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Creativ it y in the
Primary Classroom
SAGE was founded in 1965 by Sara Miller McCune to support
the dissemination of usable knowledge by publishing innovative
and high-quality research and teaching content. Today, we
publish more than 850 journals, including those of more than
300 learned societies, more than 800 new books per year, and
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case studies, reports, and video. SAGE remains majority-owned
by our founder, and after Sara’s lifetime will become owned by
a charitable trust that secures our continued independence.
Creativ it y in the
Primary Classroom
Juliet Desailly
SAGE Publications Ltd Juliet Desailly 2015
1 Oliver’s Yard
55 City Road First edition published 2012
London EC1Y 1SP
This second edition published 2015
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CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Juliet Desailly has worked in Education for over thirty years. Having trained
originally as a specialist drama teacher and then working in Theatre-in-Education,
when she became a primary teacher she brought a range of different teaching
and learning methods to her work.
Juliet worked in Inner London primary schools for over twenty years,
refining and adapting the primary curriculum to suit the children she taught –
integrating social and emotional skills within the curriculum, emphasising the
children’s identity and culture, and raising self-esteem by providing an inclusive
curriculum for all learners.
As well as her teaching and work in Theatre-in-Education Juliet has been a
Humanities adviser and a deputy head teacher. After seven years as a lecturer
at the Institute of Education on the Primary PGCE course, she now works as
a consultant in creativity and curriculum planning.
Juliet has written a large amount of educational material, including two
series of Infant History for BBC Radio and materials for the Education
Department’s Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) resource. Her
viii ABOUT THE AUTHOR
first children’s book, Ma’at’s Feather, a story set in Ancient Egypt, and a set
of accompanying cross-curricular lesson ideas, were published in 2008, and
Juliet travels the country offering talks and practical workshops to primary
school classes based on the book.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It has been an interesting task updating this second edition. So much has
changed in schools in recent years and yet, at the time of writing, there
seems to be a sense of primary schools holding their breath and waiting to
see what will happen next. I sincerely hope that what does happen is that
teachers can look towards the future confident that exploring and extending
their own and their pupils’ creativity will improve that future for everyone.
Yet again I need to acknowledge the enormous help, encouragement and
support of my family. More thanks than I can say are due to my husband,
Alan, and daughters, Rossy and Nancy, for their patience when I was stressed,
for reading and commenting wisely on the manuscript, for their interest and
enthusiasm, and not least for their huge moral support.
Primary school teachers are by nature borrowers and adaptors of ideas and
information. I have spent over thirty years in the company of other teachers
and students, listening, watching, discussing and always picking up ideas to
try to adapt to my own uses. As such, I cannot possibly remember or give
credit individually to all those amazing teachers young and old whose crea-
tivity and inventiveness have contributed to the ideas in this book. All I can
say is a blanket ‘thank you’ to every child I have taught, every student I have
observed, and every colleague I have worked with for all I have gained from
x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
you. I hope I have passed it on usefully in my turn. To John Cook and Jill
Bonner, the head teachers who particularly fostered and valued my creativity
as a teacher, many thanks.
All my former colleagues at the Institute of Education were generous
with their interest and support. Particular thanks go to Anne Robertson, the
Primary PGCE course leader, for giving her time so generously, particularly
on the ideas for the Further Study sections.
Finally, many thanks to James Clark, Rachael Plant and all the staff at SAGE
Publications for their patience, advice and hard work in the production of
this book.
SAGE would like to thank the following reviewers, whose comments helped
to shape this new edition:
(Continued)
xii TEACHERS’ STANDARDS REFERENCE TABLE
(Continued)
xiv TEACHERS’ STANDARDS REFERENCE TABLE
(Continued)
The classroom ideas and classroom examples boxes and case studies include
practical teaching ideas, examples and lesson plans to use in the following
subjects or skill sets:
just one element in the education of every child’ and that it ‘provides an outline
of core knowledge around which teachers can develop exciting and stimulat-
ing lessons’ (DfE, 2014: 6). In criticising the previous National Curriculum for
‘squeezing out room for innovation, creativity, deep learning and intellectual
exploration’ (DfE, 2010: 40) the White Paper implicitly supported these aspects.
With less content and these assurances this is surely the time for teachers to
take the opportunity to develop and practise teaching methods that will inspire
young people and allow for deeper learning.
To strike a balance between all the constituent parts of both the National
Curriculum and the broader curriculum, to find teaching methods that inspire
and motivate young people to learn deeply and well will be a challenge for
teachers joining the profession, and for more experienced teachers as well.
They will have to be flexible and to learn new skills in the way they plan and
teach, but it will also give the opportunity for teaching and learning that are
exciting and fulfilling for children and teachers alike.
Defining creativity
Creativity has always proved hard to define, both in education and in its
wider contexts. However, it has also been something that has been thought
valuable and worth promoting. A search for ‘benefits of creativity’ on the
internet will result in countless examples of business, psychology, health,
philosophy and education claiming the importance of encouraging creativity.
The first aim of the 1999 National Curriculum (known as Curriculum 2000)
states, ‘… the curriculum should enable pupils to think creatively and criti-
cally, to solve problems and to make a difference for the better. It should give
them the opportunity to become creative, innovative, enterprising and capa-
ble of leadership to equip them for their future lives as workers and citizens’
(DfEE/QCA, 1999). During the first decade of the twenty-first century there
were several developments designed to foster and promote creativity, includ-
ing a joint-department review called Nurturing Creativity in Young People
(DCMS/ DfES, 2006) and the report and teachers’ resources Creativity: Find it,
Promote it (QCA, 2005).
Teachers have long been aware of the importance to children’s learning
of the spark of creativity in children’s descriptions and art work: ‘It’s like a
rainbow was caught and shining in his eye’. They see how children invent
methods for problem solving or find patterns in data or images. They relish
the enthusiasm and intense concentration children show when involved in
exploring materials or mixing ingredients, but these moments of classroom
magic have often seemed at odds with the drive to raise standards. The
research and understanding of the benefits of creativity and creative learning
are still often sidelined or ignored.
INTRODUCTION 3
In the final report of the Cambridge Primary Review, which was published
in 2010, the director of the review, Professor Robin Alexander, commented
that in submissions to the review ‘the words “creative” and “creativity”
appeared ... more frequently than almost any others’. He continued that
the words ‘invariably were regarded positively. The words were also used
somewhat loosely’ (Alexander, 2010: 226). This ‘loose’ terminology sees the
term ‘creativity’ used to describe arts subject areas, cross-curricular plan-
ning, working without preconceived outcomes, creative teaching, children’s
creativity ... and this list is not exclusive.
Mathilda Marie Joubert agrees that ‘creativity is a very elusive concept to
define, and even when defined, it is interpreted in a variety of different ways’
(2001: 29), and argues that we do not have a shared language for creativ-
ity. Despite these difficulties, creativity returns again and again in both what
schools and teachers want to provide for their pupils and what industry and
successive governments want in the workforce.
Defining terms in education today is a matter of some significance; there
have been countless debates as to what is meant by domains and subjects,
knowledge and understanding, skills and concepts, to name but a few. The
politicisation of education has led to the polarisation of viewpoints and vari-
ous ‘camps’ have emerged. In the discourse, creativity has often been equated
with progressivism or even ‘sloppiness’.
However, educational theorists in recent years, working alongside psy-
chologists and neuroscientists, have actually defined quite clearly where
creativity sits within education and it is far from its connotations as lacking
rigour or ‘anything goes’. Joubert states, ‘We have to reclaim the meaning of
the word “creativity”. Creativity should be rigorous, it is grounded in knowl-
edge and skills and there should be a balance between freedom and control
in all creative activities’ (2001: 30). This is not to say that scholarly debates
do not continue, but even if we are still not decided as to whether creativity
is an ‘intelligence’ or a ‘state of mind’ (Lucas, 2001: 40), we are able to cate-
gorise creativity in education into its three distinct parts – teaching creatively,
learning creatively and teaching to develop creativity – and to recognise the
key elements, strengths and benefits of these three approaches and how to
acquire and develop the knowledge and skills to use them appropriately in
the classroom.
There is a strong argument (see Jeffrey and Craft, 2001) that creative teaching
is actually ‘effective teaching’. Amongst the ‘noticeable characteristics’ of
outstanding student teachers in the Ofsted criteria published in 2008 are the
following:
4 CREATIVITY IN THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM
• ‘… take risks when trying to make teaching interesting, are able to deal
with the unexpected’;
• ‘… show innovative and creative thinking’;
• ‘… have the ability to reflect critically and rigorously on their own
practice to inform their professional development, and to take and
evaluate appropriate actions’.
As will be seen from the subsequent chapters in this book, these are key
elements of creativity themselves. Becoming a teacher who is able to teach
creatively and encourage pupils to learn creatively and develop their own
creativity is also to become a highly effective teacher.
Anna Craft also argues that ‘in a constructivist frame, learning and creativ-
ity are close, if not identical’ (Craft, 2005: 61) and that teaching for creativity
is ‘learner empowerment’. The (2010) Ofsted report, Learning: Creative
Approaches that Raise Standards, focused on schools that used creative
approaches to teaching and learning and their effectiveness in raising stand-
ards of education. The report was clear that effective creative teaching and
learning were rigorous and well organised: ‘Careful planning had ensured
that the prescribed curriculum content for each subject was covered within
a broad and flexible framework and key skills were developed. These exam-
ples were accompanied by better than average achievement and standards
or a marked upward trend’ (2010: 5). Ofsted reported that for ‘schools in this
survey with a wide ability range, a focus on creative learning was driven by
the need to break down barriers to learning and improve achievement. In all
cases, the survey found that this was effective’ (2010: 15).
Benefits of creativity
Aims
Creativity in the Primary Classroom is designed to be of use and interest
both to trainee teachers and to qualified teachers at any stage in their careers
who want to understand better what creativity in the primary classroom
looks like, its value, and how it can be achieved.
The book’s intention is to be accessible and full of practical ideas to use
in the classroom, based on and referencing key texts and research by experts
in the area. It encourages a flexible approach to suit the very different needs
of teachers with various experience and styles of teaching in a variety of
different schools.
The text aims to reflect what creativity in a primary classroom can look like
and the activities that teachers and children might be engaged in. As such,
it includes examples and descriptions from classroom practice, ideas to use
straightaway, and some longer case studies to show the theories in practical
situations. Visualising what one would actually see, hear and do in a class-
room situation can be extremely difficult. Hopefully, this book will demystify
the subject and make practical solutions readily available.
Rather than being organised on a subject-by-subject basis this book exam-
ines creativity as a generic entity, and as such demonstrates how the key
elements of creativity can be applied to any and every subject and across
the curriculum as a whole. There is, however, some guidance in finding and
using the elements of creativity in specific subjects.
6 CREATIVITY IN THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM
Additional features
Alongside the text there are ideas for the reader to reflect on, examples of
classroom practice, and activities for use either individually or in groups.
These activities are designed to be used either as self-study or in workshop
or INSET sessions and are aimed at Honours (H) level.
At the beginning of each chapter there are links to identify which of the
Teachers’ Standards are addressed in the chapter: 21 of the 35 standards in
the ‘Teaching’ section are covered by the book and taking part in the activities
throughout the book would cover another two. At the end of each chapter
there is a summary of the chapter content and a section for further study
outlined below. Full lists of references can be found at the end of the book.
Concluding each chapter is a section for further study. This section aims to
offer the reader who wants to explore the subject in greater depth the oppor-
tunity to do so. It is aimed at Master’s (M) level and will provide a progressive
and cumulative exercise in critical reflection. The activities will be based on
the content of each chapter throughout the book.
Making a start
(Continued)
After reading this book, return to this activity and see if you think differently
about the quotes. Do any of them connect with theories you have read about?
Do they provide a challenge to you to change your practice or reaffirm changes
you are already making?
Here are some to start with:
‘I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened
of the old ones’. John Cage
‘Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire’.
William Butler Yeats
‘You cannot use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have’.
Maya Angelou
‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’. Albert Einstein
‘Some look at things that are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were
and ask why not?’. George Bernard Shaw
PART 1
WHAT IS CREATIVITY?
This section introduces the whole area of creativity to give you a clear
understanding of what it is and how it can be applied in primary education. The
key elements of creativity are identified and we begin to explore the way they
might manifest themselves in a primary classroom. The three different types of
creativity in education are outlined and discussed, and the potential benefits and
drawbacks of a more creative approach in the classroom are considered for both
teachers and their pupils. The changing place of creativity in the primary school
curriculum over the past decades is outlined, and you will be introduced to the
work of some of the key researchers and theorists in the area. The place of
creativity in primary schools at the present time is examined in this context.
CHAPTER
2 1
Ask a group of teachers what they mean by creativity and you will get a huge
range of responses. Creativity means very different things to different people,
and in terms of the primary classroom teachers can often find it hard to
envisage what it actually looks like, let alone plan to encourage or foster it.
This chapter will clarify the concepts so that we can be sure we are under-
standing creativity in the same way.
When groups of teachers are asked to do the above activity their lists often
contain the following: thinking ‘outside the box’, self-expression, having new
ideas, being a risk-taker, imagination, fun, making something new, music,
dance, art, drama, inventing, working together, innovation, individuality.
Already, certain strands will be appearing. Firstly, there is the element of
newness – of making or thinking something for the first time. Much of the early
research into creativity was undertaken by considering genius, and obviously
the great names of innovation in art or science demonstrated their creativity by
being the first in their field ever to do or discover something. In children it is
more likely that their creativity will show the first time for them that they have
done or discovered something. Having said that, one of the joys of working with
primary age children is that sometimes they will say or do something so new
and so fresh that they will make you look at the world in quite a different way.
Anna Craft (2000) has used the terms ‘big c’ and ‘little c’ creativity to differentiate
between the types of creativity that change the world’s perceptions in significant
ways and the types that everyone can practise in their everyday lives.
Another strand is that of creativity in expression or of communicating
ideas in creative ways. Perhaps here the ideas are not necessarily new but
are being presented in new and original ways. Linked here may well be the
idea that creativity gives something of the self, that the ideas are personal and
individual. Creativity is not, however, the domain for either strictly individual
or exclusively group work. It can cover both of these and we will be looking
at this in later chapters.
The elements of individuality and newness also imply a ‘difference’ to the
status quo. People who are creative are, by definition, not conforming to tried
THE KEY ELEMENTS OF CREATIVITY 13
and tested ways of doing things. This can be hard for primary age children to
deal with and there are issues of conformity and risk-taking that teachers will
have to address in their classrooms.
Many people would equate creativity mainly, or even exclusively, with the
arts. Although the arts media are highly creative areas there is huge potential
for creativity in all the other subject and curriculum areas.
Finally, the word ‘fun’ often emerges. While, hopefully, much creative work
and working creatively will be fun, there will, by its very nature, also be times
when this is difficult and frustrating, and for some children more open-ended
activities can be extremely stressful. All of the above issues will be dealt with
in subsequent chapters in more depth.
Definitions of creativity
After sharing first thoughts about what creativity means to us, let us consider
the definitions of creativity that have been most prominent in recent years.
In 1998 the government set up the National Advisory Committee on
Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE). Its report, All Our Futures:
Creativity, Culture and Education (NACCCE, 1999), proved to be one of the
most significant contributions to the debate about creativity, and its impor-
tance will be looked at further in the next chapter. This report was specific
in its definition of creativity and that definition was subsequently used in a
number of government initiatives and other publications:
• Using imagination.
• Pursuing purposes.
• Being original.
• Judging value.
example there are many people who can put together a ‘look’ in the way
they dress by combining elements you might not usually think would go
together, or in home furnishing where selecting and positioning things in
particular ways give a sense of style that other people might never be able
to achieve. We can look out for this sort of imaginative approach in children
in a variety of contexts.
Individual activity
Think about a group of children you have observed. Have you noticed children
who see things in a fresh, new way? Have you been surprised by the method a
child has used in a maths investigation, or the way a child has described some-
thing that worked well but was out of the ordinary?
with their audience – this requires risk-taking too and the confidence to accept
feedback. Even accepting praise and being the focus of attention can be hard
for some people.
The final part of the NACCCE’s definition is of judging value. This is a par-
ticularly difficult area to judge in a primary classroom. It begs questions such as
valuable to whom? What sort of value? Who is to be the judge? The report itself
makes the point that just being original is not enough as this may be impractical
or not fit for purpose: ‘The outcome of imaginative activity can only be called
creative if it is of value in relation to the task at hand’ (NACCCE, 1999: 33).
However, history is full of acts of creativity that were not valued at the time and
disregarded. In the classroom what is needed is to foster and develop methods
of critical evaluation. Firstly, ideas and outcomes can be evaluated as to whether
they met the criteria set at the outset. Depending on the type of creative activ-
ity, this may involve whether it is fit for purpose: is it useful or enjoyable, does
it communicate particular ideas or feelings? Different points of view can and
should be taken into consideration, and even if a particular outcome is deemed
not to meet the original intention, the process of evaluation should go on to
consider whether it has properties that could be useful in another situation.
You might hear statements such as:
Classroom idea
Learning skills, design & technology
It is always worth sharing stories with children about pieces of developmental
work that appear to fail but turn out to have other uses. One good example here
is Post-It notes. The glue on these, which is ‘low-tack’ and allows repositioning
that leaves no mark or residue, was discovered by accident. Its use on small notes
was invented by another colleague, who had initially envisaged Post-Its being
used as bookmarks.
(Continued)
16 CREATIVITY IN THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM
(Continued)
Anna Craft (2000) describes the process of creativity as a cycle with five
stages. The first is preparation and involves getting into an appropriate
physical or mental ‘space’ where creativity can happen. She then describes
a state of ‘letting go’, of making an empty space where ideas can come,
‘surrendering control’. This is followed by germination where the buzz of
creation kicks in and ideas abound and there is energy and excitement. The
fourth part of the cycle is assimilation. This is an internal stage where ideas
take root and gestate, and may happen while doing other things over a
period of time. The final stage is completion, where the ideas are honed and
brought to fruition (2000: 32, 33).
Individuals may not be aware of all these stages and working in a group
may change some of them, but what can be seen is that it is very difficult to
expect someone to create something to order at a specific time in a specific
place, and yet this is what we tend to do in schools. As teachers we need to
see how we can build in time for reflection, for ideas to germinate, and also
how we can accommodate an individual who has reached a stage where an
idea really needs to be worked on.
Using some or any of the above doesn’t necessarily make you an effective
teacher; there are any number of considerations about purpose, context,
content, progression and appropriateness to take into account.
• Is there any way of ascertaining the aims or values of the school from the plan?
• Is there an attempt to make links and connections between subjects? How
successful do you think these are?
• Does the plan give any indication of preferred teaching and learning styles?
Have you seen any planning at this level which does?
If you wanted to teach creatively using one of these plans, would any be prefer-
able? Why? What are your first ideas about what you might teach and how you
might teach it?
There will be much more detail about teaching creatively in subsequent
chapters – this is just to start you thinking.
18 CREATIVITY IN THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM
Taking ideas from the definitions of creativity and the sharing of teachers’
own experiences, we can identify a list of the key elements of creativity:
Let’s now put these in the context of a primary school classroom by considering
how they may appear in practice.
In the above conversation about a proposed dance only the final comment
is not actually moving on the idea – all the other participants were adding
their own creative contribution.
Sometimes longer has to be spent getting to know another person’s meth-
ods or ideas before they can be personalised. Peter Dixon is rightly scathing
about the value of ‘rows of six-year-olds copying rather obscure paintings by
Kandinsky, for no other reason than they have been told to do so’ (quoted in
Alexander, 2010: 227). However, there is a place for examining and practis-
ing the techniques of ‘masters’ before using and perhaps adapting these in
creating a new work. In Chinese culture there might be years of imitation of a
master artist before a student was considered skilled enough to develop their
own ideas. We tend, in the West, to value individuality more and earlier, but
should not underestimate the creative possibilities of building on ideas and
techniques of others, be they acclaimed in their field or by our peers.
They never caught on, but someone had had the idea of combining the two
features. Or what about composing fusion music combining two different
genres or designing a dish that incorporates food from two different cultures?
One of the best places to see all these key elements of creativity in action
is in an Early Years setting. Young children are naturally creative and the
strong interrelationship between play and creativity has meant that Early
22 CREATIVITY IN THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM
It is probably evident by now that there are a lot of different aspects to con-
sider if you want to teach more creatively or help children become more
creative. Before we continue to look at those aspects it is worth considering
why we value creativity and what we believe it can achieve for young people
and for ourselves as teachers. It would also be unwise to ignore the fact that
working creatively or to encourage creativity can have drawbacks or involve
difficulties that will need to be overcome. Looking at those drawbacks clearly
can help you either to deal with them straightaway or to decide to wait until
you are more experienced before tackling that particular aspect.
Group activity
Choose one positive and one negative and prepare to communicate these to the
other groups. You should try to communicate in ways other than explaining in
words. You could do a role play to share your idea or use modelling material to make
a symbolic representation, you could draw a poster or a picture, create a short dance
or a poem. After a short preparation time, share your different positives and nega-
tives. The group sharing should try not to explain what they have done until the
audience has had time to discuss what it could mean. Often, the audience will come
up with points that were not intended by the performers but are valid and useful.
Discuss and ‘unpick’ the points raised plus any from your original lists that
were not illustrated in the sharing activity.
Below are some of the points that often come up when students and teach-
ers undertake this activity. Note that these lists are not exhaustive.
Positives/Benefits
• Children tend to remember things better if they learn them in creative,
interactive ways.
• It caters to different learning styles, children can access learning in a variety
of ways.
24 CREATIVITY IN THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM
• It allows children to demonstrate their learning in ways that are not just
through reading and writing.
• It raises the self-esteem of children, particularly those for whom reading
and writing are difficult.
• It is more fun.
• Children have more autonomy over their learning and get more personal
fulfilment.
• It is useful. Creativity is valued in society and it builds skills for future learning.
• It puts learning in authentic or ‘real-life’ situations. It is meaningful to
children.
• It enhances motivation and builds skills in ‘learning to learn’.
• It is more fulfilling for teachers.
Negatives/Drawbacks
(with some brief comments – these issues will be dealt with in subsequent
chapters)
• The ‘blank sheet’ moment. Being asked to come up with your own
individual ideas, often at a moment’s notice, can be very threatening.
Learning creatively needs to be structured and scaffolded in exactly the
same way as any other method of learning. There are skills involved in
being creative that have to be learned and teachers need to build these
skills and children’s confidence gradually.
Final thoughts
Chapter summary
In this chapter we have examined our own ideas about what creativity is
and some definitions of creativity in education, particularly the very influen-
tial definition in the NACCCE’s (1999) report. We have identified that there
are three types of creativity at work in a primary classroom, namely teaching
creatively, learning creatively, and teaching to develop creativity. The key
elements of creativity were identified and introduced and possible benefits
and drawbacks to teaching more creatively or encouraging more creativity
in the classroom were identified prior to looking at these in more detail in
subsequent chapters.
Further study
This section aims to offer readers who want to explore the subject in greater
depth the opportunity to do so. Completing the activities in this section for each
chapter will provide a progressive and cumulative exercise in critical reflection.
Each activity is based on the content of the chapter.
Remember:
Further reading
Craft, A. (2000) Creativity across the Primary Curriculum. London: Routledge.
Edwards, C. et al. (eds) (1993) The Hundred Languages of Children: The
Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education. New York: Ablex.
Jeffrey, B. and Craft, A. (2004) ‘Teaching creatively and teaching for creativity:
distinctions and relationships’, Educational Studies, 30 (1): 77–8.
NACCCE (National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education)
(1999) All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education. London: DfEE.
CHAPTER 2
CREATIVITY IN
EDUCATION:
HISTORY AND THEORETICAL
BACKGROUND
In the past few decades creativity has been both out of and in fashion in educa-
tional theory, policy and practice. In this chapter we look at the place creativity
has occupied both today and in past decades in the primary school curriculum.
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felice 1 50
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