Art in 3-d for elementary classes

Artus Erea has written a post in which  “creativity” is seen as separate from “art.” I agree. They are indeed two sides of a coin, and teaching and schools for the most part weight the coin on the “art” side. We can fomulate a curriculum and write lessons and structure classrooms to teach the history, the skills and the elements of art, but creativity cannot really be taught. While I hope that I can facilitate creativity, I know that for a student to really be allowed to be creative can often be inconvenient to me as a teacher of many. The project may take too long, or not fit on the shelf, or make too big a mess to allow the next class to come in and work. My goal has to be to be open to the creative ideas of my students and do what I can to encourage them, while still teaching the skills of art through which they can be expressed.