Vary Your Teaching Modes and Questioning Strategies

 

Incorporate Creativity into Key Subjects like Math (Yes, Math!)

 

 

Add Creativity to Your Science Lessons

Science books are loaded with good information but are not always the easiest to comprehend or the most engaging for students. I like to think of our science book as a springboard for our lessons. Using hands-on experiments or activities whenever possible makes the concepts come to life. I used to do a 5th grade lesson on the circulatory system that was as dry as the Sahara Desert. After giving it some thought, I decided that the kids needed a much more visual model. So, I made some simple posters, cut up red and blue paper strips, and designated different areas of our classroom to be the heart, the lungs, and even the big toe. Then I sent two kids to each place. Next, I chose a few kids to be blood cells and move from place to place, from the heart to the body, to the heart (with blue slips to represent de-oxygenated blood), then to lungs (trading blue slips for red ones to signify oxygenated blood) to the heart and back to the body/big toe. Why did this work so much better? Several reasons: The kids were much more involved, it was visual, and it was creative.

Many science lessons can be changed to make them more creative, whether it is by creating a model, doing a demonstration (my kids have a love/hate relationship with a banana-graham cracker digestive demonstration we do, but they never forget it!), or by doing art that is connected to science (think clay atom models, a water cycle collage, a water colored animal/plant cell, etc.).

Make Social Studies Lessons Creative

In social studies, again, I like to use the textbook as a starting point for my lessons. Much of social studies is simply history, which is a story. So, this is how I teach it: I story-tell it, and then I ask the kids to role-play key people in our unscripted historical skits. For example, when my 5th graders studied the colonies, we learned how the King of England granted different types of charters. So, I chose a king, gave him a construction paper crown, sat him on a throne (okay, it was just a regular blue plastic chair) and appointed guards to announce those brave enough to approach the king to ask for a charter. I narrated the role-play (leading it ever so gently to where it needed to go) but allowed the king to decide to grant or not to grant the charter (the kids always love to exert their power and refuse the first few requests!).

Another example would be when my 4th graders learn about California government and how bills become laws. I put them into small groups (some belonging to the Senate and some to the Assembly), and their job was to write several possible bills for our classroom. After each house voted and approved the other house’s bills, then I acted as the governor and either signed the bills into law, vetoed them, or let them sit on my desk for 30 days (an automatic pass). The kids always love doing this activity and due to their skillful bill writing, these little devils have earned things like permission to sit with a friend on the last day of school (I was going to let them anyway…shhhh) or a 30-minute game time on Friday once a month (oh darn, I can try to get a few things ready for the next week!).

In addition to role-playing historical events, using open-ended projects adds creativity to social studies assignments. Although each project I assign has specific requirements, they also have a creative component that allows for student choice. My 4th graders have a big California Mission Project each year, and in addition to the written report, they are able to create either a brochure, mission model, storybook, PowerPoint, game-board, recipe book, and more to show what they have learned in a creative way. My 5th graders research a Native American group and are able to make a home, as well as several other options.

I have to admit…I love me some art! In fact, I sometimes dream of being an art teacher full time, until we do some collage type of project or paper mache thing, and I snap back into reality! The great thing about art, true art (not the cut and paste, cookie cutter type), is that art is creative by nature…without even trying!  Art for art’s sake is wonderful, but tying it in to core curricular areas increases creative thinking for students and reinforces learning (like doing area robots for math, painting a castle during a fairy tale unit, drawing crayon resist fish when studying the ocean habitat, or making a class quilt when learning about the 13 colonies, etc.).

Music is a really awesome way to infuse your classroom with creativity. It can augment social studies lessons (play music from certain countries or time periods) and add to science lessons (play sounds of the rainforest or a whale’s song).

Drama, whether it is a social studies quickie role-play or a fully rehearsed class play, is an excellent way to boost creativity and self-expression. I love to write science plays that go with our curriculum, and we perform one of these each spring. Kids are asked to learn songs, dances, and to memorize lines. In addition to the creative aspect of class plays, students learn to work as a team and to speak in front of an audience…great skills, I think.

Creativity in the classroom can thrive, regardless of the test-driven atmosphere in which we live. Besides making every day more enjoyable and helping kids use more divergent types of thinking, creativity is also the great differentiator. Kids who struggle academically can experience success oftentimes, when asked to make something creative or to think creatively. Kids who need enrichment are able to go above and beyond and to come up with projects and ideas on their own level. When we make a conscious effort to add creativity into our classroom, all of our students will reap the benefits!Here’s a freebie for you! It’s a set of 32 Creativity Task Cards you can download at my TpT store: