Possibility Thinking Starts Young - Keeping Creativity Alive

Creativity is learned. It just needs to be practiced.

What are some activities you can do with your children to encourage creative thinking?

Last fall I worked with my daughter’s kindergarten class to practice divergent thinking and coming up with new and imaginative ideas. I presented them with an object – a stick. Then asked “What is this?” Students: “It’s a stick” Me: “Yes, it

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is. Let’s think about what else it could be!” I demonstrated by showing and saying it is a broom and proceed to motion it in a sweeping fashion. We went around the circle asking each student to suggest what else the stick could be. This was their introduction to possibility thinking and learning that there are not ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers. We welcome imagination and new and different ideas. We also read the book ‘Not a Stick’ by Antionnette Portis to give further ideas of what the stick could be used for.

Since that fall day, my daughter’s class has practiced many opportunities for divergent thinking such as…

Fast forward to this past week. My daughter’s teacher worked on this exercise

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Lina

Lina Pugsley is a graduate of the Creativity and Change Leadership Program and a candidate for a Masters of Science in Creativity degree from SUNY Buffalo State. For the past 8 years, Lina has been researching and exploring ways to nurture creative skills and attitudes in children to promote creative confidence and resilience. She is passionate about supporting parents on ways to cultivate children's creativity starting in the early years.