Fourteen 5-Minute Games to Spark Kids’ Creativity

AN ALLIGATOR ATE APRICOTS!

see ALLITERATION NATION

Teaching creative thinking to kids helps them become independent learners and achievers for a lifetime. Nurture their imaginations and get ready to have fun, be challenged, and be amazed at the awesome ideas that flow.

In honor of 2014, here are fourteen favorite games that fire up creative thought and let imaginations run wild. Kids can play these quick games in groups or independently.

WORD GAMES

• PUT IN A GOOD WORD – The first player says a simple sentence such as “Birds can fly.” The next player must then add one or two words to the original sentence. For example, he may say, “Blue birds can fly.” Then, the following player adds another word or two. Now the sentence may become “Blue birds can fly quickly,” then, Blue birds can fly quickly toward Florida,” and so on until a player cannot think of another word to add to the sentence.
• LAST WORD – Say a sentence such as “I like peaches.” The next player must then create a sentence using the last word of the former sentence for the first word of his sentence such as “Peaches do not grow in the ocean.” Continuing the example, “Ocean and sand make a beach,” then “Beach toys are fun,” and so on. Play goes back and forth until one player gets stumped. For an extra challenge, restrict the sentences to a specific topic. 
• ALLITERATION NATION – Have a conversation with another player using alliteration. Choose a letter of the alphabet and create sentences using as many words that begin with that letter as possible. For instance, for the letter “w,” your sentence might be: “We want water whenever we waltz,” or “We will work with your wish.” Challenge your partner to an alliterative standoff to see who can create the longest sentences with any given letter. For younger children use three or four word sentences such as "a dog did dance."
• ACRONYM NERD – To begin this game, the first player calls out a four- or five-letter word. The next player must then think of an acronym for that word. For example, if the word is “nerd,” the next player might say, “Nine elephants rolled downhill.” This player then calls out another word, and play continues. The sentences must be complete, but need not be entirely logical.

STORY-SPINNERS 

• LIFE’S A BEACH – In this game of hypothetical mishaps, players dream up a myriad

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Guide Your Kids Down the Creative Rapids

There’s a magical mind chemistry known as “Creative Flow,” where we feel in sync with our task, and fully focused on our goal. The term was coined by psychologist and author, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi at the University of Chicago.

“Flow” describes a particular state of heightened  consciousness. As Prof. Csikszentmihlyi describes it, creative people are at their peak when they experience a sense of “unified flowing from one moment to the next, in which we feel in control of our actions, and in which there is little distinction between self and environment; between stimulus and response; or between past, present, and future.”

Flowing On All Fours

We are most likely to get into flow when our environment has four essential factors. The principles of flow hold true for kids, as well. Provide these factors for your kids, and you may be amazed.

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Creative Connections

Creative thinkers play with metaphors and analogies. This means that they look at one thing as if it were another thing. They ask, “What else could this be like?” They make new connections between unrelated things. 

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