Return to Thinking Skills Inventory

Creative

Developed by Melinda Stanley

Creative thinking may simply mean the realization that there’s no particular virtue in doing things the way they have always been done.

-Rudolph Flesch

Complete three out of the seven activities listed below:

  1. Using a journal, record daily for one week one of the topics listed below. At the end of the week, write about your topic in a poem, paragraph, song, etc. Do this for four weeks, using a different topic each week.
    1. The most beautiful things you’ve seen.
    2. The most boring things you’ve seen.
    3. The most encouraging things you’ve seen.
    4. The ugliest things you’ve seen.
    5. The most colorful things you’ve seen.
    6. The most frightening things you’ve seen.
    7. The saddest event or scenes you’ve seen.
  2. You are about to be abruptly sent back to the Stone Age and you have five minutes to prepare eight household items before departure. Take five minutes and make a list of the items you will pack. Describe why each item was chosen and how it will be used. Choose the most vital item and explain why this item is one you could not live without. Imagine and explain your thoughts on how man managed prior to having these vital items. Explain what might have prompted the development of these items. This may be presented to the class in presentation or discussion style or in a written paper (one to two pages).
  3. In one or two pages, explain how you would restructure a 24-hour day and why?
  4. If you had to draw something never before drawn, what would you consider drawing? Explain this in one page or less and include a drawing of your object.
  5. In 200 words or less, describe the color blue to a person who has never seen that color before.
  6. Here are a few lines from William Wordsworth’s "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud." Read the poem (or have it read to you) and absorb the mood and atmosphere and begin to be ready to enter into an experience into the unknown:
    7. I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
    That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
    When all at once I saw a crowd,
    A host, of golden daffodils;
    Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
    Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
    Continuous as the stars that shine
    And twinkle on the milky way,
    They stretched in never-ending line
    Along the margin of a bay:
    Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
    Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

    Now close your eyes and imagine you are filled with unusual expectation. What comes to your mind’s eye? What images begin to flow? Where do they lead? Whom do you meet? What happens? Let the images lead you wherever they will. Observe what happens. Now you begin to be less excited. You are preparing to return. In a shot you are back in this room. Now open your eyes and record as much of the image experiences you had that the poetry inspired or initiated. You may write or draw the consequences of the poetic experience.

  7. Share what you know creatively with others by creating or producing one of the following products:

Create…a model, a slide show, a filmstrip, an advertisement, a dance, a political cartoon, a word-play game, a radio program, a bulletin board, a recipe, a slogan or bumper sticker, a musical instrument.

Write…and produce a play, a book, a letter, a computer program, a poem, a new law, a song, an opinion article, an essay, tape a conversation, a story, a biography, a letter to the editor.

Make…a game, a diorama, a photo album, a calendar, a relief map, a tape recording, a videotape, a map, a collage, a chart, a mural, a slide/tape presentation, a lithograph, an etching, a list, a travel poster, a discovery, a transparency, a learning center, a dictionary, a puzzle, a mobile, a collection, a simulation game, an ammonia imprint, an animated movie, a timeline.

Draw…a diagram, a set of blueprints, a graph,

OR

You might…do a puppet show, give a speech, have a panel discussion, collect pictures, keep a diary, take a survey, design an experiment, produce a film, draft and circulate a petition, design needle work, make an etching, teach a lesson, design a wall hanging, build a planetarium, give a demonstration, conduct an interview, compile a booklet, develop a set of study prints, design and construct a new product, plan a journey, compile a portfolio of sketches, submit items to magazines, present a mock trial, formulate a scientific theory, hold a press conference, start a business or be a mentor.