Digital Learning Commons: 21st Century Learning Skills: Creativity & Innovation

Lesson Plans

DEEP Design Thinking Challenges
A collection of empathy-driven design challenges.
Creativity Catapult Activities
Creativity Catapult is a research-backed, expert-curated collection of activities that promote creativity skills in children ages 2-14.

Books

Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg
ISBN: 9780761157281
Publication Date: 2010-09-23
A life lesson that all parents want their children to learn: It's OK to make a mistake. In fact, hooray for mistakes!
The Book of Mistakes by Corinna Luyken
ISBN: 9780735227927
Publication Date: 2017-04-18
As one artist incorporates accidental splotches, spots, and misshapen things into her art, she transforms her piece in quirky and unexpected ways, taking readers on a journey through her process.
The Creativity Project by Colby Sharp (Editor)
ISBN: 9780316507813
Publication Date: 2018-03-13
Colby Sharp invited more than forty authors and illustrators to provide story starters for each other; photos, drawings, poems, prose, or anything they could dream up. When they received their prompts, they responded by transforming these seeds into any form of creative work they wanted to share. The result is a stunning collection of words, art, poetry, and stories by some of our most celebrated children book creators.
The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds (Illustrator)
ISBN: 9780763619619
Publication Date: 2003-09-15
With a simple, witty story and free-spirited illustrations, Peter H. Reynolds entices even the stubbornly uncreative among us to make a mark -- and follow where it takes us.
Going Places by Paul A. Reynolds; Peter H. Reynolds (Illustrator)
ISBN: 9781442466081
Publication Date: 2014-03-18
A go-cart contest inspires imagination to take flight in this picture book for creators of all ages
Ish by Peter H. Reynolds (Illustrator)
ISBN: 9780763623449
Publication Date: 2004-08-19
A creative spirit learns that thinking "ish-ly" is far more wonderful than "getting it right" in this gentle new fable from the creator of the award-winning picture book The Dot.

Padlet
A website for collaborative brainstorming.
Tinkercad
Tool for creating objects for 3D printing. (Web based)

Videos

Going Places
A short film to accompany Peter Reynolds' "Going Places"
How to Be Creative
Creativity has always been essential for our cultural growth, but there are still many misconceptions about this elusive process. Being a powerful creative person involves letting go of preconceived notions of what an artist is, and discovering and inventing new processes that yield great ideas.
Steal Like an Artist
Austin Kleon's Ted Talk "Steal Like An Artist" is a creative manifesto based on 10 things he wish he'd heard when he was starting out.
Tales of Creativity and Play
Designer Tim Brown talks about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play -- with many examples you can try at home (and one that maybe you shouldn't).

Going Places
A short video to accompany Peter Reynold's "Going Places."
How to Be Creative
Creativity has always been essential for our cultural growth, but there are still many misconceptions about this elusive process. Being a powerful creative person involves letting go of preconceived notions of what an artist is, and discovering and inventing new processes that yield great ideas.
Steal Like an Artist
Austin Kleon's Ted Talk "Steal Like An Artist" is a creative manifesto based on 10 things he wish he'd heard when he was starting out.
Tales of Creativity and Play
Designer Tim Brown talks about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play -- with many examples you can try at home (and one that maybe you shouldn't).

How to be Creative
Creativity has always been essential for our cultural growth, but there are still many misconceptions about this elusive process. Being a powerful creative person involves letting go of preconceived notions of what an artist is, and discovering and inventing new processes that yield great ideas.
Steal Like an Artist
Austin Kleon's Ted Talk "Steal Like An Artist" is a creative manifesto based on 10 things he wish he'd heard when he was starting out.
Tales of Creativity and Play
Designer Tim Brown talks about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play -- with many examples you can try at home (and one that maybe you shouldn't).
TED Talk: How Boredom Can Lead Your to Your Most Brilliant Ideas
02:57
But then I started to wonder: What actually happens to us when we get bored? Or, more importantly: What happens to us if we never get bored? And what could happen if we got rid of this human emotion entirely?

Assessment Tools

Glow and Grow Chart
An adaptable Glow and Grow chart for providing constructive peer feedback.
Compliment Envelopes
After discussing what a compliment is, each student gets a chart with classmate names and space to write a compliment. Students cut up the strips afterwards, and put each strip in the corresponding envelope. Envelopes are then distributed to students.

Questions and Prompts

9 Way to Become More Creative in the Next 10 Minutes
An infographic with simple 9 ideas for increasing creativity.
31 Ways to Be Creative
An infographic with 31 prompts to increase creativity.

Articles

25 Ways to Be More Creative
An article with 25 ideas to be more creative.
The Center for Childhood Creativity: Published Research
CCC provides advisory services and develops resources for organizations seeking evidence-based expertise in children’s creativity development.
Educator Reference Articles
A collection of scholarly articles curated by the South Portland Library Information Integrators.