An atmosphere of joy and happiness provides a motivating environment for Creative Learning. Experiments have shown that the development of brain in a child is 25% more, if he/she is brought up in an atmosphere of love and happiness, than in an atmosphere of stress and strain. Main concern in this regard is to develop a system, where one can learn with joy. How can we create such a condition? One of the lessons we have learnt from our past experiences is to create learning occasions in the form of games. So, games may provide a clue to the actual nature of activities for CLM. APCL has tried to design most of its learning activities in the form of games as far as possible.

It is now well recognized that learning is a whole time activity all through the life. Hence, the basic objective of any creative teaching/learning methodology should be to prepare a learner to develop capacity for this continued journey for learning.

One of the serious defects of the present education system is that it only promotes individualization. Each learner is considered a separate entity with almost nothing common with others. But, in actual life situation, seldom work is done individually. With increasing sophistication in almost all walks of life, we are going to face more and more complexities. Such complexities can be handled only by groups and not by individuals. It has also now been more or less established that group cooperative skills are different from individualistic skills and as such should be attended separately. The introduction of a sense of excessive competition leads to alienation, which, at times, proves to be a barrier in the development of group spirit. Hence, Creative Learning Methodology requires development of skills pertaining to team formation, team spirit, and teamwork.

Each intelligence method has a set of symbols and patterns, which help us in learning through a particular mode of intelligence. For example, the verbal intelligence use words as symbols, spatial intelligence use pictures as symbols, and so on. It would be important to learn the symbols of various intelligence and the art of their arrangement in patterns for effective communication.

As individual competition has led to feeling of success to a few and failure to maximum people, more and more group activities and group competition should be organized at the school. As managerial skills are going to be important, managerial skills should also be taught from early classes in the forms of games and activities. They have also been linked with the evaluation methods to bring seriousness.

Based on Yogic methods of learning, APCL has developed unique Visualization exercises to develop processes of Mental Image Making. These exercises help learners to develop power of concentration, memory and imagination. It further helps them to have better emotional control, which is now considered to be so vital for achieving success in life.

Learning can be best, if they can be linked with their emotions. Hence, activities are linked with the emotions of learners and are performed in a festive mood. For this purpose traditional games played in different parts of world have been studied and the lessons have been linked with them. Different activities have been linked with the traditional festivals. A well-defined plan is followed to teach emotional management to the learner. Entire environment in the school is kept informal. Learners address teachers and other staff as uncle/ auntie. Creative excellence can be attained only in an atmosphere of total freedom.

It is said that a child is born creative, but he remains creative till he goes to school. There is a natural tendency of every child to explore nature, try out innovations and work for a personalized solution. But in the school this tendency is not encouraged. In the rote learning system a child is expected to learn whatever is taught in the class and reproduce them whenever he is asked to do so. This kills the natural creative instinct. APCL tries to sustain the creative spirit through various well thought-out activities. Learners are expected to be engaged in their creative pursuit by designing new games, toys, and items from day-to-day waste. Learners are also expected to compose/write poems, stories, etc. right from Std. I. They are also be expected to design and construct new items of their aptitude in every term. The skill of creativity and innovation forms an important competency for monitoring and evaluation.

Creative Teaching/Learning Methodology requires development of competency where creativity can become a habit. For this purpose APCL has adopted a program called APCL Charter to inculcate the habit of creativity.

APCL believes that teaching is effective only if it leads to self-learning. Children should be given opportunity to master the art of learning. This way they would be able to utilize entire time available at their disposal right from cradle to grave. It believes that a school should prepare the learners for this onward march on the path of learning. For this purpose APCL believes that :

• Every occasion is a learning occasion.
• Every person, animate and inanimate object in the world is a learning object, learning facilitator and learner.

In this sense APCL believes in working towards the formation of a Learning Society.

Games basically provide a good opportunity to perform an activity in an atmosphere of joy. It is always played in a joyful atmosphere. Although seriousness is introduced by introducing competitive elements into games; however, joyfulness is never allowed to be lost. When children play games, they have to continuously face new situations. As such they also get an exposure of handling new situations. This way it facilitates development of creativity in children.

Games basically serve various purposes:

• Learning to experiment, explore and discover
• Learning to play together and cooperate
• Learning to use their own hands and other loco-motor system
• Learning to use one's imagination and memory in a creative way
• Learning to live with successes and failures in right spirit
• Learning to be self-confident and self-reliant
• Learning to handle emotions and relationship in a better way

Now, as children love playing games, it would be better to design activities in the form of games. In this connection, it would be important to note that children in different age groups like to play different types of games. Initially, children love any kind of kinesthetic activity. If a small child is asked to run and count the number of trees in garden, he will perform the task with great happiness. He will consider it to be a fun. But, if grown older, he may not like such running around, but he may love games dodging other children. He may love to solve mysteries. The nature of games may change, but still love for games is never dwindled. Children never get tired of games. So, to attain creative flow, activities in the form of games are the best forums for learning. All activities have been converted into this mode as far as possible without sacrificing the real content of learning.

Inquisitiveness and curiosity holds the key to creative learning. Curiosity is basically a self-propelling lubricant, which keeps on inducing a person towards self-learning. A child is by birth inquisitive. This curiosity has to be sustained. Mihali Csikszentmihalyi has suggested an interesting curiosity development plan. APCL has found that learning the art of questioning may provide a forum to such curiosity development plan. APCL believes that it is not only important to know the art of answering (as is being done in the normal schools today), it is rather more important to master the art of questioning. Questioning guides the path of thinking- both convergent and divergent and thus gives direction to curiosity. Therefore, the school teaches art of Questioning and evaluates the growth in it.

As the learning through activities is most durable, APCL has evolved a system of learning, which involves learning through different kinds of activities involving:

• Books
• Physical activities
• Games
• Stories
• Projects
• Pictures
• Rhymes & Music
• Role Play
• Exhibitions
• Computers
• Discussions
• Debate
• Children Parliament
• Excursions

Although books are important agents for transfer of knowledge, they are not taken to be the only agents of such transfer. Other materials are also used properly to ignite the flare of learning. Investigative methods are be used to promote inquisitiveness. Even Science and Mathematics are taught through activities involving joy and exploration.