes, to make it roll into a bucket. They also had to find their way successfully across a crocodile infested swamp! Everyone felt a little out of the comfort zone at times, but the children loved every minute and enjoyed the challenges.
Children in Year 2 embraced the activities on Growth Mindset Day and developed their understanding of positive thinking and the impact it can have on their learning and friendships. Mrs Mercer's assembly story of Walt Disney's knockbacks, resilience and subsequent success inspired them to consider their own strengths and qualities and things to be grateful for. They loved the working together, including the practical team challenges presented by Mr Stapleton, and understood that they are better together. We hope that you are beginning to see this growth mindset in their language and attitudes out of school too.
In 3Y the children used a range of resources to help them solve maths problems which had a variety of different answers. They had a think about the positive thoughts that can keep their mind growing and designed colourful brains. They imagined what they would do if we had a Yes Day where the answers to every request and question was YES!
Together, Year 3 and 4 were challenged to put their amazing imaginations to the test by creating fantastic and mythical creatures using advanced photo editing software. They then used their creations to compose a short play using the Puppet Pals app. Both classes had a wonderful time exploring their creative areas of the brain and rising to new challenges.
Class 4M really enjoyed using their 'colourful brains' last Friday, and they completed a range of activities and challenges. They kicked off the day with the 'Tangram Task'. The children learnt about the ancient mathematical activity, where they are given seven different shapes, all different sizes and colours, and they attempt to create different pictures using all of the shapes. They attempted an apple, a candle, a horse, a turtle, and many more. Some of them were even able to create a square with an arrow inside it, which was a real challenge. We have some wonderful pictures of their creations.
Next, they brainstormed some inspirational words for motivation, all around the Growth Mindset feelings - they came up with, 'I am unique', 'I am brave', 'I meet challenges’, and 'I show resilience', to name but a few. They them made their own 'Fortune Tellers', illustrating them with their positive affirmations.
Lastly, over the weekend, the children completed the 'Imagination Workout' - a creative activity where they had a grid of twelve squares, each with a mark or shape inside. The challenge was to turn these marks into pictures and images as creatively as possible. Mrs Monteith was amazed at the results; the children did a fantastic job, and their images will make an eye-catching display.
Class 5F challenged their creative side by reading a story and changing elements to devise a new story. Some children loved this freedom of imagination whilst others had to dig deeper into their growth mindset and recognise, they did have the creative skills.
Class 6W and 5F were presented with a physical challenge - in groups of six, the teams had to lower a long cane to the ground, using only one finger on each hand of each pupil. The groups found it tough at first as the cane kept rising instead of being lowered. Those teams who were successful believed it was possible, showed great resilience every time it went wrong, tried and tried again and used positive vocal encouragement to each other until they lowered the cane to the ground and successfully completed the challenge.
These classes also met the Compose and Create strands by producing a way of promoting growth mindset to others: we had TV adverts, poems, raps and songs. The children enjoyed working collaboratively, having to agree and direct the group to a finished piece. There were some memorable presentations with some very catchy tunes!
In Music pupils explored the Compose strand by choosing and ordering sounds. They chose from a selection of body sounds, such as clap, stamp, click fingers or slap knees. They then experimented with them, getting faster or slower, louder and quieter, adding an ending and even doing them in reverse order. Pupils discovered that composing music is a lot simpler than they thought and were rather pleased to discover that they can call themselves composers!
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed Growth Mindset Day, it really focused their thoughts on how much they can all achieve by thinking positively and creatively.