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Creativity 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.
- 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.
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.
- 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.
- 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
Try 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?