Speaking Up For Creativity

Give creativity a voice and discover your own creative side! Band together with your classmates to design a beautiful quilt that represents each student’s use of creativity everyday.

• 1.

  What is creativity? What does it mean to be creative? Does being creative mean that you have to be artistic, too? In what ways are you creative? Do you recycle objects to make interesting crafts? Do you blend unique ingredients to create delicious dinners? Maybe you come up with exceptional ways to solve problems. Discuss these questions with your class. You will find that every student is creative in some way, and creativity is all around us.

• 2.

  Together with your class, make a list of words that are associated with creativity. Think of words and phrases that stood out to you during your class discussion. Be sure the entire class can view the list easily.

• 3.

  Select one of the words on the class list to represent in a visual way. On a square piece of canvas painter’s tarp, use Crayola Premier™ Tempera Paint to write the word in the center of the paper. Think about how you can design the letters in the word to show how it represents creativity. Will you draw large, bubbly letters? Will the letters be squiggly and patterned?

• 4.

  Fill in the space around the word with designs and pictures that illustrate its connection to creativity. Think of interesting ways to use the paintbrush to make lines, colors, shapes, and patterns that will represent your word!

• 5.

  Carefully cut a small hole in each corner of the square canvas. Loop a piece of string or yarn through the holes and tie a knot to attach each student’s drawing together and form a large creativity quilt! Display the quilt so the entire school can see all

Benefits

• Students identify and discuss the various meanings and applications of creativity.
• Students connect creativity to aspects of life outside of art.
• Students use color, line, shape, pattern, and design to visually represent the meaning of a word.

Adaptations

• Use Crayola Model Magic® to mold the words! What 3D elements will enhance the representation of the word? What forms can be added to the word to symbolize its meaning? Add color with Crayola Markers!
• Explore the performing arts! What creative breakthroughs brought about changes in other artist areas like music and theater? Have students research the history of these genres and present their findings to the class.
• Poets use words in creative ways to evoke images in the reader’s mind or to hide meanings for in plain sight. Read some poems together with the class and discuss the poet’s creative use of the language. Invite students to write their own poems to share with the class.