Just as Dinovember ended, I discovered a new silly Dinosaur delight, Anne Muecke’s The Dinosaurs Night Before Christmas. I’ve already written about the many versions of Clement Clarke Moore’s classic poem A Visit from Saint Nicholas, and the ways they can be used to teach about parody. But I keep discovering new “Night Before” books … Continue reading
Where do creative kids go to publish their latest story, poem, editorial, review, or just about anything else? One possible answer is Creative Kids magazine. Creative Kids is a magazine “by kids, for kids” ages 8-16—it even has a brand new advisory board of students aged 7-15. Creative Kids aims to include prose, poetry and … Continue reading
In my corner of the world—and many others–December is a season of giving. So what better focus for family fun in December than thinking about gift giving? Aside from creative fun, perhaps some time spent focusing on giving can help abate the commercial-driven craziness that can overtake all of us this time of year. In … Continue reading
How many creative young people (and maybe not so young people) like to tinker with “stuff?” I have it on good authority that some of my scientifically oriented friends ended up in their fields because scientists get to use cool stuff. What’s not to like about bubbling beakers, scales, stopwatches, and instruments that buzz? A … Continue reading
Ever wonder why birds wear feathers instead of fur? Why spiders don’t get caught in their webs? What kind of chocolate is the most popular? Me, too. And now we have a place to go for all those wonders, and more. The website Wonderopolis bills itself “Where the Wonders of Learning Never Cease,” and that … Continue reading
We had a small fire in our kitchen this week. We still aren’t entirely sure how it started, but it seems something toppled something and soon all things near the top of the stove were ablaze. I wasn’t home, but a cat worked better than a smoke detector in alerting my husband, and in a … Continue reading
If you had to suddenly name five creative people, who would come to mind? Artists? Musicians? Scientists? Almost certainly, at least one of the people you named would be an inventor. Helping students learn more about inventing, and the processes for developing their own inventions is a wonderful way for students to both learn about, … Continue reading
How can anyone who cares about creativity not love this? On the chance that you missed it on Tumblr, Facebook, Good Morning America or the Huffington Post, here’s a tribute to Dinovember, the month plastic dinosaurs come to life. Dinovember is the creation of Refe and Susan Tuma, of Kansas City, MO, who wanted to … Continue reading
I just returned from the National Association for Gifted Children convention, a venue I haven’t visited in several years. I came home with questions (Like, how did my friends go from young bloods to senior scholars when time seems to have flown by?) but also with lots of new ideas and resources. For the next … Continue reading
I love museum shops. They are almost always full of interesting and beautiful things—and they are one of my best sources for historical “artifacts” I can use to help students explore historical research. In museum stores I’ve acquired replicas of the newspapers reporting activities of the U.S. women’s suffrage movements, tin lamps and other gadgets, … Continue reading
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