A very insightful five-year-old girl named Dina once taught me a very important lesson. I was teaching her class a song I’d written, one of those songs where the children were supposed to supply the rhyming words at the ends of silly phrases – like “Today when I put on my hat, it started […]
Tag Archives: creativity
“The way to have good ideas is to have lots of ideas, and throw away the bad ones.” Linus Pauling Linus Pauling, one of the only two people in history to win two Nobel Prizes (the […]
This article of mine originally appeared in Creativity Portal in November 2010. Children Need to Know We Value Their Ideas By Abby Connors It’s wonderful to stimulate and inspire creative thinking in the classroom, but we also need to show children how much we value their creative efforts. When a child, or anyone, feels that […]
This article of mine originally appeared in Creativity Portal (creativity-portal.com) in December 2010. Creative Arts and Creative Thinking Are Not the Same Thing! By Abby Connors Earlier this year, I presented a workshop at a unique international conference, “Educating the Creative Mind,” held at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. The conference was tremendously stimulating, […]
This article is excerpted from my book “Teaching Creativity” and also appeared on the “Creativity Portal” site (creativity-portal.com). Think Outside the Catalog When I look through school-supply catalogs, I shake my head at the amount of money some people are apparently willing to pay for little fuzzy pompoms, foam paper, feathers, sequins, stamps, stickers, and […]
“Talent is the desire to practice.” – Malcolm Gladwell, “Outliers” I don’t know when I realized this, but at some point in my teaching career I realized that all my amazing ideas for music activities for young children – or what I thought were amazing ideas – didn’t always translate into amazing lessons. In […]
The following article of mine originally appeared in Teacher’s Net Gazette in November 2011. How Should We Teach Creative Thinking? Ask a Four-Year-Old By Abigail Flesch Connors Young children are the “experts” when it comes to creative thinking. Here are some tips I’ve learned from the young children I’ve taught to foster creative thinking in students […]
“Sarasponda” on “Too-da-la” CD by Kindermusik available on iTunes This old favorite is a very easy movement song which I’ve used successfully with toddlers through kinder- garteners. There are three verses with different movements on the words “ret-set-set” – clapping, patting thighs, and stamping feet. It includes a “surprise ending” which is not difficult for even the […]
This article of mine originally appeared in “Teaching Music,” a publication of the National Association for Music Education, in 2010. The Sound of Creativity: Helping Children Develop Creative Thinking Skills Using Rhythm Instrument Activities Abigail Connors Today more than ever, our fast-changing world depends on creative thinking. Yet teaching creative thinking is not a priority […]
Creative kids are often daydreamers… What’s going on in a dreamer’s head is likely to be original ideation, visualization, imaginative thought, and creative problem solving. Daydreaming is a good thing. Marjorie Sarnat As a lifelong daydreamer, […]
Music (and Science) For Young Children 