Creative Thinking

Author: Randy Bartholomew & Barnett Elementary

Level/Subject: (3-5)

Younger students may become too easily frustrated. Older students may already have heard the riddles and jokes.

Overview:

This activity is used to introduce students to creative thinking by giving them a fun and unusual test. Usually after the first questions, students realize that they may have to think about what the question is asking. An ICE level I activity would be used following the test to introduce students to the idea of fluency or finding many possible answers which are correct or good.

Purpose:

Use this activity to stimulate thinking about solutions to a given problem. As we go over the student's answers I try to encourage as many as possible to give their solutions. Later on or the next day we change to divergent problems.

Stupid Quiz:

Let's take a stupid quiz. Listen carefully as I read each story or question. Write your answer, (or) raise YOUR HAND IF YOU THINK YOU KNOW THE ANSWER.

1. Runs all day, but never walks,
   Often murmurs, but never talks,
   It has a bed, but never sleeps,
   I has a mouth but never eats.
   What is it?
2. what grows bigger the more you take out of it?
3. How many times can you subtract the number 2 from the number 50?
4. Mr. and Mrs. Rabbit have six children who are boy rabbits. Each boy rabbit has two sisters. How many children are there in the Rabbit family?
5. Every morning, it takes Mr. Finster 3 minutes to boil an egg for his breakfast. One day, 2 friends joined him for breakfast. How long will it take him to boil 3 eggs?
6. Not far outside the town of Pottsville, a railroad track runs through a tunnel in a hillside. There is only one track, and the tunnel is wide enough for only one train. But one day, two trains went into the tunnel from opposite directions. Each train entered the tunnel at exactly eight o'clock. Three minutes later each train came out at the opposite end of the tunnel. Yet there was no collision! How was this possible?
7. A bus driver was going down a street. He went right past a stop sign without stopping. He turned left where there was a "No Left Turn" sign. Then he went the wrong way on a one-way street. And yet, he didn't break a single traffic law. Why not?
8. If 5 horses can eat five bags of oats in five minutes, how long will it take 100 horses to eat 100 bags of oats?
9. Two mothers and two daughters decided to go shopping. They found that they had twenty-seven dollars, in one dollar bills. They divided up the money evenly, without making any of the dollars into change, so that they each had exactly the same amount. How was this possible?
10. It was the first day of school. The teacher had several new students in the class. she asked all the children to write their names and their date of birth for her. The first 2 names she looked at were those of girls. She saw that they both had the same last name. They also had the same birthday. "Will Jane and June Campbell please stand?" asked the teacher. Two girls stood up, and the teacher saw that they looked just alike. "Oh, you're twins," she said. One of the girls shook her head. "No," she said. "We're sisters, but we're not twins." How could they be sisters and be the same age, but not be twins?

Answers:

1. A river
2. A hole
3. Once, then the number is 48.
4. There are eight children in the Rabbit family, 6 boys and 2 girls.
5. He can cook all the eggs in one pan in 3 minutes.
6. One train went in at 8:00 am and the other at 8:00 pm.
7. The bus driver was walking. It was his day off.
8. 5 minutes. Each horse can eat 1 bag in 5 minutes.
9. The 2 mothers and 2 daughters were actually 3 people, a girl her mother and her grandmother. Her mother is both a mother and a daughter.
10. They were not twins, they were triplets. The third one was a boy.