CATCH MY WORDS to find help with teaching strategies, resources, or to enjoy a laugh or music. Blog connected to Catch My Products, the gifted department store with resources for K - 12.
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"My Humorous and Helpful Thoughts About Teaching / Educational Resources for Your
Classroom / Music and Random Fun"
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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!
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.
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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?
Are you looking for a fun way to make your kids think? I've found that my students always loved logic puzzles. What makes logic even better is that kids have a sense of accomplishment when they finally find the solution. Furthermore, logic puzzles come in all types from the little students to adults. I've even bought a few logic puzzle magazines in the drug store for a fun break! To get started with these, I introduce my students to the basic puzzle just to get the feel of what I want them to do.
I'll treat the rows of the grid as ownership. For example, Aundrea owns all of the boxes next to her name; however, ownership is shared with the colors. Blue owns all of the boxes in the column below the word.
Next, I'll point to different boxes and ask, "Who owns this one?" Once the kids understand how the grid works, we move on to the symbols.
I will ask a child, "When you make a mistake on a paper, how does your teacher let you know something is wrong?" I am looking for the idea of an /X/ to show incorrect. Once that is understood, I introduce /O/ to show that something is right.
We will then work a puzzle together.
If your student is an older child, you'll need to challenge him or her with a multi-grid puzzle. These work just as the basic grids, except students are solving three puzzles at once. Also, kids will need to look at the other grids to solve the one they are working on. I call this feeding off of the grid.
Sometimes, I will use side notes to help organize my thoughts, too.
Once your kids get the hang of it, logic puzzles make for great centers, work for early finishers, or just a fun and challenging reward for the students. Logic puzzles involve higher level or critical thinking skills and may be worked independently or in cooperative groups. Also, we all know the boy or girl in class who is brilliant, finishes everything early, and constantly needs something to do, so here you go!
If you'd like some free puzzles to try out your students skills, I have a lot at my store. Click HERE to check these out!
