Friday, February 5, 2010

A Creative Outing

I thought that I had posted this on here or on Facebook, but apparently not, so... A couple weeks ago, I went to dinner with A. When we were almost done, she said, "now what should we do?" I asked her if she wanted to help me with some homework, which involved getting some books on Creativity to use in my eventual classroom, etc. I ended up finding three fun books that I think fit the creative spirit I was looking for:


1. the Book of Invention by Thomas J. Craughwell



2. 2,317 ways to Save Money and Time: Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things by Reader's Digest


3. Optical Illusions: Amazing Deceptive Images - Where Seeing is Believing by Inga Menkhoff

There was also a really fun book about patents which had bubble wrap attached to the cover (as part of the cover), but then I remembered that you can now find patents easily on Google Patents online.

We were wandering around to see if anything else was available/better, when we came upon an employee who asked if she could help us find anything. I hesitated, but then proceeded to ask if they had a section on "Creativity." She seemed rather perplexed and then suggested that perhaps in the "Self-Help" section? lol! This confused me. How did she arrive at that answer? I said thanks, but no, and wandered over to the art section rather perplexed. In the art section there was a really fun book on color that had hundreds of color swatches. I would've bought this book, but it was rather expensive and I thought that the three I already had might be more versatile. However, it did inspire me to go to Loews to "steal" their color swatches! After paying for the books, we headed over and had great fun playing with the colors.



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Creativity Journal

Creativity: to create something novel and appropriate to the situation (see post: "What is Creativity," December 11, 2009)*

1. Create something out of the word simcha (joy/happiness/festivities/celebrations/etc)

2. Finish my chairs (See post, "Update: My Chairs")

3. Pottery

4. Start a children's Art class

5. Teach Art at a Women's Correctional Facility

6. Come up with assignments for the American Arts packet

7. Change the assignments in the Drama Costuming packet - the students will create 4-5 female and male costumes from the 11 time periods included in the packet, plus the final instead of only writing (copying and pasting) info about each time period.

8. Create a book exchange/book club for illiteracy/aliteracy

9. Learn Art in a foreign country

10. Write a book

11. Start a children's magazine for children by children and publish it on the web.

12. Create trees and hands (not necessarily together, but maybe?)

13. Blog book - only novel in the sense that it's my own writing!

14. Create a chess set (even though I don't personally play chess, lol!)

15. S'mores with a twist

16. 3D art - I admire other forms of art, but I personally only truly enjoy the physicallity and manipulative quality of 3D art. There's something truly living in 3D art that I miss in 2D art.

17. Sign language hands (alphabet/words)

18. Hands of twisted metal coils

19. use different types of materials to create imprints in clay (wire mesh)

20. A shelf/centerpiece holder (a couple of bricks on the bottom, long, thin wood, 12" width laying on top, block (thicker than the bricks on the bottom - 6"?) in middle, and a short piece of wood on the very top).

21. vase (fill baggie with rice and seal the bag, wheel thrown then carefully squish).

22. 3D collage out of meaningful paper.

23. Babushka doll style vase with side cutout (possibly put a piece of glass in the side opening)

24. Babushka dolls - make smallest one first, with side opening and something inside(?), then the next biggest - place small one inside next biggest when done with the bottom of it and secure the two together. Continue this process with side openings in each so that you can see all the way through to the inside "jem" in the smallest one!

25. atlas - split into pieces and reassemble into something new - mobile? encase each piece in between glass sheets, hang as a put together puzzle.

26. paper dolls & scenery out of different types of paper, paintings, collages, maps, etc.

27. A storm cloud with a silvery lining (mobile?) ceramic/paper mache

28. "baby ducklings" for each child, somehow uniquely different somehow, name and date of birth.

29. "stained glass" with veggies/fruits & other natural things. Lacquered and soldered.

30. Men's dress shirts with faux cuff links printed onto the cuffs or fancy/fun buttons to replace the buttons on a standard dress shirt. button clips? a button cover-up to go over existing buttons without changing the button itself.

31. A pottery wheel bat that has form attachments in order to create smooth indentations in the "bottom" of the piece being thrown.

32. "Quilt" of the six-day-Christian-creation-period.

33. A dollhouse book for paper dolls! such a cool idea!!

34. print your own fabric using a large "rolling pin" stamp?

35. Cloth nesting dolls

36. map topography - cut out all of the countries and continents and islands, layer then largest to smallest hang them slightly apart. From an actual map? or traced out onto something else?

*Please be creative and use your own ideas and not mine. Although if you are inspired by my ideas and the inspiration and not the idea itself is used, then by all means, use the inspiration!!

About Me

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I love visiting with family and friends, reading, teaching, art, and day dreaming about world travel, especially going to Ireland someday. In 2009, I earned a MAED in Elementary Education. In addition, I completed both the Reading and Elementary Math Endorsements during the 2013-2014 school year. Currently, I teach first grade and love it!

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