SCAMPERing

Yesterday I outlined the intense scurrying done in my room to make it all pretty and organized for the big IU Celebration held in our building.  It must have been one swanky affair, as we teachers were offered leftover finger foods at lunch today.  Palm Fronds wrapped in prosciutto, antipasto on shiskabobs, and assorted other fare.  

The student volunteers reported that it was quite the event, with student waiters in bowties and tuxedo shirts, serving politely, followed by an extensive tour by the Linkcrew kids, outlining the features in our new facility.  Many hands and feet worked tirelessly to pull off the evening.

Apparently it was a rousing success, with many student leaders reporting how nice it was to talk to adults so interested in their school and in their education.

Scurrying and SCAMPERing.

While I'm sure the mental images provided by the description of the beehive of activity here at Donegal yesterday are fresh in your mind, I thought I'd share about the fun I had with my first graders today.  

We learned the word ACRONYM, and then applied it to one of my favorite creativity techniques - SCAMPER.  (It wasn't that far a leap from last night's festivities, right?)  My first graders where challenged to think of an animal, and then share it on a large paper, rotating from paper to paper until all three students in the group had contributed.

GIRAFFE  --  PEACOCK --- RACOON  

Substitute - the first letter in our acronym, challenged the kids to determine the significant characteristics of each animal, and figure out how to mesh them all together.

Combine - thinking about ideas, and then deciding which ones work well together, and then sketching the idea.

Next week we'll talk about two more ideas:

Adapt - letter two, we talked about how people need to be flexible when they are creative, and change their ideas to make them work to create something new.

Modify - making changes

(and the week after that P-E-R   - put to other uses, eliminate, refine....)

They worked hard, and when they were finished there were three new animals:

Peacockrakecongafe

Girpeacoon

PeagirRac

Each was unique -- as unique as their creators.  And when they journaled, they were as excited about learning the word ACRONYM as they were about Scamper.

And we were all sooooo much more flexible in our creative thought!