Creativity: The Spice of Life and Learning

By Ruth Degman-Reed

Dr. Ruth Degman-Reed has put the fun back in teaching and learning. This book is a creative tool that reaches the "whole" child through fun activities, all while teaching language and the arts. The lessons are adaptable to all levels and any program you are already using in the classroom or at home. The hands-on activities will engage students in learning and allow individual creativity to support student growth and development. ""Shaunna Heberson-Valdez, Instruction Coach Masters of Education Salt Lake City, UT

The Importance and Purpose of This Book This book is a masterpiece that reinforces the need to develop the "total child" and encourage various creative skills in learning. It can make learning fun and emphasize sharing of ideas. This book has flexible uses. It can be an enrichment to a language arts program or serve as a review of basic grammar with worksheets to develop skills in various types of creativity. It can be used with a group or with an individual. It can be a springboard for teachers to develop their own creative worksheets and methods. It can also give learners skills to help them pass state writing tests through organization, grammar, brainstorming, and related skills. A student can start according to their present ability and this is the reason for the coded levels. "Foundational" skills deal with very basic skills using structured charts, to basic skills, to intermediate, then advanced levels for elementary students. This book can be used by teachers, tutors, or home schooling parents with sample steps to teach a lesson. This book can also change the lives of learners, because creativity is like magic that sparks excitement and learning that involves "thinking outside the box."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098015862

Book preview

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Creativity

The Spice of Life and Learning

Dr. Ruth Degman-Reed

ISBN 978-1-0980-1585-5 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-0980-1586-2 (digital)

Copyright © 2019 by Dr. Ruth Degman-Reed

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. However, worksheets may be reproduced for student usage. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Research

The Challenge

Importance of Creativity

Definitions of Creativity-Related Terms

Survey of the Literature for Background

Creative Process and Thinking

Some Important Things to Remember

Conclusions

Educational Thoughts in Verse

A Student Speaks of Creativity

Student’s Cry for Individuality

Teacher

Teacher’s Influence on Student

Education Needs to Step on the Moon

Educational Growth

Random Harvest

A Sample of Teaching a Lesson

Thinking Outside the Box: Ties to Creativity

Bibliography

Coded Worksheets

The Importance and Purpose of This Book

Codes for Creativity Levels

Introduction to Worksheets for the Teacher

Are You a Creative Teacher?

Thoughts to Stimulate Your Views on Creativity

Are You a Creative Teacher?

Samples of Words that Reflect the Writing Process, the Arts, and Creativity

Foundational Skills

Charts for Very Basic Creative Skills: Colors and Proper Names

Chart For Very Basic Skill: Verb Samples

Chart for Very Basic Skills: Noun Samples

Chart for Very Basic Skills: Adjectives

Chart for Very Basic Skills: Basic Numbers

Sample Lesson #1: Adjectives

Sample Lesson #2: Colors

Sample Lesson #3: Numbers

Sample Lesson #4: Capitalizing Proper Names

Sample Lesson #5: Complete the Sentences

Sample Lesson #6: Verbs (Part 1) and Pronouns (Part 2)

Sample Lesson #7: Proper Nouns and Action Verbs

Sample Lesson #8: Using A and An Before a Noun

Sample Lesson #9: Singular and Plural with Adjectives

Sample Lesson #10: Rhyming Words

Sample Lesson #11: Writing Titles

Sample Lesson # 12: Writing Questions and Answers

Sample Lesson #13: Getting Started

Sample Lesson #14: Starting a Story

Sample Lesson #15: My Family

Basic Creative Skills Worksheets

Creative Starter #1

Creative Starter #2

Creative Starter #3

Creative Cat

A Dog with Spots

Cold Winter Thoughts

Drawing a Flower

The Magic Box

A Treasure Map

Design a Clown or Superhero Outfit

Draw a Magic Chair

A Magic Book

The King’s Gold

The Queen’s Cat Is Lost

The Cleaning Robot

Rhyming Story Motivators (Adjectives and Nouns) #1 Rat on a Bat

Rhyming Story Motivators (Adjectives and Nouns) #2 Mouse in a House

Rhyming Story Motivators (Adjectives and Nouns) #3 Frog on a Log

Basic to Intermediate Creative Skills Worksheets

Poetic Training

Window Scene

Make a Picture

A Rainforest Bug

String Throw-out Design

Studio Portraits

Imagination Drill

Space Age Story

Space Age Computer

A New Kind of Robot

Magic Events

Objects and Creativity

What Can You Make?

Butterfly Design

Design a Modern Car or Bus

The Trunk in the Attic

Stuck on the Elevator

Pretending

The Enchanted Forest

The Very Unusual Watch

Redesigning an Animal

Meeting an Alien from Outer Space

This Is Your Page

Make a Design

Creating a Halloween Mask

Halloween Mask Starter

Christmas Tree Ornaments

Santa’s Problem

Christmas Time

Valentine Poem

Draw a Magical Easter Egg

Easter Fun

The Lost Easter Egg

Intermediate Creative Skills Worksheets

Proofreading Your Work

Test-taking Suggestions

Discussion and Sharing about Tests and Test Scores

A Sample Guide of Brilliant Brainstorming

Modern Designer

Fashion Design

Creative Word Meanings

Writing a Commercial for TV

The Ordinary Becomes Extraordinary

Wallpaper Design

A New School

Creativity for a Sweet Tooth

Something Old

Creating with Rhyming Words

Designing a Mailbox

Cartoons and Creativity

Thinking on the Spot

Creative Invitations

Problem-Solving Solution

Designing Placemats

Unusual Clothes

Designing Stationery

Puzzle Fun Challenge

Hats and Creativity

Crack! Ooooooh!

The Hidden Treasure Box

A New Cell Phone Design

What Is It?

Drawing and Describing

Puzzled Pieces

The Zoo’s New Animals

Creating with Dialogue (Quotation Marks)

Paraphrasing from a Paragraph

Title, Plot, Characters, Conflict, and Resolution

Create a New Holiday

Crazy Comparisons #1

Crazy Comparisons #2

Crazy Comparisons and Descriptions #3

The Secret of Synonyms

Attacking with Antonyms

Creating Sentences with Antonyms

Combining Emotions, Synonyms, and Antonyms

The Subject of Nouns

Topic Sentence

Creating with Cause and Effect

Partner Task with Verb Emphasis

The Vitality of Verbs

Verb Phrases and Using Verb Phrases with NOT

Advancing with Adverbs

Using Adverb Clauses

Samples of Using Commas with Creative Writing

Creating with Persuasive Writing

Creating with Expository Writing

Impressive Idioms

Impacting with Inferences

Categorizing and Comparing

Conjunctions

Summarizing

Creating with Compound Words

Creating with Contractions

A Sample Guide of Brilliant Brainstorming

Analogies

Creating with Alliteration

Predicting with Clues and Information

Writing with Splendid Similes

Writing with Magic Metaphors

Creating with the Present Tense

Creating with the Past Tense

Creating with the Future Tense

Patronizing Personal Pronouns

Advanced Creative Skills Worksheets

Right On! Write On!

Designing from a Prompt #1

Designing from a Prompt #2

Be a Star Writer

Values

Creating a Story Concerning Values

Problem-Solving

Imagine That

Your New Workout Equipment 1

Your New Workout Equipment 2

A New Musical Instrument 1

A New Musical Instrument 2

A New Way to Travel 1

A New Way to Travel 2

What’s behind the Doors?

Where Would You Go?

Sounding the Same But Different

Hurray for Synonyms!

A Dark Cave Is Found

Running for School President

An Underground City

Being Factual and Creative

Newspaper Article

My Poetry Book

You Are the Author

Write a Play (Drama)

Extra-Challenge Activities

Poem-Writing Partners

Do Your Own Thing

Secret Messages on Leaves

Watermelon Is No Longer Red

Fruits Come Alive

Writing Poems Using Opposites (Antonyms)

Using Your Name to Create

Names and Creative Thoughts

Vegetables Come Alive

Message in a Bottle

Creating Drama—Script Writing

Tips Before Researching Script Film Writing

Creative Composition 1

Creative Composition 2

Three Sets of Colored Stairs

In honor of Elizabeth Maurine Bingley-Cravens, my mother, who taught my twin brother, Russ, and me the magical implications and importance of creativity in our lives.

This book is dedicated to teachers, parents, and all those who know the value and power of creativity in language, arts, and the arts programs.

It is these people who can change the world—one student at a time.

If we want the benefits of creativity, we ought

to have the wisdom to teach it where it is found wanting, to encourage it where it shows signs of developing, and at the very least—to tolerate it where it threatens to disrupt our comfortable status quo.

—Harder

Foreword

One of my most memorable moments came when my students nominated me as their most creative teacher!

It is my belief that creativity is the life blood of future survival. We must think outside the box. Albert Einstein once said that imagination is more important than knowledge. As a teacher for thirty-three years, I kept a poster with that exact quote, while encouraging students to foster their own ideas.

In a classroom there should be a freedom to learn and express ideas in a creative way, to develop the total child. Dr. Degman-Reed’s research on creativity shows how it is related to self-worth and the use of one’s talents. She gives definitions of creativity and related terms; and encourages it to be an integral part of education—as well as self-development and sharing of ideas.

Creativity involves the individual, as well as group settings and cooperation. Following directions and discipline to finish the task in a creative setting, adds to the dynamics of some forms of communication, either verbal or non-verbal.

In a lesson on non-verbal group cooperation, I handed out Legos. Then each group had to build a structure, pay each member a different salary and communicate without words. This fostered creativity with a deeper understanding of group dynamics, as well as having fun.

Dr. Degman-Reed also enhances communication, sharing, and dynamics in her book on creativity. When you read one of her ideas, you are drawn into her ideas and they help one to think, organize and create with different mediums. As a parent, teacher or personal user of her ideas, you are instantly motivated to delve deeper into yourself, to project creativity.

Also in the children’s books that Dr. Degman-Reed writes, you can recognize the magic in her original illustrations and stories. When you read through her ideas you can store them for future references, because they