Creativity Time

I'm slowly changing the way I teach. Aren't we all? Through blogs, PD (I mean PD that I seek out. Not that soul-deadening garbage we all sit through at school.), and speaking with colleagues, I try to keep up to date and make changes in my teaching that reflect what I feel is best for my students. 

This year I decided to have more fun. I already mentioned that I have more free choice options this year for students who finish early. (Blocks, Legos, pattern makers, connectagons, etc.) I'm also trying to use more fun half day or one day mini projects. Last week I did a Lego building challenge that was awesome. This week I had one rotation to fill for 2nd grade before a student teacher started with them. I introduced the Movie Mash-Up drawing prompt. Hilarity ensued. 

Fashionable Toilet - The Teen Years. Two thumbs way up!

Basically, there are three columns on a handout. Kids pick one part from each column in order to create a movie name. They then have about 30 minutes to illustrate a poster for that movie. The movie titles can be pretty wacky and that's half the fun. It really gets kids thinking about how to best represent the title. 

That baby is so loud in outer space. I'd see that movie just to find out how. 

I'm working to do more things like this. I have a lot more ideas and plenty of school year to go. Is anyone else doing something similar? Share!