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!!

Tattling is always better when it's told to the President

I once did fieldwork in an inner-city preschool, full of eager, energetic young children. These children came from diverse backgrounds, families, and living arrangements, yet this made my experience that much better. These children always had something new to bring to the classroom and I always anticipated hearing what they had to say. In a classroom full of 30 three and four year old children, the noise level was mainly created by the constant tattling. Because the tattling became so repetitive and was often typical, "he said, she said" tattles, the teacher had to come up with an idea to control this problem. Instead of telling the children that their tattles were not important, she hung up a picture of the President on a wall in the back of the classroom. Every time the children had to tattle on someone for saying or doing something inappropriate, they had to tell their tattle to the President. When children forgot this rule, she reminded them that what they were telling her was just too important to not share with the President. So there stood children, talking to the "President", telling them their small problems. To me, this was creative. The teacher had to control this problem and now encouraged children to think through what they were telling the President. The children didn't want to just tell him any little tattle, they now had to think what was worth tattling on others for. This idea made children aware of their thoughts and their impressions of others in the classroom. Through this solution, not only did the children develop their cognitive thinking, they became aware of who the President was and that he holds a very important position.

Does everyone have their pencils?

Think of how many times throughout the school day you look for a pencil, use a pencil, or hear a teacher say, "Take out a pencil....Pencils down". Now imagine collecting a pencil for every time one was incorporated into your day. With all of the pencils you collect, you could make this interesting piece of art! As shown here, the pencils can be arranged in a "starburst"-like fashion with a mirror placed in the center. To get in the theme of fall, students could attach different leaves to the pencils and then place a picture of themselves playing outside in the the leaves, on a hike, etc. This is an easy, yet creative way to use classroom supplies to make artwork. Students could bring this home and hang it as a wreath on their doors, as could the teacher, to always keep a learning atmosphere lingering!