Gifted and Talented Creativity Skills

In this 45-minute, ongoing class, learners will participate in games and challenges to grow their creativity skills. Anyone is welcome to join this class, but challenges will be designed specifically for gifted and talented learners. Developing and growing creativity skills is an important part of a gifted child's education not only because it helps them to develop their talents, but because once a child learns the creative thinking process they can create anything or solve any problem!

An example of classes:
Week 1- Think Outside the Box Challenge: "It's Not a ________"
Learners will begin with a picture of a partial shape and asked to complete a drawing using that shape. The only catch is that the shape cannot be completed as what it actually is- it must be turned into something new!

Week 2- Vocabulary/Illustrator Challenge
Learners will be challenged to come up with a joke using homophones and then illustrate their joke in any style they wish! Learners can choose which homophone pair they use and may illustrate it through a comic, sketch, digital art, or any art form they choose!

Week 3- Trash to Treasure STEM Challenge
Learners will be challenged to use "good trash" to create something new and useful! The sky's the limit as learners invent and create projects using items they already have at home. For example, learners may use an empty cereal box and paper towel tubes to create a model robot. 

Week 4- Creative Process Challenge
Learners will learn the process of creativity through the William's Model of Creativity: Fluency, Flexibility, Originality, Elaboration. Learners will brainstorm as many ideas as they can think of for a fun topic such as uses for a plastic fork. They will then choose a few of their ideas to tweak and change, then choose one idea that is the most unique. They will then elaborate on their idea and make a plan to create it!

Week 5- Students' Choice
On months that have 5 weeks, learners will get to create anything they choose during class! They will be encouraged to use skills learned throughout the month to create whatever it is they choose. This can be a work of art, a story, a STEM project, an invention, or anything their imagination can come up with!