Easy Ways to Encourage Imagination
Eight ideas to help spark the imagination of your children or students
Eight easy and fun ways to encourage children to use their imaginations using books, games, props or nothing at all!
Children have abundant imaginations, but sometimes they need a little encouragement to use it. Here are eight ways to help encourage the imagination of the children in your life.
- Use "what if" questions. This works well with both younger and older children. For younger children, you could ask questions such as, "What if a lion squeaked instead of roared?" or "What if people lived in the water?" Older children might have fun answering questions like, "What if gravity pulled us away from the Earth instead of toward it?" or "What if Colombus sailed right past America?"
- Encourage imagination when reading with children. Ask younger children what is happening in the pictures, or have them make up a new story based on one of the illustrations. Children can also be encouraged to think up a new ending to a story, or to tell the story of a minor character.
- Provide props. These can be obvious, such as a crown or sword, food, a cape, a microphone, or plastic flowers. Not so obvious choices could include boxes, cardboard rolls, fabric swatches, yarn, plain clothing, or containers. Have children create their own props from these items and glue, glitter, paint, etc.
- Storytelling can bring out the imagination and some acting talent! Have kids act out a story you tell, or reverse it and have kids act and you or other children make up a story to tell from that "scene." Also, encourage kids to tell stories out loud to you or a group of children. A fun idea is to have each child tell part of a story and then move on to the next child, or to have each child do one sentence based on what was said by the children before him.
- Music and art create many opportunities for imagination. Children can create paintings, sculptures, craft items and drawings with art materials. Music can be used to help tell a story, or kids can use simple instruments to create their own music.
- Encourage pretend play, especially in younger children. Children can become monsters, superheros, doctors or grocery shoppers...the list is endless. This helps children act out roles (mother, father, teacher, etc.) and work through difficult or confusing situations. And pretend play isn't just for little kids. Older students benefit from role playing to help them deal with an uncomfortable situation: how to say no to strangers, how to resolve a conflict with a friend, etc.
- Limit the use of TV, movies, computers and video games. These are all great tools when used in moderation, but too much can dull a child's natural imagination. Kids who can only act out scenes from their favorite shows and movies or who use up all their free time with electronic gear probably need more "unplugged" time.
- Imagination isn't just for reading and play acting. Math and science can also encourage imagination. Answering curious questions by first coming up with a guess (hypothesis) and then testing the hypothesis encourages children to think and imagine what the outcome will be and then see the results. Imaginative math can be simple (guessing how many blocks will fill a container) or complex (figuring out how many "feet" long the hallway, classroom or front walk is).
The copyright of the article Easy Ways to Encourage Imagination in Primary School is owned by Jaime L. Hebert. Permission to republish Easy Ways to Encourage Imagination must be granted by the author in writing.
