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Home » Blog » Practicing Creative Fluency

Practicing Creative Fluency

August 3, 2016 | by Cynthia Herbert

BanditCreativity takes practice! The last blog I wrote on creative fluency http://themissingalphabet.com/creative-fluency/ showed a group of teachers imagining all the ways they could use a mandarin orange. Here are some ways for you to play and practice creative fluency with your kids:

Food

  • Get your own bag of mandarin oranges and imagine the possibilities.
  • Pick out interesting shapes of fruits and vegetables. Add smaller pieces to larger pieces to turn them into “creatures” and other things.
  • Make or buy cookies in distinct shapes. Add raisins, walnuts, peanut butter and other things to turn them into something new.Cat food
  • Use cereal or dry pet food to shape animals and other things.
  • Copy the commercial: Toast frozen waffles and add berries, other fruit, nuts, whipped cream and other things to make them into faces or designs.
  • Cut up a raw potato and arrange the parts, like a 3D puzzle, to make different kinds of creatures, vehicles and other things.

Shapes

Draw a circle or other shape dozens of times and turn each one into something new.Square shapes
Cut and paste circles (or other shapes) from colored paper. Paste onto contrasting paper. Use markers or crayons to turn each one into something new.

Put two shapes together and create something new; e.g. two circles, a circle and a triangle, a triangle and a square, etc.

Make or buy tangrams and see how many things you can make.

Create your own design blocks and put them together different ways in a 2×2 grid.Rectangle design

  • Make two squares.
  • On the first square, draw a line down the middle to create two rectangles.
  • Color the rectangles different colors.
  • On the other square, draw a line from one corner to another to make two triangles.Triangle design
  • Use the same two colors on them.
  • Repeat three times to make at least four identical design squares of each kind.

Shape spheres, “snakes,” or other shapes from modeling material. Add toothpicks, dry pasta, paper clips, pipe cleaners, or other 3D shapes to turn them into something new.

Bandannas

See how many ways you can use a bandanna. Don’t just think them up—try them out!

How would you use them for survival?

How would you use them for first aid

How many kinds of clothing and accessories can you make from them?

How many dolls, toys and games can you create with them?

Newspapers

HatTry different ways of changing newspapers; e.g. crumple them, roll them, cut them fold them. Can you come up with 100 ways to use a newspaper?

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Innovative and practical... The Missing Alphabet is a thoughtful toolkit for creative thinkers of all ages. This is a vital resource for parents looking to nurture and sustain creative confidence in their children."  

– David M. Kelley
Founder, IDEO and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University

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