Creative Thinking Activities for Middle School Students

Students should partake of creative thinking activities to hone their skills.

Creative-thinking skills can be acquired through a variety of activities related to different subject matters. It is important that middle-school students enhance their creative-thinking skills before high school, as it is required for success in high school and beyond.

From Here to There

This activity helps students critically and creatively analyze the role of transportation in society. This can be used as a social studies and science lesson combined. After a discussion on the various modes of transportation and their role in society, students should come up with their own unique modes of transportation. After writing out their plan for their new mode of transportation, students will have to make a 3-D model of their new invention.

Spelling Relations

This lesson combines a weekly spelling list with an English language lesson, as it helps students realize that words are related to each other. After the students have been giving their weekly list of vocabulary words, ask them to fill in this sentence "This word makes me think of blank because..." A good example is "Chicken makes me think of an egg, because chickens lay eggs." Students will come up with a variety of creative relationships between words, and begin a better understanding of the English language.

Whip Around

This creative thinking activity can double as a good icebreaker for a group of middle school students. The teacher will ask the class to sit in a circle, and then introduce a topic to the group, such as "What I'd like to do with my life is..." and students must answer as quickly as they can. This helps students think on their feet, and also allows the classmates to get to know one another.

A Way with Words

This activity is a take on dramatic play, while forcing middle school students to think creatively as well. Students should sit in a circle for this activity. The teacher will pass the first person a blank sheet of paper. That student must stand up, and pretend to read something that is on the paper; the paper could be a newspaper, a court summons or a big announcement, among other things. Each student must choose a new use for the paper as it travels around the circle.

References

• The Educator's Reference Desk: Assorted Creative Thinking Activities
• Teachers.net.: Creative and Critical Thinking Activities for Middle or High School