Friday, May 10, 2013

Unscheduled Creativity

It's always a challenge trying to keep kids engaged throughout the entire one hour period.  What takes 20 minutes to finish the assigned project can take another 50 minutes.  I always keep open-ended project options available for those who finish their projects early.  Usually this can include a drawing prompt (ex: draw an animal you have never seen; invent your own angry bird with special powers), cut up paper, paper scraps, open-ended coloring worksheets, and sketchbooks. 

It always amazes me the things that these kids can come up with.  I've finally started taking pictures of their creations.  Sometimes it seems like this time of self-directed creativity is more beneficial than the structured projects I assign.


Stump the Student: A game where one student is chosen to draw a shape or line on the board, then two students are chosen to work together to create something out of it. The game helps encourage teamwork, creativity, and the skill of being able to make masterpieces out of "mistakes."


 



 Some sketchbook artwork.



 Many of the kids love making body armor or extensions.


This group of students put on a puppet show.


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