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My humorous thoughts about life.

"My Humorous and Helpful Thoughts About Teaching / Educational Resources for Your Classroom / Music and Random Fun"

Monday, November 18, 2019

Creativity in the Gifted Classroom with Creative Music

Not only is creativity a part of most gifted programs but also creativity can be taught. The best way to teach creativity is to give kids prompts and have them solve these creatively.

For example: What if everyone is asked to pose multiple ideas for the design a coffee cup and the best creative thinker wins!

Blog post on teaching creativity in the gifted and talented classroom. #iteach

The $1,000,000 Question is, "What makes a specific coffee cup the best?" The answer guides students in the creative process.

A. Originality - To receive the most points, students should come up with ideas that no one else has ever thought of. If more than one person has the same idea, maybe it's not so unique.

B. Flexibility - How different are student ideas? You could mention having a golden retriever on the cup for one idea. If your next idea is to place a labrador retriever on the cup, is that a different idea or the same idea with a slight tweak? Flexibility means that your students should devise ideas unlike their previous ones.

C. Fluency - How many unique ideas can each student think of? The more ideas the better. This is a numbers game that relates to flexibility because if the ideas are not new and different, who cares how many they come up with?

D. Elaboration - This is the skill of going into details about a given idea. For example, I would draw a picture of a bright red golden retriever retrieving a coffee cup with another golden retriever on it. Both retrievers would be wearing green Santa coats and hats with dog bones where white fur would usually be. Is this enough detail to picture the cup in your mind? Is this idea original? If so, award points.

With these guidelines, students are ready to engage in a creative activity. You might want to put a time limit on the students brainstorming ideas and then have them go back to revise these before sharing with the class.

I have two lessons that relate to this topic.

Creative Thinking Exercises for Gifted and Talented students. #TpT
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Creative-Thinking-Activities-Gifted-and-Talented-1401246
and

Creative thinking activities about famous women in history.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Creative-Thinking-Activities-Gifted-4439046
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Now for Music

Since my post was on creativity, I'm posting creative songs for this Monday Music Moves Me blog hop

First up is an oldie with a new twist. Watch Crazy Frog in "Popcorn" by Gershon Kingsley. This song was written in the early days of the Moog Synthesizer.



Next up is a strangely unique song, "Blue" by Eiffel 65


Finally, how could a post of original songs not be complete without the classic "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen?





5 comments:

Binky said...

Creativity is not given much respect in most schools and seems to be discouraged rather than encouraged as it should be.

Catch My Words said...

That can be true depending on the district; however, creativity was always encouraged in the gifted and talented classrooms.

XmasDolly said...

Well, here I go on my third try to type a comment here. Don't get up from your desk when you're typing a comment here because it runs and hides. The bad thing is I know better! hahaha Okay, anyway loved your choices here the popcorn tune oh my gosh I haven't heard that song in like forever. Love the creativity you have here too! Awesome for sure with Queen and I listened to the entire song. Love it! Bohemian Rhapsody is just my favorite... a total classic? OH HELL YES! Did you see the movie? I did & I loved it believe it or not. Okay, there were parts that were just not to my taste, but on the whole it was really cool. Thanks for sharing. Great job girlfriend!

Cathy Kennedy said...

Joyce,

You need a creative mind in the real world. Problem-solving is critical in every aspect of one's life. I think this is something that should be encouraged in all schools. The thing I'm seeing is kids don't know how to think for themselves. It makes me wonder what kind of adults they will make. I dare say, not very bright ones that's for sure. That's really scary. Thanks for sharing your mewsic picks for today. Incidentally, the Queen vid wouldn't play on your site but I was able to listen to it directly on YT. Have a boogietastic week, my friend!

messymimi said...

How i wish they encouraged more creativity when i was young, maybe i'd have some!