Imagination and Creativity

Children have amazing imaginations. My kids have all been fabulous pretenders in their day to day play. But I still think it is important to teach children imagination and creativity. Art can sometimes be a hard things for kids to use their imagination. They can easily get stuck in a rut of the teacher telling them what to make and how to make it. I try to let my children and students art reflect them, and actually love when they all turn out different. But teaching creativity can be tricky too. Luckily I did find a few great resources and ideas online.

To introduce the theme I used a fun idea that a friend used way back when Miss B. was in preschool, a good 10 years or so ago. I had gone to pick up Miss B. and they were not quite finished and were doing this activity. It stuck with me all these years, so I implemented it into our lesson.

I had the children imagine that they were a pizza. I had them lay on the floor and close their eyes and told them to feel like they were dough being rolled out. As you can see they look very relaxed. :) They did open their eyes plenty, but did a great job being calm and quiet and imagining. I had precut the toppings and had them in separate small bowls ready to go.

Our toppings were:
yellow triangles: pineapple
red circles: pepperoni
green circles: bell peppers
yellow shredded paper: cheese

They all really enjoyed being pizzas. It also got their minds going on imagination.



For art I traced a few circles onto one paper, and a triangle on the other. I told them to imagine what the circles and triangles could be, and then draw it as best they could. It was fun watching them think and then transform the shapes into something.

Here you can see a triangle became a skirt a part of a person, maybe a skirt or dress.

and these circles became wheels on a vehicle.


The second day I glued a bean on a page, and had the kids imagine what might grow out of it, and then draw it. I told them they could imagine anything they wanted, a real plant, a pretend plant, it didn't even have to be a plant. This one was a little trickier, and since they were all 3 or barely 4, their drawings aren't super clear. But they did have fun with it.

Anything you can do to get the kids thinking on their own and expressing their creative side. I think we also just played music and let them paint whatever they thought of.