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Children’s imaginative play is their way to engage in creative fluency—essential to invention, problem-solving and creative thinking of all kinds. Start with anything of interest—a simple object like a bandanna, a newspaper, or a bowl. Imagine what it might be. Think big! Think wild! Go ‘way outside the box! If you do it with a child, or group of children, challenge them to come up with ideas.
The pictures show what happened when I gave a bag of mandarin oranges and a camera to a group of Latin-American teachers and challenged them to find as many ways to use an orange as they could.
This exercise can also be done with a two-dimensional drawing, like a circle or rectangle. If you have little children, look at Not a Box by Antoinette Portis for inspiration.
