I love to challenge my children to “think outside the box” – see things in new ways, come up with alternative uses for everyday items, tinker, propose ways to improve something and generally be creative thinkers. It doesn’t need to take a lot of time, or preparation, to develop and strengthen children’s creative thinking. One activity that encourages creative thinking is to look at everyday household items in a new way. In the past we have done this with yarn creations (which you can read about here). We recently did a similar sort of thing (minus the yarn) with some office supplies.
For this creative thinking activity I photo copied various office supplies to be included in a collage, or you could do a drawing (you don’t need to photo copy the items, instead you could place them on the paper and then include them in a collage or drawing). The aim of the game is to incorporate the item into a drawing or collage.
We did this on the weekend so even my husband had a go.
Everyone looked through the various pages containing the photo copied items and then chose one. I encouraged my children to look at the photocopied picture upside down and on the side. I then asked them if the shape of the object reminded them of anything. We then brainstormed different ideas for including the photocopied object in a picture.
Some of the collage pieces inspired by office supplies:
Miss Seven chose a photo copied notebook to create a house:
Miss Seven then chose a page containing three paper clips. Together we brainstormed some ideas. When brainstorming, Miss Seven was initially thinking about incorporating the paper clips into a scalloped skirt/dress (with the paper clips in a vertical position). Then Miss Seven turned the paper on the side and said that the paper clips could be used as part of a fish tail, so a fish it was. Miss Seven’s fish creation:
Master Five also chose to create with a page containing paper clips. The minute he saw this page he said it reminded him of a puppy. I couldn’t see it at first, but he eagerly pointed it out and created this puppy on a skate board:
I thought I would share my husband’s creation too. He said that the sharpener reminded him of Ned Kelly the bushranger, so he made a bushranger.