As educators and business people consider what children need to be successful in this rapidly changing society, creative and critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, and persistence are recognized as the most important skills for success in education and the workforce. Among these, creative thinking is referred to most…

Encourages parents to have more respect for children's play and to spend more time observing their child's play because observation is an effective form of reinforcement. (ED)

Presents an annotated filmography of films and videotapes that provide parents and teachers with an understanding of the importance of "process" in providing the experiences needed to foster children's creative development in the visual arts. (Author/BB)

Reviews studies examining the relationship between IQ and creativity involving 6- to 13-year-old children. Discusses the effectiveness of creativity training programs. (Author/RH)

Asserting that playfulness is an important part of learning to work with others, as well as for attaining traits such as flexible thinking, persistence, commitment, and a love of and fascination with learning, this article presents a review of playfulness development, focusing on children age three to five, and describes 12 teaching-learning…

Some thoughts on the problems of supporting creative and imaginative growth in children and adults at school. Two incidents illustrate the discussion. (ED)

Impromptu storytelling techniques are creative and interesting ways to introduce children to the adventure and allure of storytelling, which in turn aids their cognitive and social development. Presents several activities designed to elicit impromptu storytelling, including sentence stories, name tales, "every day is special" stories,…

Tips for using nursery rhymes to stimulate creative reading attitudes in young children. (CM)

Describes a program to heighten self-esteem, interest in school, and creativity of gifted/talented children. Identity, inquiry, and interaction are presented as primary motivations to learning. The curriculum includes group sessions to foster self-image development, a media center to stimulate inquiry and eliminate boredom, and activities to…

Teachers can encourage youngsters to express their ideas creatively by providing help in three areas--content, language, and process. In terms of content, children often have few resources for tapping their thoughts, and may need 'pump primers' such as being told the beginning and end of a story and speculating about a variety of middles. Once…

Describes a project for fourth graders based on a book by Shel Silverstein. After the teacher read and discussed the book with the students, they acted out the story and wrote original versions. Next, a professional painted an impressionist painting of the story. Finally, the students made their own paintings. (CB)

Examines the benefits of art education that go beyond art production to encompass an expansive view of art. Describes a kindergarten project called "Painting with Scissors" that implements this approach to art education. Through it, art became a way of knowing, understanding, and viewing the world; of constructing and expressing ideas;…

Argues that the arts are basic to educational development, as they provide the tools and skills that are central to early language development including story, metaphor, rhyme and rhythm, binary structuring and mediation, image formation from words, affective abstraction, and others that underlie more complex learning. (Author)

Argues that the arts provide a powerful means with which to promote future-oriented learning because they involve nonverbal, symbolic ways of knowing, thinking and communicating. Suggests that the arts in the emergent curriculum promote central education skills of discovery, pursuit, self-awareness, personal communication, social interaction,…

Argues that children need play time to explore the world because it is valuable, irreplaceable, spontaneous, and provides situations where children can learn with all their senses. Examines play in terms of its role in exploration, imagination, creative activity, work, learning, knowledge expansion, art, and the culture of children. (Author/SD)