Teaching for Creativity Taster Cards

Activity

1. Read the first couple of pages of the picture book Nimesh the Adventurer by Ranjit Singh.
2. Show the page where Nimesh is walking down the street to home but before the reveal of what he imagines it to be. Ask students what they think Nimesh might imagine his street to be, then reveal it to be the North Pole. You could then finish the book if time or move onto the next step.
3. Take the children on a walk around the school or local area (alternatives: task them with doing this on their next journey to/from school or ask them to just remember their journey in).
4. For each new ‘place’ ask them to imagine where else they could be or what imaginary things they can pretend to see. Remind them to be as fantastical as possible and it is fine to say the first thing that comes into their heads. You could prompt them with questions such as: What does this remind you of? What adventure might happen here? What would make this more magical/fantastical/ fun? E.g. a park could become a jungle filled with tigers, a busy road might be a river swarming with piranhas, the dinner hall might be the base camp of Mount Everest, the playground might be the surface of Mars with alien life hiding inside craters.

Reflection

• What made you think of that?
• Where did your ideas come from?
• Was it easy or hard to think of things on the spot?

Go Further

Ask students to draw a scene from their imaginary journey, or create a map of their journey home from school but including the fantasy lands, characters and adventures that happen along the way.

Imaginative: Using Intuition

This activity encourages pupils to rely on their subconscious memories, daydreams, and fantasies for creative inspiration - encouraging them to make new connections without analytical thinking.

Activity

1. Each student has a piece of paper and pencil.
2. Put on some music, tell students to close their eyes and draw on the paper using only the music to inspire their pencil movement.
3. Ask them to choose a shape to be a character or strange creature and cut it out.
4. Now, they think about how their character might move, sound, live or eat.
5. They try being their character by moving and making its sound, interacting with other characters in the room. You could change scenarios to see how the characters react e.g. there is a thunderstorm, or an ice cream van comes to town.
6. Students then find a partner and tell a story about their character to them.

Reflection

• How did it feel to draw without being able to see the paper?

• Were you surprised by what you created?

• How did you know what your character would move and sound like?

Go Further

Learn the characteristics of your partner’s character. How does it feel and change in your own body? You could write down the stories or perform some of the stories in groups.

Imaginative: Playing with Possibilities

In this activity, students use random images produced to the sounds of music to create a character, exploring how they behave, move and sound. Students can also practice collaboration by working with a partner.

Activity

1. Use the whiteboard to show Class Pictures by Dawoud Bey.
2. Ask the class to describe the portraits and what they reveal about each sitter, E.g. How old they are? What they are wearing? What does their body language tell us about how they are feeling? What emotions does their expression suggest? How might the messages in the portrait be different if the individuals were in one group portrait?
3. Ask each pupil to think of 1 or 2 objects that they would like to be photographed with. For example, a favourite book or piece of clothing. Give pupils time to discuss their choices with a partner.
4. Encourage pupils to think about how they will sit or stand in relation to their chosen objects. How will the photograph express their individuality?
5. If you have enough cameras available pupils could take on the role of photographer in their groups, taking turns to take photographs of each other in class.
6. Decide as a class how you want to display the portraits in your classroom checking that everyone is happy to have their photograph on the wall.
   Alternatively, you could take a class photograph with pupils deciding how to stand or sit in the photograph as a whole class. Encourage them to think about how the photograph will reflect their personality individually as well as collectively as a class.

Reflection

• Why does it matter how you look, stand and dress in a portrait?
• Why is a portrait of you on your own different from one of you in a group?
• Why is it important to express yourself?

Go Further

Ask pupils to write a letter to the headteacher describing what’s important about their class, e.g. who’s in it, what they’re good at as a class, their class values, what they like about their school, where they live and hopes for the future.

Persistent: Daring to be different

This activity will encourage pupils to express their personality in front of others in the class. They will discuss with their classmates their choice of objects and experiment with how they will stand or sit to express themselves in their individual photographs.

Activities

1. Give each child a simple shaker E.g. egg shakers, hand bells, maracas or homemade shakers.

2. Introduce a familiar teddy or puppet and explain that ‘Teddy’ loves to dance but needs to have some upbeat dance music to dance along to.

3. Move the toy so it dances and encourage the children to make music with the shakers. Model that if Teddy stops dancing, they stop shaking.

4. After you have done this a few times, Teddy can tell you that he wants to dance with someone else – pass the Teddy to a child to have a go a leading.

5. Continue, giving children choices about who to pass the Teddy to so they can take a turn to lead.

Reflection

Were the children able to support and listen to each other?

Go Further

Go Further: Vary the tempo Teddy moves at to affect the music. Try physical conducting of jumping in and out of a hoop or start and stop songs with the body / instruments.

Collaborative

Children work as a group both through playing together, following instructions and honing their listening and watching skills. It supports them to take turns and make choices.

Activity

Display the question: ‘What connects you to someone else in your group?’

Divide the class into groups and on one big sheet, students write their names on the edge of the piece of paper and then draw a line that connects their name with someone else in the group.

After talking to each other, they then write down something that connects them to that person. It may be something they like doing, music they listen to, places they go etc.

Ask pupils to make a line of connection with everyone in their group, writing as many ‘connections’ as they can on each of the lines.

At the end, give pupils time to search for words that might be written on several of the lines. Maps from different groups can

Reflection

• Did you find out something new about someone in your
  class?
• How do we feel when we are connected to other people?

Go Further

This activity could be adapted for topic work where pupils are given key words or pictures, and in groups find ways to connect to their word or picture to another in the group. E.g plastic, ocean, recycling, sustainability, the greenhouse effect, ecosystems

Collaborative: Co-operating Appropriately

The physical creation of a connection map supports the talking process, and pupils need to work together on a sharedd piece of paper.

Activity

1. Explain to the class that they are going to write a ‘recipe’ for a happy,
   connected, learning class.
2. Divide the class into small groups and ask them to make a tableau (still picture) that shows a happy and connected, learning class. What might children be doing? E.g. Sharing, listening, collaborating, questioning, acts of kindness etc. Use a countdown from 10 to keep this pacey. Repeat a couple of times so children can explore different ideas.
3. Use the tableaus to spark ideas and write up some key words; kindness, caring, joy, curiosity, persistence.
4. Explain that they need to decide on quantities for each ingredient. For example, we might have a hundred handfuls of joy and a generous sprinkle of listening.
5. Ask each group to come up with two possible ingredients with amounts for the class recipe.
6. Share and write a whole class poem reflecting all the groups’ ideas.
7. Edit the finished poem as a whole class, sharing ideas and improvements before publishing.

Reflection

• How did it feel to think about your class in this way?
• What did you learn about your class or classmates that you didn’t know before?

Go Further

Children could write their own class recipe. What do they need to have for them to be successful and happy learners this year? What would be their five key ingredients? Can you write a recipe for a ‘Thriving School’

Disciplined: Crafting and Improving

Children work on developing their ideas from drama, to group work to finally working as a whole class. Children work collectively to improve and edit the final class poem

Activity

1. Ask children to write a one-sentence story about a moment in their lives. Give an example: On the way to school this morning, a large red truck drove through an enormous puddle of grey dirty water, splashing and soaking my brand new shoes.

2. Give children a three-minute time limit to write their sentence. Some children could stretch to two sentences but keep things simple and pacey.

3. Pupils then pair up and swap stories.

4. Ask pairs to draw each other’s story, emphasising that this isn’t about creating a great artwork but instead is about trying to include all of the people and objects that might be in the other person’s story. What are the important people or things to include? Where is the story set? Ask pupils to think about what’s important to include in their story drawing. What should be most prominent, what in the background? Allow five minutes for this.

5. Once each story has been drawn, each pair gets together with another pair and once again, swaps drawings. Using only the drawings, each person has to tell the ‘story’ they see on the paper. Who are the main characters? What do they look like? What are they doing? How do they feel?

6. Pairs can then discuss how ‘close’ each viewer got to the written story.

Reflection

• How did you feel when someone else told your story using a picture drawn by someone else?

• What was the most challenging part of the activity?

• What have you discovered about storytelling from this?

• Is there anything you would now change about the drawing you did?

Go Further

Can they do the same exercise for the maths of someone or something they have been learning about in school?

Persistent: Sticky with Difficulty

In this activity, children are responding to words and drawings from each other. They need to interpret, use and develop the information they are given before finally receiving feedback from the original author of the story.

A fun, physical game which can be used to spark a discussion with pupils about being a resilient learner. What can we do when we find our learning challenging? This game will help pupils understand the importance of persistence and problem solving.

Activities

Using a slippery floor, have children lie on a paper plate/piece of paper/fabric.

1. Can children move across the floor while keeping the plate or other object attached to their tummy?
   Use masking tape on the floor to demark a start or finish.
2. Evolve the activity by creating a treasure hunt along the way, collecting objects or arranging obstacles to move around or underneath. Children could try it on a different part of their body, for example on their side, sitting down using feet to push along.
3. Some children may find the crawling activities challenging or frustrating but with gentle encouragement and observing others, persistence can be modelled.

Reflection

• Observe how children evolve the game and create their own rules. Do they persevere or give up easily?
• Do they have difficulty in a more physical task or does a child who is not verbally communicating excel in a physical challenge?

Go further

Go Further: Use bubbles and blow them above the children lying down, asking them to pop them with their toes. Play slow, calm music and pause in between bubble blows to breathe or count breaths.

Persistent - Sticking with Difficulty:

Children are encouraged to use their bodies to overcome a challenge. These types of movement activities support hand-eye coordination and body/spatial awareness, relieve body stress and support greater levels of self-regulation.

Activity

1. Give students five sticky notes each.
2. Students have three minutes to hunt around the playground or classroom for everyday objects to describe, ideally using similes and metaphors.
3. They then write their description on the sticky note and stick it to the object.
4. E.g. ‘the tree is a tall skyscraper touching the sky’, ‘the sink is an empty swimming pool’.
5. After all the sticky notes have been placed, students move around the space reading all the descriptions and collecting five notes each (but not their own!).
6. Students then turn their collected descriptions into a five-sentence poem about the space, and share it with a partner.

Reflection

• How did you feel using someone else’s ideas?

Go Further

Hold a class poetry slam where students perform their poems. You could also expand this to other types of figurative language, linking to what the class is learning in literacy – e.g. personification, hyperbole, alliteration etc.

Persistent: Daring to be Different

This activity encourages students to experience and use ideas that are not their own, building self-confidence to take risks in their creativity.

Activity

1. Students choose a word, write it on a piece of paper, fold it, and put it in a pile. You could relate this to a topic you are studying or it can be random.
2. A volunteer picks out five pieces of paper.
3. Together, the class creates a five line poem using those five words.
4. Can it be improved by adding another word from the pile?
5. Continue to craft – improve by removing, replacing, or adding words from the pile.

Reflection

• Do you feel you got it right the first time?

• How did it feel to listen to other people’s ideas to improve our work?

Go Further

Bring a new word daily/weekly and add to the class pile of words and continue to improve the poem. Add a theme or rules.

Disciplined: Crafting and Improving

This activity illustrates the important process of moving beyond the first attempt or first answer and the power of working collectively to improve and edit.

Activities

Put students in pairs and give them one minute to draw each other in each of the following ways:

• Without taking the pencil off the paper

• Using the non-dominant hand

• With dots instead of lines

• With eyes closed 2. When the portraits are finished, partners look at the other person’s drawings and pick out three things they like.

Reflection

• How did you find each task and how were they different?
• How did you encourage yourself to complete the tasks?

Go Further

You could use this as an opportunity for pupils toh discuss a PSHE or RSE topic while they draw. For ‘Healthy Friendships’ they might ask things such as: ‘How does someone show they are being a good friend?’ or ‘How do you resolve a disagreement you had with a friend?’

Persistent: Sticking with Difficulty

This activity gets more challenging as more constraints are added, so students practice not giving up. It demonstrates the positive, and sometimes surprising, results of persistence.

Activities

1. Lay out a range of unusual costumes and ask students to choose one.
2. Encourage students to embody characters related to their costumes. For example you could ask them to move around the room in the style of their character – will they move carefully and slowly or excitedly and fast? If they have props, encourage them to act out with them if appropriate.
3. Gather everyone together and take a picture of everyone in their costumes.
4. If appropriate, give instructions to jump, put hands up, wave at the camera or pull a funny face – reminding them that they are still the character! What do they think their character would do?
5. Take a few different pictures, then look at them as a group on a big screen. Comment on each student’s choice of costume and pose, explaining what character you think they are and how you know.

Reflection

• How did it feel to be another character?

Go Further

If you are working with a story, you could use props and costumes related to the specific characters in the story. You could show these pictures at the beginning of future lessons as a recap of previous learning – teachers can talk through each character and costume choice then praise pupils for their choices.

Imaginative: Playing with Possibilities

The exercise encourages students to experiment with wearing expressive costume pieces and playfully explore characters associated with them. This activity also supports being collaborative.

Activity

Choose a book to read the start of, which is suitable for the age of your students e.g. Eight Pieces of Silva by Patrice Lawrence, Oh My Gods by Alexandra Sheppard or The Lightening Catcher by Clare Weze.

Divide students into small groups. One person will become one of the characters from the book. Allow them to choose but encourage them to pick a character they know something about – enough for them to imagine how they might be feeling.

The other members of the group question the ‘character’ in the hot-seat – asking them questions about what is happening in the story and what they want to know from that character.

The person in the hot-seat should try to answer as best they can, imagining they are the character. They aren’t answering as themselves, and should try to think back to what the character was like in the story so far, as much as possible. They may have to make lots of things up – which is fine! Allow five minutes for this.

When students have had a chance to ask questions, ask the groups to share their favourite question and answers from their groups with the rest of the class.

Reflection

• Which questions do you think got the best answers?

• Why do you think that is?

Go Further

Members of the group could take it in turns to swap in, trying out different characters (or the same if they want to). You could read on (or ask students to read in their own time) and find out if any of their questions were answered, or if any of the hot-seat guesses were correct!

Inquisitive: Wondering & Questioning

Students practice asking questions of a character, with the aim of finding out what sorts of question may elicit the most interesting response.

Activity

1. Read some of the short story You’re The Boss by E.L. Norry out loud to the class in the anthology Happy Here: 10 Stories from Black British Authors – making sure the class get to vote when given options.

2. Discuss how this story is a little bit different to other fiction – why? Answer: It is in a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ format where the reader gets given options to decide what the character does next and is in the second-person present tense.

3. In pairs or groups of three, challenge students to create their own mini-story in this format. Give them 2 minutes to agree on an opening setting and a premise. For example:

• You get to school and discover nobody else is there, it is totally deserted.
• You find a bag of lots of money hidden in a cupboard of your house.
• On the way home from school, you see what looks like a spaceship, fall from the sky.

4. One person becomes ‘The Boss’, verbally telling a story to the group in just 5 minutes but at intervals, giving the other(s) in the group/pair a choice (between 3 and 5 choices is a good number to aim for). Based on the choices, The Boss comes up with the next part of the story. They can include some interesting description but the emphasis here is on plot and action.

5. They could do this just verbally, or if you want them to write up the story later, provide them with a large sheet of paper and a pen to write down a ‘flow-chart’ (which may help if working in groups of 3 and allows them to make different choices!).

Reflection

• How did it feel not knowing where the story was going? Did the turns the story took surprise you? How?

Go Further

Allow the members of the group/pair to swap over so someone else is The Boss and challenge them to try and finish the story. Have them write up the story so someone can read and play along - creating a flow chart with the choices first will help with this.

Imaginative: Using Intuition

Working collaboratively, students are challenged to think on their feet coming up with ideas / making choices without knowing the outcome of where they are going in advance.

Activity

1. Give each student a piece of paper, a pen and some sticky notes.
2. Ask them to write their name in the middle of the paper and some number facts about themselves spaced out around their name. For example: 3 for size of shoe, 58 for house number, 6 for age etc.
3. Students cover each number with a sticky note. On each note they should write or draw a clue or a challenge for a partner to work out the number below. For example, 12 ÷ 4 = ?, 60 – 2 = ?, 3 x 3 = ? etc. Encourage them to be creative – don’t just use calculations; how else could they show or represent a number pictorially or using data?
4. Divide students into pairs and ask them to swap sheets and work out the maths of their friend.

Reflection

• Did you discover any new ways to write or draw calculations?

Go Further

Can they do the same exercise for the maths of someone or something they have been learning about in school?

Inquisitive: Wondering and Questioning

Maths of Me encourages students to find creative ways to ask questions and find answers. It gives students the opportunity to see how another person may solve problems in a different way to them – and they can both be right.

Activity

1. Look at the book Black and British: An Illustrated History by David Olusoga. Show an image from the book, for example you could choose one of the images from pages 28 and 29.
2. Ask them to write headings on a piece of paper: See, Think, Wonder
3. Put a timer on the board. Give them two minutes to write under each heading their thoughts about the image: What do you see? What do you think is going on? What does it make you wonder?
4. Share ideas as a class. Ask students to follow up on their thoughts by asking: What makes you say that? Encourage light touch and friendly debate if students have different opinions. Encourage students to share if they are changing their minds based on hearing what others think and their reasons.
5. Explain that students are being inquisitive and curious, but they also may be making assumptions and taking things at face value. Reveal information about the image (who it is and what is happening).

Reflection

• Did anyone feel like they had their assumptions challenged?

• Did anyone feel like they were challenging assumptions?

Go Further

Now students know more about what is happening in the image, what do they now wonder? Choose one of their questions to discuss (a philosophical open-ended question rather than one which requires research to find factual information).

Inquisitive: Wondering & Questioning

Through discussion students build on others’ ideas, develop their critical thinking, and start to challenge opinions - or have their own assumptions challenged.

Activity

1. Create a class story together, giving students a choice between two options for the scenes, characters and actions in the story.

2. Incorporate students’ special interests for each of the choices, ideally displaying images of each. E.g. You might start off trapped in either a maze or a pizza restaurant with weather outside that is either raining or windy, and then escape fast or slowly thanks to the help of…

3. Create a box filled with props for each decision that needs to be made. For example:

• A parachute for everyone to start sat under
• A microphone to make sounds
• Spray bottles, fans and torches for the weather
• A drum to help represent the speed of movement
• Oyster cards, red fabric and steering wheels for transport
• Any other special interest toys

4. Run through the story twice, asking students in turn to choose and make decisions in the story respecting when it is someone else’s special interest in the choice and not their own.

5. Add extra moments in the story based on pupil responses, allowing them to shape the story.

Reflection

• Did you choose someone else’s special interest or only your own?

• Did you enjoy listening to other people’s ideas?

Go Further

Note down pupil preferences and incorporate them into new stories.

Collaborative: Co-operating Appropriately

This activity supports students in turn-taking and listening to others’ ideas, encouraging them to contribute positively to group work. This activity also supports being persistent and imaginative.

Activity

Remove or move round certain key things in the classroom.

Act ‘surprised’ when you enter the classroom. ‘What has happened here?’ See if children can ‘spot the difference’ and make observations about what has changed.

After the children have made some factual observations: ‘The sand tray has gone!’ ’Where are all the paints?’ tell the children that whilst they were at break you did hear a loud rumble coming from the classroom.

Use this ‘hook’ to start a story telling process with the class. Who might have been in the classroom? What might have happened? When did it happen? How can we find out where the objects have gone? Give children thinking time followed by time in pairs to discuss their ideas.

Share ideas as a whole class. Encourage children to justify their ideas: ‘I think a dragon came in and took the sandpit because he needed the sand to put out fires.’

Reflection

• Did the children have similar ideas?

• How imaginative did you think the class were?

• If you were to repeat this activity but removed different objects, do you think the story would change?

Go Further

When you remove certain objects from the learning space you could place them in different parts of the school. Children could then hunt for the missing objects, searching round the school and developing the story further by working out who moved them and why.

Persistent:

Children may have very different ideas about what has happened in the classroom but by justifying their ideas they may encounter questions and challenges from their classmates. As they work together forming a story, they will have to work with the uncertainty that no one knows what has happened or how the story will end.

Activity

1. Draw a simple smiley face on the board. Ask the students what it is. They will most likely all say, “a face.” Point out that it is in fact two dots and a line. Our imaginations create the face by making connections.

2. Ask for a word, any word – it can be on a particular theme i.e climate or you can relate the face on the board to a character from a book you are reading. Choose one of the words and write it next to the face.

3. Draw a line from the word to the face, creating a speech or thought bubble. Ask why this person is thinking or saying this word.

4. Continue to ask the students more questions about the person, building a story of who this person is and adding details to the board as you learn more about the character.

5. Draw a second face on the board but with a different expression. You could ask students for suggestions of how this person could be feeling.

6. Begin to build a conversation between the characters. What question might this person ask? How would the first person respond? Encourage students to ask open ended questions.

Reflection

• Can you imagine what both characters might say next?

• What would happen if we added in a third character?

• Have you learnt anything new about either character?

• What would happen if we changed the starting word or question?

Go Further

If you have more time, children could improvise the conversation started on the board to develop it further. Children could do this exercise individually or in pairs to examine characters from books they are reading or to generate ideas for stories.

Imaginative: Playing with. possibilities

Students can pose different ideas, working imaginatively and making connections between words and drawings.

Activity

Introduce a box of objects that evoke awe and spark conversation. E.g. maps, postcards, keys, telescopes, shells, flags, jewellery, gadgets.

Ask children to select an object and introduce it to the group i.e. what they like about it / what they think it is. Encourage abstract / different uses of the objects.

Where do they think the items came from?

Who do they belong to?

How were the objects used?

Support children to tell a story incorporating their descriptions into imaginary scenarios. You could write it as a group on the board. E.g. if a child were to imagine a river that is blocked, you might ask which one of the objects might help them to get across and how?

Retell the whole story back with the children joining in acting out and animating their objects.

Reflection

• Were any objects more helpful in sparking their imagination?

• Were the children able to think of different contexts to use the objects, did any surprise you?

Go Further

Create a provocation box of items that children can discover and mix and match items. You may want to link a box to a specific story character or historical figure in a loose way.

Imaginative: Playing with Possibilities

Through playful experimentation, children explore possibilities and look for connections, linking their exisiting knowledge and understanding of the world.

Activity

1. Lay out a large piece of paper on the floor. This needs to be large enough for all pupils to sit on.
2. In turn, pupils choose somewhere to sit on the paper and draw round themselves in a sitting position creating a box shape. If you have carpet places, children could sit on the paper in their usual carpet space.
3. Using a variety of art materials; pencils, pens, collage materials, children spend time decorating their space in a way that represents them.
4. As children work on their own individual spaces they might find that their space slightly overlaps with their neighbours’. Can they connect their drawings in anyway?

Reflection

• We have created a tapestry: a single work of art composed of many materials and ideas.
• What do you notice about it?
• How does it make
  you feel?
• What will people see when they look at it?
• What do you choose to share with the world, and how is that reflected here?

Go Further

If you were to add words to your space, what words would you choose to capture your personality and character? What would be your story that you could write to fill this space?

Collaboratively: Co-operating Appropriately

Children have to be sensitive to each other’s drawings, sharing the space and respecting each other’s ideas. Children will need to share the resources available and reflect on their own individuality as well as what connects them to other members of the class.

Activity

1. In groups of three, students each choose three strips of coloured paper.
2. On one piece of large paper per group, students choose together where to put the strips to make a collage of their nine strips of paper.
3. Next, students choose one line each and make a movement representing their chosen line, using their body.
4. Ask students to show which line it was and why they made that shape.
5. Can students combine their movements together? How does their line connect to others? When does it cross or follow on from another? Can they show this through their movements to create a dance based on the collage?

Reflection

• What is it like to do this together?
• Did you help each other?
• How?
• Do you think it helped you find new ways to move?

Go Further

Students could choose another line on the collage and make the shape very different from the first one they made i.e. “If you made the first line with your arm, make this one with your foot.” Encourage students to help each other make different sorts of movement to the lines and find different ways to connect.

Collaborative

Students share ideas and work together to create a picture, then support each other to make and develop movement, both individually and then as a group. They are given an opportunity to share the product.

Activity

Share on the board, and out loud, Chen Chen’s poem When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities.

Lead a brief discussion on the poem: What’s is it about, and what techniques does the poet use?

Answer: The poet uses metaphors to imagine what he could be for the important people in his life – it is like he is turning himself into a gift for them to help them feel good. There is also an LGBT and ethnicity subtext in the poem students might pick up on.

Pupils write down people that they care about and what they couldbe for that person – encourage concrete objects rather than general feelings! What would make the person they care about feel better, and why? E.g. ‘To be a paint palette of bright colours for my Mum / to be the sunbeam my Dad calls me’.

If time, students can extend this metaphor to explore it further. E.g. ‘To be the sunbeam my Dad calls me / so I can light up his life’ Students share back their favourite metaphors.

Reflection

• Why is a specific metaphor a stronger writing technique compared to a general feeling?
• What inspired your metaphors?

Go Further

Finish the poem by including all the people originally written down, or focus it on one person and all the things you could be for them. What can you be for yourself – and how will you give that to yourself each day?

Imaginative: Making Connections

This encourages students to dig into how metaphors work, and how a specific image can conjure more feeling and understanding. It also asks them to look at how a seemingly simple poem can have more going on under the surface, and asks them to imagine what they could mean to others.