Think, Create, Do: A First Week of School Project

My overall theme this year in fifth grade is that we "Think, Create, and Do".  I want to instill a growth mindset into the students and challenge them to be innovators and creators.  So I went with a lightbulb motif throughout the class.  You can see a bit of that lightbulb theming here.









One of the first projects we did was think about how we would "think", "create", and "do" over the course of this year.  I asked the students to brainstorm on divided circle map the different things that they could "think" of this year.  This could include subjects we would learn, projects they would make up, problems they would solve (which then lead into our opening discussion on Genius Hour).   For "Create", I asked them to write down all the objects or ideas they would create.  Projects, inventions, friendships, etc...  This one was probably the hardest because I asked them to be a bit abstract in their thinking.  Finally, for "Do", I wanted to them to think about how they would put all of that into action.  How would they actually create the friendships or the projects they thought up.  This was to be definite actions.

Then, to publish, they drew a huge lightbulb and wrote all the info on it.  The "filament" of the lightbulb was their name in cursive writing.




















I had them stuff the lightbulbs like we did the colony balloons for the past few years and hung them upside down like a string of industrial bulbs above our cabinets.

















This was an easy project that got them thinking right at the beginning of the year...and provided a cute little display to boot!