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Thinking Creatively
When you were little, you lived in your imagination. Your floor was lava. Your dog was a horse. You spoke with trees. Everything was possible!
Then you went to school, and a lot of things became impossible. This chapter is about using creativity to make the impossible possible again.
Using Your Imagination
Creativity is your superpower. You can reawaken it anytime you want. Creativity lets you break through boundaries to discover what lies on the other side. It lets you imagine new worlds and explore them and write about them, bringing them into being.
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Boost Your Creative Thinking
Everyone can think creatively, and everyone can become more creative. Boost your creativity with these tips.
Ask questions. 🟪 Why do people grow older? What will I be like when I’m older? What would old me say to young me? What could I do right now to make old me smile in the future? (Do it!)
Open your mind. 🟪 Imagine possibilities. What would happen if my toys came to life? What if a Triceratops ran for president? What would trees talk about? What if I were from another planet? What if my dog were a spy?
Play around. 🟪 Tinker with bottles and cans. Work with string and tape. Design a mask. Build a fort. Make a playground for a hamster. Sew a space suit. Create puppets and write a puppet show!
Hold onto hope. 🟪 Creating something often takes hard work. Failure is part of the process, but it is also just temporary. If something doesn’t work, try something else. Learn and adjust and make your dreams come true.
Welcome weirdness. 🟪 Watch a movie upside down. Invent a new way to tie your shoes. Create a dictionary of cat meows. Draw a portrait without showing the person. When people say something can’t be done, figure out how to safely do it. Then amaze yourself and others!
On Track
Most people think inside the box. Find the edges, climb over, and see what lies beyond!
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Strategies for Creative Thinking
Here are some more ways to spark your creativity.
Ask “What If” 🟪 Ask and answer “What would it be like if . . . ?” Imagine possibilities.
Think visually. 🟪 Draw, paint, and sculpt. Use fun filters on photos. Make a picture of something invisible, like love.
Create a mind map. 🟪 Write a topic in the center of a piece of paper and circle it. List ideas around the topic. Circle and connect the words. (See page 288 for an example.)
Make odd comparisons. 🟪 Compare one thing to something different: an animal, a color, an instrument, or another object. What do you discover?
Freewrite. 🟪 Write quickly and without stopping. Keep going until you surprise yourself. Surprise yourself again!
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Be a Boredom Buster!
You have no right to be bored. Your brain can make even the most boring things amazing. Just shift your thinking and discover exciting possibilities.
Ways to Bust Boredom
1. Flip the space. If you are stuck someplace boring, re-imagine it. You are sitting in detention. Imagine if gravity suddenly pulled sideways. What would happen to the desks? How could you get to the door? How would you get into the hall? How would you get home? Imagine your adventure!
2. Transform the thing. If you are stuck with a boring old shoe box, think of something cool it could become. Stretch rubber bands over it, and you’ve got a guitar. Put clay figures inside of it and you have a diorama of the Jurassic world. Use scissors and tape to make it a knight’s helmet.
3. Recast the people. If you are stuck at a boring bus stop, re-imagine the people around you. What if that lady with the baby is actually a secret agent, and her baby is actually an AI robot? What if the bus is actually taking people to Narnia? What if the cars going by are actually a pod of dolphins?
Tip
Instead of seeing people, places, and things as they are, you can imagine them as they might be. Dream a little, and laugh a lot.
© Thoughtful Learning 2025