A couple weeks ago, I was struggling to figure out a lesson for my 5th and 6th grade collage classes. They're old enough that I can do more ambitious and challenging projects and I love seeing what they make when given unique prompts and materials. Then during another restless night, I had the idea to borrow Melyssa's brilliant idea for the first prompt of the Creative Collective! A word for 2014!
Not familiar with the Creative Collective? Melyssa over at the Nectar Collective had the brilliant idea to share 23 creative prompts throughout the year to get people inspired to create, share, encourage and see other people's work! Pretty fantastic right?
So back to the kiddos...I asked them: What word(s) do you want to focus on this year? What do you want to accomplish? How will you make your word happen? Their response was incredible!
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We spent two weeks on this project. Week one was brainstorming their word and creating the background. Week 2 was for finding a creative way to write their word. After their collage was complete, I had them write on the back of their piece a list of ways they were going to achieve their goal. Their words were so varied, it was really exciting to see them share their word and get into the project. I really loved seeing what imagery they used and associated with their words.
Some memorable words: dog (he plans to save up to get a dog), focus, creative writing, be brave (she wants to stand up to bullying at her school), dare, horses (she competes in equestrian competitions and wants to medal this year), and relax (he said he gets wound up in school so much he doesn't relax at all). I'm definitely going to keep this project around and hopefully find more ways to teach Melyssa's Creative Collective prompts!
What's your word for the year? My word for 2014: intrepido (Italian for fearless!)
Truly wonderful and inspiring!
ReplyDeleteIt was such a fun project! So inspiring to see such big goals come from such young people :)
DeleteChelsea, this is such a great idea! I teach 8th grade and I think it would be a perfect addition to their identity project. Thank you so much! So glad I found your blog. Thanks so much for linking up at the Friday Fresh Face hop!
ReplyDeleteKelly, your newest follower,
www.alovelylifeindeed.com
Hi Kelly! Thank you! It would be a great project for 8th graders, definitely gets them thinking. I'd love to see the results if you have your kiddos make it! Thank you so much for stopping by from the link up (I love a good link up!) :)
DeleteThe kids are so inspiring and so are you! Being fearless do help to brace through whatever obstacles and opportunities you are going to face. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteAw you're so sweet Elizabeth! I will definitely need luck to be fearless this year, fingers crossed :)
Deletesooooo cool that you're going to use some of the prompts for teaching your kids! I look forward to seeing what else they come up with :)
ReplyDeleteIt was the coolest ah-HA moment!! I'm starting this same project with the 8th graders this week, should be interesting to see how they handle it compared to the younger kiddos. Hopefully I can make more of the prompts work during the school year, gives me a reason to stay on top of the prompts myself too! :)
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