By Rachel Lynette
Wreck this Journal by Keri Smith is a great way to lose your inhibitions, think very creatively, and have fun. It is very much about coloring outside of the lines. Each page invites you to do something you’d never normally do to a journal, like… Poke holes in this page using a pencil Scribble wildly, violently with reckless abandon Pour, spill, drip, spit, fling your
Sometimes the best thing you can do when you can’t solve a problem is to stop trying. The brain needs time to rest, regroup, and to put everything you have been feeding into it together in meaningful ways. The perfect solution may pop into your head when you are focused on something completely different, or you may find the solution easily when you come back
mail ~ shoe ~ lunch What do these three words have in common? TriBonds or, as it is sometimes called, the Game of Threes is yet another way to practice higher level thinking. Finding the common link that joins three words, that on first glance seem to have nothing in common, requires analysis and deductive reasoning. Just another way to help children learn to think
Q: What did the Buddhist monk say to the hot dog vendor? A: Make me one with everything. First Atom: I think I lost an electron.Second Atom: Are you sure?First Atom: I’m positive. Q: Why do seagulls fly by the sea? A: Because if they flew by the bay they would be bagels. Guy walks into a bar holding a chunk of asphalt and says
Here is just one of several activities on a WakerUpper page. Each WakerUpper page is filled with a diverse collection of engaging, hand-drawn activities, all fun and all requiring some level of higher thinking. The authors have even turned putting your name on the paper into an enriching activity. On one page you might be asked to “Write your name as if it were dripping
This is a great activity for flexible thinking, as kids must let go of their own ideas, to some extent, and work with their classmates’ ideas. It is also great for practicing beginning, middle, end. It is a good one to try when you are between units or when your kids are a little squirrely. What to do: Have each student choose a
Watching a movie after reading the book is a wonderful way to encourage students to think critically about how each medium presented roughly the same information. Here are some questions to ask: Think about the setting of the book. Did the setting in the movie look like you had imagined it? (Good ones for this are the Harry Potter series, Holes, The Chronicles of Narnia series, and Where
Here is a fun game for practicing symmetry. The game can be played in pairs or as a whole class, and it’s based on the game Battleship. Each player uses a grid to create a symmetrical pattern. An 8×8 grid works well. You can have students make their own grids using graph paper or you can download the game here for free. Tips for
How can we avoid that useless dialogue? Many teachers keep parents updated on what is going on at school with weekly newsletters, emails, or website postings, and that is great! But you could take it one step further by suggesting questions that parents can ask their kids about what they are learning in school. You can make those questions simple recall, but you could also
The story below is about a third grader presenting her independent project to the class: “Ummmm, I don’t really know why that picture is there. My mom put it in.” * And looking at the project, it was pretty clear that mom had done most, if not all, of it. How exactly am I, as the teacher, supposed to grade that? Before I had kids
You have a routine for everything – what your students should do when they get to class, how they should line up when the bell rings, how to distribute and collect papers, and so on and so on. And, as a result your classroom runs smoothly, everyone knows what to do, and Harry Wong is proud of you.Great. Maybe…or maybe not. Yes, routines have their place,
How many unique pentominoes can you generate with five squares? Exploring that question is a great way to introduce a unit on pentominoes. Using pentominoes improves spatial skills. Generating them is also a great way to practice flexible thinking. To do this activity you will need: Five identical squares for each child (could be plastic or cut from tagboard) Graph paper Pencil Five teacher squares
Your child (or student) comes to you with a picture she has just drawn. You look at it and say something like, “Wow, that’s beautiful.” Then, you put it on the fridge. And that is pretty much it. While there is nothing wrong with this scenario, if you want your child to think critically and creatively about her art, you could use this opportunity to
Our family loves to play games with interesting strategies. When my kids were younger, I was always looking for games that we could all enjoy together – even the adults (because, honestly, how much fun is Battleship?). Here are three of our favorites. They came into our lives when my kids were in elementary school, and we are still playing them today! All would make
The Soma Cube was invented by Peit Hein in 1936. It is a 3-D puzzle made from seven irregular shapes, each made from three or four cubes. The cube itself is just one of many shapes that the seven pieces can be used to make. You can find these shapes, along with more information about the Soma Cube, on Thorleif’s SOMA page. Working with the
Fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration can be thought of as the cornerstones of creative thinking. Flexibility is a bit like fluency in that we are working with ideas, but while fluency is about generating as many ideas as possible, flexibility is about generating ideas that are different from each other. Thinking flexibly is a valuable skill because it allows you to get out of a
