Creative Thinking

Context

This student made a model of a house for a Science Fair project and applied his knowledge of circuitry to put in lighting. Once he had lighting, he wished he had plumbing too but could not immediately see a way to do that. However, one day he had an “Aha!” moment about how to get running water in his house:

Student: One day I was drinking from a juice box and I squeezed too hard and the juice went everywhere. I thought I could use that idea for the water in my house. 

He filled a water bottle about one third full and attached a straw to the cap.  He then attached a tube to the straw. When he squeezed the bottle it would force the water through the tube into the bathtub.  There was a drainage hole in the tub to recycle the water back to the water bottle. His idea was new to him, and had value in the context of his project.

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Activity Photos

Context

After reading the story, “Not A Stick” by Antoinette Portis, students were asked to turn a stick into something new and innovative. This student made the task fit his current creative project which was to invent a fire starter for campers.

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Student Work Sample

Teacher Observation

Initially the student had difficulty coming up with an idea during the planning of the project.  It was not until a few days later that the boy told his teacher, “I am probably going to be an inventor when I grow up.” When she asked him what he was going to invent, he began to tell her his elaborate plans to create something to start fires.  “People will want this when they are camping”. He knew quite a lot about starting fires and how they would need oxygen to get started. When the teacher asked him when he got the idea he said, “I was in the shower”. They chatted about how sometimes our best ideas come when our brains are resting. She then asked him if he could use this idea for his stick project. He quickly asked for a new planning sheet and got to work on his design. 

He knew oxygen could get the fire going so he knew he needed some way to store and blow the oxygen on the fire. He came up with the idea of using a pump from his rocket launcher toy and attached it to a metal pipe. He broke the stick into pieces and glued them together to make a pedal to pump oxygen into the fire.

This student was able to persevere with the task. Initially he couldn’t get the pipe attached to the plastic tube. He had to make several attempts and turn the pipe in different directions so that the head of the pipe would face up.  He also spent some time struggling with the fact that the first tube he brought to school to use was made of plastic. In chatting with a peer, he realized that the plastic would melt in the fire and decided that metal would be a better option. He thought about a metal bowl or cookie sheet but soon came to the conclusion that he needed something with a hole so that the tube with the oxygen could come through. The next day he brought in a metal pipe.  He explained how he asked his Papa for a “metal tube” for his fire maker. He went to his Papa because “he knows a lot about building and fixing things.”

It was interesting that in some aspects of the project he was able to persevere and try different things to solve the problems on his own, but he also recognized and was able to seek the assistance when he needed help and who to go to for it.

Context

A student was reluctant to throw away or recycle plastic plant tags because she remembered learning about reusing earlier in the school year. She suggested that everyone in the class use plant tags as bookmarks.

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Activity Photo

Context

This lesson was based on the wordless picture book, “Chalk” by Bill Thomas. In the story, everything that the children draw with magic chalk comes to life including a gigantic dinosaur. After reading the story, each child was given a “magic” piece of chalk and asked, “What stories will come to life when your chalk meets black paper?” After drawing their stories, each child had a turn to orally explain what their magic chalk had created.

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Sample Student Work

This student imagined that storybook heroes come to life and save her when she’s in trouble.

These are little heroes from a book. I wish they were real because then they could save me when I am in trouble!

Context

A student decided to use the pantry in the kitchen centre as a parkade for all the toy cars and trucks from another centre. He combined other people’s ideas about play centres to create something new and made it work. His idea was fun because it expanded the play possibilities for him and his friends within existing resources.

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Activity Photo

Context

After reading the book “Not a Box” by Antoinette Portis, a class discussed all the different things a box could be. Students were given a choice of paper squares in different sizes, patterns, and colours that they could glue to a page and make into something else. The result became a class book.

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Student Work Sample

Teacher Observation

The kite idea was shared during the class discussion, so this student’s idea was not original. However, he added his own new details to the story. He wrote about how the kite string got tangled around all the words. He was pleased to be able to contribute to the class book.

Context

During free time, a student comes up to the teacher and asks if she would like some of the "Jell-O" she had made with stacking blocks. The student continued to play with the stacking blocks and later came back to the teacher and asked her if she would like a piece of "birthday cake", pointing out the "candle" in the middle.

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Activity Photos

Context

A class wrote stories to read to their Kindergarten buddies. Students considered their audience as they developed the plot, characters, and setting. They used simple words and bright, friendly cartoons and tried to make their PowerPoint accessible and engaging for Kindergarteners.

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Student Work Sample

• Story for Kindergarten Buddies (PPTX)

Context

Students were provided the following assignment:

James Shapiro wrote about William Shakespeare, “There are many ways of being original. Inventing a plot from scratch is only one of them and never held much appeal for Shakespeare.” Shakespeare, the English language’s most celebrated playwright, was famous for taking plots from other stories of his age and recasting them as plays. He’d change things in important ways, but even then, the plots of plays like Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and As You Like It were recognizably lifted from other sources. Nowadays that trick could get him sued for plagiarism or at least force him to pay royalties to the writers whose stories he used. In his day, though, no one minded, and now the only reason we remember most of the stories he stole is because he turned them into something better. For this assignment, I’d like you to “steal” a story. Please begin with a story that you’ve already heard--anything from a fairy tale to a myth to a movie to a book--and change it for your purposes. Be sure to credit the original source!

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Student Work Sample

This student retells the story of Humpty Dumpty and changes the format from a story to a news item.  

• Humpty Dumpty (PDF)  

Context

At the end of a poetry unit, students were asked to write and perform a spoken word poem. Afterwards, they were asked to reflect on their creative process.

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This student chose ‘loyalty’ as a topic for his poem because he thinks it is an important virtue. He then made deliberate creative choices that he felt enhanced the ideas.

Student Work Sample

• Spoken Word Poetry (PDF)

Student Reflection

• Spoken Word Poetry Student Reflection (PDF)