This year I have the fun task of teaching 10 students identified as creatively gifted. My challenge is, "How do you teach kids to be MORE creative?" Because the reality of teaching is that time is always a precious commodity, I have to relegate creativity work to Fridays. I serve my creative gifted students along with my language arts gifted students. There are some kids that are ID'ed as both so that works well. I also find it fun to tie literature to our creative work. This week I did just that AND connected our lesson to one of the most recent kid's movies "The Boxtrolls.". We read the book "This is Not a Box" by Antoinette Portis(and we read "This is Not a Stick" just for fun too!). Since I have limited time, the kids then took a sheet of paper and added another illustration for the book. What I especially love about the book as an example to start is that the illustrations are basic line drawings. We talk a lot in my class about how creativity doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be a good artist but you do have good ideas and you know how to communicate them. It would be great if I had more time for them to have a box to truly turn into something for those kids who need a more tactile experience.
What kids doesn't love a box - large or small - at some point in their life to help transport them to another time or place! Let the kids have a chance to imagine even if it is for only one half hour a week!
While on the box theme, one more book I couldn't resist adding to this post is my childhood FAVORITE book "Christina Katrina and the Box.". (My copy is well-loved and from about 1975. When I share it with my students I always show them the page where my little brother decided to practice writing his name!) Christina and her best friend Fats (probably not a politically correct name anymore!) have fun with a refrigerator box much to the chagrined of Christina's mother throughout the book.