Overcoming Obstacles
Getting Organized
If you've ever peeked inside a middle schooler's backpack, you know how valuable a lesson on organization can be. Help class members organize their binders, study habits, and schedules with a set of collaborative activities.
Denver Art Museum
Lesson: That's Not Natural
Any time kids engage in a design project, they are building problem-solving skills, collaborative learning skills, and creative thinking skills. Upper graders take a nature walk to observe and sketch organic shapes and lines that they...
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Positive/Negative Bugs
Bugs can be creepy - and fun! Kids create a positive and negative design by repeatedly drawing a simple insect overlaid with a geometric shape. The outcome is really neat and will help build spacial reasoning, visual acuteness, and...
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Story switch up
Gather your class around to hear the real story of Jack and the Bean Stalk. In this version Jack is mean and rude, and the Giant is friendly and kind. Have your class rewrite a classic fairy tale to build strong written communication...
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Chinese Calligraphy
Explore the beauty of Chinese Calligraphy. This well-developed lesson plan will take your class on a journey through the history of Calligraphy, engage them in technique and style, then challenge them by having them create new strokes to...
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Lesson: More Than Meets the Eye
Older learners analyze a controversial painting entitled The Cutting Scene, Mandan O-kee-pa Ceremony 1832. They use the issues raised in the image to construct debate arguments questioning if the artist's painting exploits Native...
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Lesson Plan: Humans and the Land
Art acts as inspiration for a conversation about human impact on the environment and creative writing. The class examines three pieces, looking for evidence of human impact on the landscape. They then write a first-person narrative, from...
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Flexible Thinking - Squiggle Art
Students develop their creative abilities. In this creative thinking lesson, students examine different shapes and drawings and discuss what it makes them think of. Students create self confidence by thinking together in groups.
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Sponge Painting
Sponge painting is a technique that is fun for learners of all ages and it can be adapted to fit a variety of skill levels and subjects. Here, little ones use sponges and paint to make geometric patterns. Tip: Sponges can be cut into...
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Fostering Creative Writing
There are many interesting ways to help students develop their creative writing skills through writing prompts and games.
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Linking Writing to Creativity
In a GATE classroom, the key to producing creative writing is tapping into students' innate storytelling abilities.
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"Self-Portrait with a Cartoon"
Here is a really fun way to integrate self-portraits, cartooning, and basic computer skills. The class learns to use Photoshop to manipulate a hand-drawn, cartoon, or photographic image of themselves onto a separate background. They...
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The 4th of July Inspires Reflection and Creativity
Watch the fireworks go off in your learner's minds as you creatively bring the 4th of July into your classroom
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Descriptive Writing and Review
This is my type of lesson! Learners read the poem, "The Deserted House" by Mary Coleridge, then complete a series of activities which encourage strong descriptive writing and sensory detail. They'll practice outlining, sentence writing,...
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What's an Ecotect?
In this future jobs worksheet, students use their creative thinking to select 10 job titles from a list and write a description for each job title. Students discuss as a class what good descriptions are and they discuss life in the future.
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Introduction to Creative Thinking and Dr. de Bono's Thinking Methods
Students become more familiar with the setting of the lesson. They know who Dr. de Bono is and what he invented. Students know the lessons ground rules. They have sparked their creativity to be stimulated.
Malibu High School
Create a Game – Extra Credit Chemistry Project
What a fun way to review the year's learning! Working in small groups, learners select a major concept covered in class then create a game about it. The type of game is up to each group, but the expectations of what should be included...
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Lesson Plan: Blending Observation and Imagination
Upper graders analyze the work, Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase by Maria van Oosterwyck. They consider the value of her paintings and how they are still relevent and sought after, 350 years after they were created. The blending of...
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Science Charades
Students dramatize the wonderful world of nature, without making a sound. In this early childhood creative thinking lesson, students dramatize different aspects of nature to develop creative thinking, reading, memory, and motor skills.
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Activity Plan Mixed Ages: Body Shapes
Young scholars explore the shape of things as they bend, twist, and turn. In this early childhood lesson plan, students develop social, creative-thinking, and language skills and spatial awareness as they use their bodies to create...
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Constructing a Building
Young scholars work with big boxes to connect big ideas. In this early childhood problem solving lesson, students develop social, language, math, creative-thinking, and problem-solving skills as they work together to plan and design a...
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Justice for All
A reading of Roald Dahl’s Lamb to the Slaughter opens a discussion of justice and fairness. Using a Venn diagram and an Idea Wheel graphic organizer, class members consider the similarities and differences in these two terms. They then...
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Children of War
Take a closer look at the impact of war in this language arts and social studies instructional activity. Middle schoolers use primary sources to conduct research as they relate to the effects of war on children. They compare and contrast...
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Welcome to My World
Elementary schoolers discuss what a community is, and what their community has to offer them. They create posters, or flyers for the different businesses or places in their community to place around their school. After the learners have...