EFFORTS ON INCREASING CREATIVITY THROUGH FINGER PAINTING ACTIVITIES IN EARLY EDUCATION

Efforts on increasing creativity through finger painting activities in early education: developing children's creativity at a young age is necessary because creative children have an easier time solving their challenges. the development of children's creativity is suboptimal based on observations indicating that the teacher is less involved in the learning process and that the facilities available are restricted. this study aimed to determine children's creativity through finger painting activities. this research used 2 cycles of class action research (car) with 16 children as subjects. the data revealed pre-cycle and cycle 2 outcomes. in the pre-cycle, only 4 out of 6teen children had ideal development. in the first cycle, only 7 out of 6teen and thirteen out of 6teen children had an optimal effect in the second cycle. activities involving finger painting are beneficial for encouraging children's creativity. through finger painting, children's creativity can develop their adaptability, fluency, originality, and elaboration. the best developmental outcomes can be achieved if this exercise is performed regularly and under the supervision of professionals.


A. Introduction
Early education encompasses the ages of infants or 0 to 6 years. According to Law No. 20 of 2003. 1 Early childhood is a period of rapid growth and development; early age is also known as the golden era; nevertheless, it is unclear why it is named the golden age. Because the infant's brain can absorb information fast at this age, the youngster will copy what they see and hear. 2 Children have egos that must be considered during early childhood development, in addition to their high levels of curiosity, individuality, and propensity to copy their surroundings. 3 The child's curiosity is the basis of all growth; via this curiosity, the youngster will acquire information and skills that will assist him or her in taking care of himself or herself. 4 Early childhood may be defined as children from 0 to 6 years old who have potial in several areas that must be fostered to be utilized as adults.
Children exhibit an excellent level of curiosity at an early age, as seen by their urge to investigate their world using their unique skills. 5 Early childhood is crucial for the development of numerous comp1nts of a child's development since parents and teachers give the finest stimuli for developing these qualities. Developing it can be accomplished by playing while learning, applying appropriate learning methods, conducting activities that attract children's at10tion and interest under adult supervision, and providing game tools that can stimulate children's development, including developing children's creativity.6 Thus, it can be stated that all areas of child development may be related to the child's creativity.
Early childhood is a crucial period for fostering creativity. Children can readily solve difficulties if they are creative because creative children may solve problems in a variety of ways.7 It is consis10t with the viewpoints of Semiawan and Munandar in Masganti Sit's book, according to which a creative person can generate new ideas and apply them to problem-solving.8 Creativity also has a meaning, which is the capacity to conceive ideas in novel ways without copying other people's ideas and having never existed before; this might take the shape of imaginative activities resulting from forming new patterns.9 Fikroh: Jurnal Pemikiran dan Pendidikan Islam Children's creativity is characterized by the originality of their thoughts and imagination and a strong desire to discover undiscovered answers. In essence, every child possesses a creative personality, which may be fostered by giving stimuli and facilities that support the child's requirements without being constrained.10 Children who have creative thinking can usually be seen from several characteristics including: (1) having a high desire for participation, (2) lots of ideas, (3) broad outlook, (4) spontaneity in doing something, (5) diligent, (6 ) critical, and (7) idealistic.11 Another opinion also says that creative children are children who like to experiment and have high focus so that they like to observe an object within 15 minutes.12 Thus, it may be argued that a creative child who engages in inquiry, creativity, and experimentation has a broad perspective and is highly focused.
Based on experts' findings, it is evident that many teachers do not understand the development of creativity in children, including that children who ask a lot of questions, particularly creative children, have a strong interest in undiscovered answers. The suppression of children's creativity is also evident throughout the learning process when the child continues to produce identical work to what the teacher demonstrates and cannot convey new ideas and concepts based on the child's imagination and wants. The facilities related to activities that can stimulate children's creativity are still insufficient and limited, and the activities carried out are colouring activities with printed picture books that already contain pictures and crayons provided by the teacher, so that children only colour the existing pictures and do not create their pictures based on their initiative. Therefore, the researchers desire to boost early infant creativity through finger painting acitivities.
Finger painting entails putting colour slurry to the surface of white paper or drawing paper and pouring gorgeous images and colours based on the artist's conceptions.13 Wulandari noted that finger painting activities could boost creativity in early infancy because they provide children greater freedom to be creative and capture their at10tion and interest.14 Kurnia suggests finger painting activities are excellent for fostering children's creativity by recognizing colours, creating new forms, and improving their imagination.15 Creativity must be fostered consis10tly and under the supervision of teachers or parents for children's creativity to improve. It is consis10t with a study undertaken by Alawiyah, namely that finger painting may promote fluency, creativity, and flexibility through habituation to generate creative and colourful ar2rk.16 Creativity must be fostered consis10tly and under the supervision of teachers or parents for children's creativity to improve. It is consis10t with a study undertaken by Alawiyah, namely that finger painting may promote fluency, creativity, and flexibility through habituation to generate creative and colourful ar2rk.
The benefits of finger painting activities in early childhood development include training children's expressions with painting media, training children's fine motor skills, improving children's thinking in fantasy and imagination, training children's science knowledge in mixing colours, and instilling a sense of beauty in children's personalities.17 Consequently, it can be stated that children may enhance more than 1 element of development via this activity, and it is the goal of this study to produce an activity that can improve all aspects of child development.
The results of the observations and theories that have been described above, the research is interested in using finger painting as an activity to stimulate the growth of creativity in children. This study will use finger painting as a treatment given to children that focuses on children's creativity. This study will use food coloring and color mixing activities in its activities with the aim of knowing children's creativity through finger painting activities at RA Al-Hadda, Tanjung Morawa District, Deli Serdang Regency, North Sumatra Province.

Research Method
This type of research is classroom action research (CAR). This study will provide action in the form of finger painting activities for early childhood in RA Al-Hadda, Tanjung Morawa District, Deli Serdang Regency, North Sumatra. The study was conducted in May 2022 with 16 children consisting of 4 girls and 12 boys. The implementation of this classroom action research will be carried out in 4 stages including: (1) the planning stage includes initial observations regarding the early development of children's creativity and making RPPH, (2) stages of implementing activity plans and implementing actions, (3) 15  stages of observation using observation sheets and ( 4) the stage of reflection from observations regarding the results of learning targets and further planning if the learning targets have not been achieved. 18 The research instrument blue print contains several indicators that will be assessed on the observation sheet which will be described in table 1 below: This study's data was collected through observation and documentation. This study included both qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis. Qualitative data analysis in the form of descriptions in the form of explanations using sen10ces to explain the results of the practical aspects of development using 3 data reduction activities, data display and conclusions. The quantitative analysis consists of numerical data derived from study outcomes in the form of developmental values and the proportion of developmental accomplishments. In research, the following formula will be used to analyze numerical data: E. The percentage to be achieved in this study is that each child shows a minimum percentage of 62.5% or the equivalent of 5 values out of 8 indicators. Then the percentage of children increased to 80% or 13 children from the total number of children.
Cycle 1 was carried out by planning the making of RPPH with finger painting as the core activity. The implementation stage involves initial activities such as introducing colours, materials, and how to play by conducting 2 learning meetings. The results of this pre-cycle become a reference in making finger painting activities that are adjusted to the indicators and problem solving of the obstacles encountered in the pre-cycle. As in the image below: The next activity carried out observations and assessments using observation sheets according to the indicators to be achieved. The results of the assessment based on the observation sheet in cycle 1 will be described in table 3 below:   Table 3 describes that the development of children's creativity has increased by 22.75% of the overall percentage results. Of the 16 children, there were 7 whose creativity development was good, and 9 more children experienced an increase that was still less than optimal. The indicators that developed in cycle 1 were indicators 1,2, and 7, which included aspects of fluency and originality. As expressed 19 that finger painting will make children develop aspects of fluency, originality, and flexibility.
The results of this first cycle need to be continued because the target to be achieved in this study is 80% of the total number of children and 62.5% of the total score. So this research was continued with cycle 2 with the same core activities. Only the duration of the meeting was ex10ded to 3 meetings, and the repetition of finger painting stages and colour mixing resulted. The results of creativity in children's work using finger painting activities can be seen in the following picture:  Table 4 describes that the development of children's creativity using finger painting in cycle 2 gets 81.25% of the children's overall results. Of the 16 children, 13 experienced an increase in their creative development. The overall percentage of the number of children shows that this is more than the target to be achieved. It indicates that finger painting is very good for developing children's creativity. This result is also supported by the findings of Kurnia 20 said that Finger painting activities are very good for developing children's creativity, such as making patterns, recognizing colours, creating new shapes, and strengthening imagination. The development of creativity must also be done repeatedly and with the guidance of teachers or parents so that children's imagination power is better.
The improvement of children's creativity development using finger painting from cycle 1 and cycle 2 will be described in Figure 1  The results of this study can be described as that finger painting activities are good for increasing children's creativity. It is in line with research conducted by Madian in 2020, which showed that finger painting could increase the flexibility and originality of children. 21 In addition, finger painting activities can also train children's fine motor skills. Research conducted by Wiratni shows that children can increase flexibility in their fine motor skills by doing this activity. 22 It is the same as the results of this study which shows that children's creativity through finger painting activities can increase children's flexibility, fluency, originality and elaboration. Maximum developmental results can be obtained if this activity is carried out repeatedly and gets guidance from adults. 21