The Answer for Growing Creative Thinkers

The Answer Is…a square.  What is the question?
 
Many of you might think something like, “What is a four-sided shape with four right angles?” If so, you are correct!  But you would also be correct if you thought,
 

• “What was an old-fashioned, boring person called in the 1960s?”
• “What shape is used in the game of hop-scotch?”
• “What shape are Wheat Thins?”
• “What word rhymes with rare but starts with sq?”

Now consider this one.
 
The Answer is …jumping. What is the question?
 

• “What do you call a Mexican bean that moves?”
• “What is the boy doing on the trampoline?”
• “What was she doing when she won the award?”
• “How does a frog move from lily pad to lily pad?”

 
Creative thinking comes naturally to some of us, but for others it takes practice. The Answer Is… Strategy is easy to integrate into any class to get your students to think “out of the square box.” Simply laminate a small poster and leave sticky notes or dry erase markers nearby. Students can share their answers whenever they have a free moment.

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