Look Inside

Perfect gift/scrapbook idea for children to express their creativity. Trace the silhouette of the child on white paper, cut it out, and glue it onto black paper. From there, the student can collage! Decorated with anything from magazines, to wrappers, pictures of their family, friends, pets, school awards, etc. The students get to explore their creative side and express their hobbies and feelings through collage. This idea can be done at any age and might be interesting to be done at different grades to later look at the variation in creativity over the academic lifespan. 

Counting pumpkins

 In spirit of Halloween, the students carved pumpkins! They were divided into groups and each group was provided with a pumpkin. Once the pumpkin was opened, the students had to take out all of the seeds and count them. Most students are consistent when counting by 1's, but when asked to count by 5's or 10's, some struggle. For those that are consistent, they are able to help their classmates, but as a group the students have to place the seeds in piles of five or ten, depending on the number assigned to them. Once all the seeds are divided into the piles, the students have to work together to count the total number of seeds in their pumpkin, counting either by 5's or 10's. This is a great way for students to work as a team while working on their math skills. For students who are consistent, it is great review, and for those who struggle it is an easy, non-pressured way of learning. The students are then able to carve the pumpkins and display them for Halloween!

 

Fingerprint Unity

October is National Bully Prevention and Awareness month. Children are the victims of bullying nearly every day. Both in school, in the home, and in the community of peers, children suffer from acts and words that are hurtful and harm their self-esteem. Children who are bullied at school are fearful of the school community and do not feel safe attending school. This should not happen. Schools are a place where children should always feel safe and welcomed, regardless of age, gender, race, or culture. In support of Bully Prevention and Awareness, this idea can be used in the classroom to make a pact against bullying. A lesson can be constructed around bullying and incorporate this activity. On a piece of paper with a large tree on it, each student would put their fingerprint on the tree. The fingerprints could be a variety of colors and placed on the branches to mimic leaves. Upon placing their fingerprint on the tree, the students would be told that by doing so, they would be agreeing to make a pact against bullying. Forming together and creating a friendship tree, the students would gain a sense of unity. The completed tree could be framed and placed in the classroom, where students will always be reminded to refrain from bullying and stay united as friends.

Creativity beyond sight

“Most people see what is, and never see what can be.”
Albert Einstein

In the book, Creativity 101 by James C. Kaufman, he explains different levels of creativity that people can have. Of the four levels, one of them is called "mini-c" which is your beginning level of creativity. In the classroom, children normally present this "mini-c" level of creativity, yet if their expressions are put forth in a way that is interpreted as distracting or not useful, it is often discouraged. Because creativity may develop out of context, the classroom should be an environment or domain that welcomes creative thoughts and expressions. Children should never be discouraged from presenting ideas, even if they appear bizarre because discouraging creativity may alter the expression of children. It can never be determined whether or not a child's idea may later become a new invention or a new approach to art, music, singing, etc. so these "mini-c" moments need to be credited. When there is time permitting during the day, in between lessons or during recess or snack, children should be encouraged to explore their thoughts and let them wander. During this time especially, teachers should allow children to have defocused attention, which might create these "mini-c" ideas. 

The "key" to success

Writing prompts are always difficult for children, especially when giving the task to think of an idea and create a story. Even as a college student, this is a difficult task. Students sit there pondering what they should write about and often try to produce a piece of work that is thought to be what the teacher wants. Instead of encouraging children to step back and let their mind wander until an idea comes to them, we too often focus on getting the work done. In class one day, we were given a blank sheet of paper and asked to draw a picture. Of course, no one knew what to draw until our professor created a story that we listened to and then left us to put on paper what we "saw" in our minds. This is a great way to create writing prompts for students, especially when introducing creative writing or story-telling lessons. To accommodate for an elementary level, students would receive a piece of white paper with a blank keyhole, similar to the picture. The teacher would then tell a story to the students and drop the story off by the children looking through the keyhole. The stories could be centered around a certain topic or simply fantasy. This allows the children's minds to wander. The children would then draw what they saw on the other side of the keyhole and use it as a reference for creating their own short stories.

*Special thanks to Dr. Specht!!