ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the exploring the purpose of planning: long, medium, and short-term, planning approaches suited to the early years to capture and nurture creativity – cross-curricular, emergent, and 'in the moment' and assessing for creativity through the formative tool of observations. Short term planning, sometimes known as weekly planning, brings together a collection of children's individual observations, group observations, children's interests, and parent contributions. In the early years, planning tends to be holistic and aimed towards individuals: their skills, their interests, and their capabilities. Dr James Paul Gee states that human beings learn from experiences – our brains can store every experience we have had, and that's what informs our learning process. Creativity and its process should be assessed, not only to observe its impact, but to prove that creativity has a vital role in children's learning. Observation is a tool of formative assessment and the best approach for understanding if and how children are learning creatively.
