Spotlight on Sources:
Welcome to Renzulli Learning’s Spotlight on Sources, some of our most engaging resources to excite and inspire your students!
As you enter into the end of the school year we know how busy you all are! This week we are featuring our favorite Creativity Training Activities from our very own Joseph Renzulli! These activities are perfect for the end of the year when you have a little extra down time!
Check out a few of our favorite activities below!
Don’t forget, if you want to assign a weekly activity simply search the title of the weekly activity from your Teacher Dashboard and then send the activity to a student as a favorite! To locate these activities within Renzulli Learning you can SEARCH Enrichment Activities and type in the title of the activity you would like to locate. For more ideas to infuse enrichment activities with your curriculum, please visit the Unit Supplements on the Teacher Site, under “Teach.” We can also link these enrichment resources to your regular curriculum if you send us a theme or topic.
Can You Design It? - New Directions In Creativity Mark 1
Creativity
Imagine that you are an engineer scientist who has been asked to design a space station. Brainstorm a list of things you will want to include and think about how you will make the best use of the small amount of space available, then draw a floor plan. You can then do the same and design a floor plan for a camping van!
Cartoon Captions - New Directions In Creativity Mark 1
Creativity
Be creative and use your sense of humor to write captions for each cartoon picture. Have fun with this one!
Changing Things - New Directions In Creativity Mark 1
Creativity
Many things are more useful to us because they have been made smaller or larger. In this activity, you can try to think of a list of things that would be improved if its size were changed.
Planning - New Directions In Creativity Mark 1
Creativity
Practice brainstorming skills and develop an organized plan for raising money for a class trip. Or pretend that you are the chairperson of a service group whose objective is to develop a plan for improving life in your school. Try to be as creative as possible to make your plan a success!
Sames and Opposites - New Directions In Creativity Mark 1
Creativity
Writers make their work come alive by varying their language. Writers can also develop moods and feelings by selecting the best word from a number of possible alternatives. This activity will help you expand your use of words. You will create a list of words that mean the same as or the opposite of a given word. For example, some words that mean the same as "acquire" are "obtain" and "pick up." Try to make a list of "sames and opposites" for words like funny, cold, and square.
Word Trees - New Directions In Creativity Mark 1
Creativity
The object of Word Trees is to fill each empty box with a word that is related to the box or boxes above it. For example, the word 'house' might make you think of such words as 'door' and 'home'. Next, the two words 'door' and 'home' might make you think of the word 'enter'. In this activity, you are encouraged to think of words that express both direct and indirect relationships. It's a great way to get your ideas organized!
Let's Write a News Story - New Directions In Creativity Mark 2
Creativity
This activity invites you to use your imagination as you write a news story about an imaginary event. You will get to create and discuss an ancient lost city and a talking dog! The stories should be as original and interesting as possible while attempting to answer the five W's of a news story (Who, What, When, Where, and Why).
Make-a-Sentence - New Directions In Creativity Mark 2
Creativity
See how many sentences you can write using the same four words in each sentence. See how many wacky variations you can come up with!
What Would You Call It? - New Directions In Creativity Mark 2
Creativity
Although there are already thousands upon thousands of words in the English language, we still need to invent new ones for new inventions sometimes. Pretend that you have been given the responsibility for creating new names for each of the imaginary things listed. For instance, a colorful name for "shoes that enable people to walk on water" might be "aquaboots."
Each week, we will send you teaching suggestions and a few examples of our best and most popular resources. For more ideas to infuse enrichment activities with your curriculum, please visit the Unit Supplements on the Teacher Site, under “Teach.” We can also link these enrichment resources to your regular curriculum if you send us a theme or topic.
Thanks for being a part of the Renzulli Learning family and we hope you find these resources helpful.
Your Renzulli Learning Team