Activating Creative Thinking--Our Year-Long Goal

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Good Morning Everyone!

We cannot believe it is the end of September!  We have had so much fun engaging our students, and ourselves, in creative and divergent thinking activities.  As our students are becoming more comfortable and excited about getting "stuck" while working on reading, writing, and content-area tasks, they are leading us in new teaching directions.  The kids' enthusiasm and positivity spark new wonders that they want answers to, and Anne and I are ready to facilitate that learning!

As promised, we completed Part 3 of our Water Cube Experiment.  The final question was, "What will happen if we stack pieces of colored water cubes in a test tube and leave them overnight?"  We encouraged the students to use what they had concluded in parts one and two as they thought about their new hypotheses.  Many students were ready to dig deep and think critically about what might happen.

This is what happened after 24 hours.  I forgot to take a picture of the tubes when we first made them. :(
The original cube colors were red, blue, and yellow.

Once the results were in, our students were spot on in drawing conclusions to explain why the colors mixed.

One group noticed that the cubes in one of their test tubes had darker, muted colors compared to all the other test tubes.  They concluded that it was because they mixed the cubes rather than layered them.  They believed there were too many colors mixing so they turned gray and a muted brownish purple.

Anne and I were ready to wrap up the lesson, but the students started shouting out new questions they had about the cubes!  One being, did the cubes melt together to form a solid tube rather than stay pieces?  They hypothesized that the cubes would come out in the shape of the tube.  We went with it.  Here is what we learned...

They were "chomping at the bit" to dump the cubes out of the test tubes.  Some kids were convinced a solid tube would come out.

Now, they all want to take cubes home to try their own experiments.  We would say this lesson was a success in inspiring creative and divergent thinking among our students.  We hope they are learning that they do not need all of the answers.  The fun and deep learning come when we discover the answers over time.

In writing, our students have been using mentor sentences to learn how writers use adjectives.  We used a sentence from one of our read alouds Lily's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes.  The routine we followed is one created by Ideas by Jivey.  She has amazing ideas and lessons.  We recommend checking her out.

The students added this to their writing binders.  On the first day we just listed everything we noticed about this sentence..  We will revise this sentence next week.  Revising the original sentence is day three of Jivey's plan.

We identified some parts of speech on day two; focusing on the adjective.  Then, the students brainstormed more adjectives about this picture and wrote their own sentences with adjectives.

We then wanted the students to apply adjectives to a poetry project we planned. After studying examples of acrostic poems and discovering some of their characteristics, our students were then given the task to write their own acrostic name poems.  They were challenged with using amazing adjectives as they wrote phrases for each letter of their name.  Some students even took on the challenge of writing phrases that flowed from one line in their acrostic poem to the next!  The poems and revisions that happened this week were beyond what Anne and I imagined.  They students seemed comfortable taking risks and making revisions. They are learning that our best writing does not happen in the first draft.  It happens in the many revisions after that.  One snag was creating an icon to go with their poems.  We had to model this several times before the students understood what the vision was for this project.  Again, the outcome was amazing

We were impressed with his use of simile!  He also has a deep message in his poem.  Not sure if he realizes that, but we do.

Notice the alliteration and amazing adjectives?  At the bottom of her page is her research of amazing adjectives she found to describe herself.

As we dive into the concepts of multiplication and division, Anne and I want the students to move beyond knowing how to multiply and divide to a level of understanding what is actually happening with the numbers.  So, we once again put our favorite thinking routine, "See, Think,Wonder," into practice.  The students are getting more adept at noticing things beyond the obvious.  They are also beginning to notice what these sights lead them think about and wonder about.  Below is what the students in Anne's math group brainstormed.

Lastly, and probably the most challenging activity of the week, was teaching the students about tableaus.  After watching two videos, the students were excited to create their own tableaus that showed the different aspects of Habit #4 Think Win-Win.  Anne took incredible pictures that will be attached to the Habit #4 posters we made our third-grade hallway. The posters are part of a school-wide activity where each grade level focuses on a different habit from 7 Habits of Happy Kids.

This tableau is meant to show balancing what I want with consideration for what others want.
Before...

After...

This activity really pushed our students into creative thinking.  They had to understand the concepts and try to portray that with their bodies and minimal props.  The concepts included:

Balance what I want with consideration for what others want.

Make deposits in each others' emotional bank accounts.

When conflicts arise, look for third alternatives.

Believe there is plenty for everyone.

Once our poster is completed, I will upload a picture here.  Here is a sample of some of the tableaus they students created.

We are so excited about what we have planned for this upcoming week.  We will teach the reading strategy: Making Connections thanks to our student, Julissa, for her natural connection from our Scholastic News article to the world event of the Amazon rainforest burning.  We will read some fall poems and perform one of them.  We are excited to see how our students interpret the poems for their performance.  We plan on using the connection strategy when we read another fall poem along with a nonfiction text about leaves changing colors.  We want the students to notice how connecting to information in the text leads them to a deeper understanding of the poet is trying to communicate in the poem. To complete that activity, we will do our favorite chalk smudge leaf art.  Stay tuned for pictures!  They will be gorgeous!

Have a great week!

Kim and Anne