Posts Tagged ‘creativity’

Where Has Creativity Gone?

I put out trays of Legos for first graders last week. Students were asked to create something from them, take a photo, and then we would upload it to Seesaw where they would describe what they made. I told the students they could make anything they wanted either with someone else or by themselves. The only constraints I put on this was that these were the only Legos that could be used.

I was surprised when one child raised her hand to ask if she could make a house. “Of course,” I responded, thinking that perhaps she’d missed some of the instructions. Then someone else asked if he could make an airplane. Others followed with questions about what to make.

Yes, I know that kids feed off each other. The perfect example is when one needs to visit the restroom, suddenly everyone seems to need to go as well. What surprised me is that the children weren’t eager to get to the Legos. Instead, they were more concerned with finding out what they were “allowed” to build.

Once I convinced the students they could build whatever they wanted, they finally jumped into it and came up with some clever structures.

Although a few years old, this article by Josh Linkner in Forbes magazine, How Kids Lose Their Creativity as They Age (and How to Prevent It), offers excellent insight into the problem along with ideas on what to do about it. And, it’s something we ALL need to work on! What are ways you encourage creativity in your classroom?

A Squiggle or Two – Part 2

After presenting our 4th graders with a squiggle and seeing the amazing creations they illustrated (See What Can You Do With a Squiggle or Two), I decided to present the same opportunity to the 2nd graders. However, this time I gave them a choice of three squiggles.

Here is what they started with . . .

CreateCreate 2Create 3Some children chose to draw more than one picture. Enjoy their creations!

Mrs. Zabriskie’s Class

Mrs. Shapard’s Class

Mrs. Garcia’s Class

Next step . . . upload to their blogs and tell about their drawings. This was lots of fun and we’ll definitely be doing it again!

What Can You Do With a Squiggle or Two?

It started with this . . .

CreateAnd this is what was created!!

13 M megan Create

by Megan

8dA LTatum Create

by Tatum

by Collin

by Collin

18 dA Raegan create

by Raegan

by Kate

by Kate

by Megha

by Megha

The idea was found on Pinterest but this is something I used to do on paper when I taught in the classroom. I decided to share the design with our fourth graders and have them open it in Microsoft’s Paint program to see what they could create. The sad thing was that there was one person who actually asked if there was a “right” answer! That tells me the children need many more opportunities to just be able to CREATE!

Once the students started (and it took some quite a while to think), I was absolutely amazed at what they drew! The next step was to upload these illustrations to their blogs where they wrote a short summary about their drawings.

We will definitely do this again!

Here is the animoto of the newly designed squiggle.
(Mrs. Wright’s class  will have their designs added as soon as they finish!)

International Dot Day

Our 3rd graders celebrated International Dot Day by reading the book, The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds. This is a story about Vashti, a young girl who can’t figure out what to draw in art class. She is encouraged by her teacher to “make her mark” which sends her on a journey to discover her potential.

Before reading the book, I had the students open MS Paint and draw a “dot” of any size on their canvas. Then we read the book. As I was reading, I could see the students start to think about what they would be doing with their dot.

When finished reading, I gave these directions: Create something using your dot. You can add more dots, a background, and you can also add other features but you must have at least one dot in the picture. And you must finish in one class period. Everyone came up with something – it may have been an abstract drawing or something more realistic. We had a Circle of Life, Pac Man, elephants, outer space, a sunset, balls being kicked, and much more. Below are their creations.

 

The second part of our celebration was to upload the drawings into the students’ blog and then have them write a post about what they did. This was good practice for them since we’ve really been focusing on how to write quality posts and comments (still working on this!). I gave the students a “challenge” where they were to answer one or more of the following questions:

Hello boys and girls,

Had you ever heard of International Dot Day before our class? We’re eager to hear about your dot picture. Write a new post and answer some or all of the following questions.

  1. When you first drew your dot in MS Paint, did you have any idea what you would do with it?
  2. Did an idea come to you right away or did it take a little while to figure out what your dot could become?
  3. Describe your thoughts on how you decided what to draw.
  4. Could you relate to Vashti, not able to think of something to draw? How did you feel about that?
  5. Vashti started out really frustrated because she couldn’t figure out what to draw. How and why did she change throughout the story? Why did she decide to help the little boy near the end of the book?

I’m looking forward to your posts!

Take a look at Mrs. Weth’s Class Blog. Not everyone had a chance to finish but Mrs. Weth and I thought they did quite well working under pressure since we were running out of time. I wish they had answered more of the questions such as the one comparing how Vashti felt and how they felt as they tried to decide what to draw. Next year, I’ll be sure to allow more time for the blog part of the project.