Spotlight on Sources:
Welcome to Renzulli Learning’s Spotlight on Sources, some of our most engaging resources to excite and inspire your students!
Creativity is a tool that all students need practice with! Renzulli Learning has thousands of creativity training resources for students of all interest areas. Have students click on My Enrichment Activities and explore the category “Creativity Training”.
You can also search the phrase “renzulli” to find creativity activities created by Joseph Renzulli! These activities can be found in both Spanish and English. Simply print the PDF or add the activity to your students’ favorites.
These activities work great as early finisher work, morning warm-ups, and challenges! Students may even find starting points for really interesting Independent Projects! If they do head on over to the Project Wizard and have students start a new project! Check out some of our favorite Creativity Training Activities below.
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To locate these activities within Renzulli Learning:
Under the 'Teach' navigation, click 'Search'.
On the Search page, 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.
K-2
If You Were
Creativity Training
Have you ever imagined being something else? Did you wonder what it would be like? Check out "If You Were" to discover what it would be like to be a hippopotamus, a spider crab, a boa, a blue whale, and more!
Make a Crown
Creativity Training
In the book "Where The Wild Things Are," the main character travels to a fantasy land filled with wild things and monsters. While visiting his fantasy land, he wears a crown! Follow the instructions in this activity to build your own crown!
New Directions In Creativity Mark A, Clues From Clothes by Joseph Renzulli (Creative Learning Press)
Creativity Training
A disguise, like a costume, is used to make a person look different from his or her normal self. For example, costumes are used by clowns in a circus or actors in a movie. In addition, many occupations require special costumes or working clothes. In activity a, you will think of a special job for a person and draw the clothes that he or she will need for that job. In activity b, pretend you are a famous detective following a suspicious looking person. To keep that person from suspecting he or she is being followed, draw a disguise for the detective.
3-5
New Directions In Creativity Mark 1, Fun With Figures by Joseph Renzulli (Creative Learning Press)
Creativity Training
Apply your creative thinking skills to nonverbal information in this fun activity. Try to combine these two figures to produce as many new figures as you can.
New Directions in Creativity Mark 1, Cartoon Captions by Joseph Renzulli (Creative Learning Press)
Creativity Training
Be creative and use your sense of humor to write captions for each cartoon picture. Have fun with this one!
New Directions In Creativity Mark 1, Comparisons by Joseph Renzulli (Creative Learning Press)
Creativity Training
Stretch your imagination and develop new ways to look at the world around us by creating several comparisons for a particular situation. Be as original and colorful as you can, and as realistic or unrealistic and fanciful as you desire!
6-9
New Directions In Creativity Mark 1, Word Trees by Joseph Renzulli (Creative Learning Press)
Creativity Training
Creativity Training
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!
New Directions In Creativity Mark 1, Can You Design It? by Joseph Renzulli (Creative Learning Press)
Creativity Training
Creativity Training
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!
New Directions In Creativity Mark 3, Building With Words by Joseph Renzulli (Creative Learning Press)
Creativity Training
Creativity Training
Develop spelling and vocabulary skills by adding parts to both the beginning and ending of a word to form a new word. For example, adding letters to the word "form" creates new words such as transformation, conformity, and performance.
10-12
Future Problem Solvers Generating and Focusing Ideas by Future Problem Solvers
Creativity Training
Creativity Training
Use this FPS Student Guide on generating and focusing ideas to help you and your team create new and unique ideas. This guide will give you focusing tools to evaluate, compare, categorize, and highlight generated ideas. Happy Brainstorming!
American Cinema
Creativity Training
Creativity Training
Learn how Hollywood films are made. Get a head start on your career in the movies by learning all about Hollywood cinema. A video instructional series on film history for college and high school classrooms and adult learners; 10 one-hour and 3 half-hour video programs. Using clips from more than 300 of the greatest movies ever made, this series explores film history and American culture through the eyes of over 150 Hollywood insiders, including Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, and Michael Eisner. In-depth treatments present film as a powerful economic force, potent twentieth-century art form, and viable career option. American Cinema connects subjects such as history, business, and English with other studies. In addition, it is a perfect vehicle for developing visual and media literacy skills and can be used as a springboard for creative-writing endeavors and media production.
Learn to Draw with John Ruskin
Creativity Training
Creativity Training
John Ruskin was the leading art critic in 19th-century England. This website offers two online courses that follow the principles set forth in Ruskin's 1857 book "The Elements of Drawing," and also use the teaching collections of art that Ruskin assembled. Watch video lessons that teach you how to draw, and then complete practical exercises in nature, architectural, landscape, and narrative drawing.
Thanks for being a part of the Renzulli Learning family and we hope you find these resources helpful.
Your Renzulli Learning Team