SCAMPER Summer Pool Party

My students love doing S.C.A.M.P.E.R. activities.  It gives them the chance to be creative – and a bit silly.  I’ve made a couple of S.C.A.M.P.E.R. packets for different themes, and my fourth graders got their first glimpse of the Summer Pool Party packet yesterday.  I currently have the Summer Pool Party packet on sale for a $1.00 (.50 discount) at Teachers Pay Teachers.  You can also purchase other S.C.A.M.P.E.R. packets at my TPT store.  They are a great activity for the last weeks of school!

Doesn’t this look like a fun invention?

S.C.A.M.P.E.R. the Holidays Redux

Last week, I posted about one of my creative thinking packs that I like to use around this time of year.  You can download the packet for free by going here.  I have been using the first two pages (“Substitute” and “Combine”) with my 1st through 5th graders during the last week, and it’s been a kick to see their unique ideas, particularly for the “Substitute” page.  The directions for that one are to design a snowman made out of something other than snow.  I have to share some of their results!

A snowman made of clocks – with watches as the hands!

How about a snowman made from car parts – with nuts and bolts falling from the sky instead of snow?

Lego Man!

Soda cans – mine would be all Diet Coke!

DNA Man! (Microscopic, of course!)

And one of my personal favorites from a 1st grader – “Frosting the Snowman”, made from cake frosting!

Creative Thinking for the Holidays

A student example from “S.C.A.M.P.E.R. the Holidays” in which the 3rd grader designed a snowman made out of globes

I’m dusting off an old post from last December in which I offered a set of PDF’s that you could use to prompt some divergent thinking amongst your students.  These sheets are based on the thinking tool, S.C.A.M.P.E.R., which I explain in my post, “S.C.A.M.P.E.R. the Holidays“.  My 1st through 5th grade Gifted and Talented classes really enjoyed these last year.  I’m at a new school this year, so I get to use them again!  Also, if you happen to be looking for some other free holiday downloads, you might want to check out my post from last week on “Holiday QR Codes“.

UPDATE:  You can see more student examples from S.C.A.M.P.E.R. the Holidays here.  Also, you can also download some augmented reality holiday cards for your students here.

Playing with Pencil Shavings

image by Marta Altes from: http://www.martaltes.com/Playing-with-pencil-shavings

I found out about this fabulous artist, Marta Altes, from the author of the blog, “This Sydney Life“.  Like yesterday’s post, my resource is not categorized as an educational blog, but I immediately thought of classroom connections when I saw the artwork of Marta Altes.  I love the whimsy and the simple, but unique, quality of her artwork.  Displaying some of her pictures would be a great way to jumpstart some creative thinking in your classroom.  If you have ever used the creative thinking tool, S.C.A.M.P.E.R., you might see this as a perfect example of “Put it to another use”.  Can you imagine how some gifted students might run with this idea?

Summer Pool Party Creative Thinking Packet

My Summer Pool Party Creative Thinking Packet is now available on Teachers Notebook.  It is $1.50, and includes 12 pages of fun activities plus a cover sheet.

Easter Creative Thinking Packet

photo credit: Bibi via photopin cc

I have added an Easter Creative Thinking Packet to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  It is now available for $1.00.  It includes brainstorming ideas, as well as printable worksheets for each of the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. creative thinking tools created by Bob Eberle.  My gifted students in 1st-5th enjoy these S.C.A.M.P.E.R. packets, as the activities give them the chance to stretch their imaginations.  We are in the home stretch right now for the school year, and thinking outside the Easter basket could lessen some of the stress!

Trap a Leprechaun

Our next holiday, St. Patrick’s Day, is right around the corner.  I was looking for some creative ideas for that theme, and came across a fun concept – trying to trap a leprechaun.  If you teach students in higher grades, you could really get into some math and physics with this challenge.  Pretend there is a leprechaun hiding in your classroom, and see if the students can deduce from clues (footprints in the soil of a plant, for example) his approximate height and weight.  Or, just bring a bunch of supplies to class and see who could build the most clever trap.  This would spark some great writing activities, as well.  Here are a few links to spark your imagination:  To Catch a Leprechaun, Leprechaun Traps, Leprechaun Trap Cake.  And, if you are interested in some more creative thinking activities for next month, you can also download my March S.C.A.M.P.E.R. packet for free here.

Respondo

Respondo is a new tool brought to you by the creator of The Differentiator, Ian at www.byrdseed.com.  As Ian describes on the Respondo page, he is still working on this tool, and welcomes any suggestions.  However, from what I can see, it is a great way to incorporate creative thinking into responses to literature.  It is based on the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. technique I posted about a few weeks ago, and which Ian describes in his post called “Do More with Story Structure.”  Give Respondo a try the next time you want to “jazz up” your literature discussions!

S.C.A.M.P.E.R. the Holidays

One of the creative thinking tools that my students learn is S.C.A.M.P.E.R.  It is an acronym to help people to remember different ways inventive ideas can happen:  Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to Another Use, and Rearrange.  It was originally developed by a man named Roger Eberle.  The holidays lend themselves to this type of thinking, as the students are already feeling a little loose and silly – willing to take risks with unusual ideas.  Here is a link to a first grade teacher’s activity in which her students had to think of ideas for the putting candy canes to another use.  And here are some other ones I’ve used with links to the PDF worksheets:

Substitute other materials for making a “snowman” for a place where it never snows.

Combine two holidays and draw a picture of a family celebrating them.

Adapt Santa’s sleigh to another environment – like the desert or outer space.

Modify (Magnify or Minimize) a holiday dessert.

Put flying reindeer to another use for the rest of the year.

Eliminate presents from a holiday. What could be done to celebrate instead?

Rearrange the holiday calendar. What months would have which holidays, and why?

Feel free to use and distribute the above.  Here are some examples from my third graders:

This student made a snowman out of globes, and the hands are from a clock!

This student asked me if Santa’s new environment had to be “real.” When I said it did not have to be real, he chose a computer game as the environment.