Creativity/Problem Solving/Critical Thinking
Lesson Plans and Resources

All links on this page were checked and updated 10-01-09.
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The sites listed below provide lesson plans and resources for promoting problem solving, creativity, and critical thinking. Click on a topic from the site index below to find what you need. For resources and lesson plans for gifted education, click here. To go to the Educational Resources and Lesson Plans main index, click here.

Site Index: problem solving lesson plans, problem solving resources, creativity lesson plans, creativity resources, critical thinking lesson plans, critical thinking resources

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Problem Solving Lesson Plans
Lesson Plans for Problem Solving
This sequence of lesson plans for grades 3-4 and up is designed to help your students learn to solve problems logically in all mathematics subjects.

Problem Solving Lesson Plan Index
Fourteen lessons for a variety of subjects and grade levels.   

Problem Solving Using Tables
From BrainPOP.  See also Word Problems.

Improving Deductive Reasoning Skills
A lesson plan for grades 7-12.   

Problem Solving---A Part of Everyday Thinking
A lesson plan for grades 4-12 in which students learn and use the six basic steps to problem solving.

Working with Environmental Issues
A learning module from the Peace Corps' World wise Schools. in which students use problem-solving skills to address a real-world problem. It is intended for elementary and middle grade students.

You Don't Know What You've Got Until Its Gone
A  lesson plan for a secondary English or Social Studies from the Rock and Roll hall of Fame.

Engineering Problem Solving
A high school physics lesson plan.

Problem Solving Resources
21st Century Problem Solving
Problem-solving examples, strategies, and resources for students and teachers.

Request-Response-Result
A summary of the request-response-result process for problem solving.

Problem Solving: Definition, Terminology, and Patterns
A concise, informative essay. See also Problem Solving for another definition as well as terminology, cognitive factors, and facilitating transfer.

Big 6: An Information Problem-Solving Process
Information and online resources for using this strategy.

The Problem Site
Educational Games - Free math problems, puzzles, word games, brainteasers, and mystery hunts.


Creativity Lesson Plans
Assorted Creative Thinking Activities
Several activities for the elementary grades.

Creating Art Using Music and Feelings
A lesson plan for grades 1-4 promoting creativity through integration of music, art, and the emotions.

Mannequin
An activity for grades 1-5 that is designed to encourage creative thinking, cooperation, and help students get acquanted.

The Use of "Substitution" As A Creative Thinking Tool
A lesson plan for grades 1-6.

Creativity and Butterflies
A lesson plan for grades 2-5 integrating science, literature, and creativity.

Tests of Applied Creativity, Logic, and Reasoning
A lesson plan for grades 5 or 6 that can be used in a variety of subjects and contexts.

Squiggle Art
A lesson plan for grades 2-3 requiring flexible and creative thinking.

Creative Inventions
A 5th-grade lesson plan in which students work individually or with a partner to design a new invention or idea for their community to solve the problem of people driving around lowered gates at a railroad crossing.

Pourquoi Stories: Creating Tales to Tell Why
A lesson plan for grades 3-5 dealing with stories or folk tales that explain how or why something exists (usually in nature).

Newspaper Creations
A n activity for grades 4-8 involving movement and creativity.

Create a New Ammendment
A middle grade or high school lesson plan from Education World in which students demonstrate critical thinking and creative thinking skills in developing a new amendment to the Constitution.

Creating a More Humane and Environmentally Sound Future
A high school lesson plan in which students learn critical and creative thinking by creating a scenario of a more humane and environmentally sound future.

Writing Up a Spanish Storm: Using Creative Thinking for Creative Writing
Ideas for an advanced high school Spanish unit. The site also contains quite a bit of background information on creative thinking.

Creative Activities for the Sciences
Three activities related to the sciences and adaptable to a variety of grade levels that provide opportunity for creative growth in students .

Creative Drama Lesson Plans
Many lesson plans sorted by age level.

Art Activities and Lesson Plans for Exploring Creativity
Twenty-five lesson plans.

Crayola Creativity Central
A searchable directory of lesson plans using Crayola products.   

Creativity Resources
The Creative Teaching Web Site
An excellent site with articles, ideas, and information for developing more creative teachers.

Rubric for Creative Thinking Skills Evaluation
Uses the Torrence model plus other criteria. See also Rubric for Divergent Thinking.

Defining Creativity
A bunch of definitions.

Creativity for Kids
Arts and crafts products.

Creative Thinking
Links to "handouts" with concise information on definitions, characteristics, traits, etc.

Creatology: A Science for the 21st Century
A paper describing the emerging dsicipline of creatology.

Critical Thinking Lesson Plans
Teacher Resources from the Center for Critical Thinking
This is the ultimate critical thinking lesson plan site. See their selection of "remodeled" lesson plans organized by grade level. For information on the Center's approach to critical thinking, see Our Concept of Critical Thinking or go to their homepage.  

Critical Thinking Strategies
A lesson plan adaptable to a variety of grade levels that is intended to help students develop and evaluate the critical thinking skills of comparing, contrasting, and analyzing similarities and differences.

Book Sorting: Using Observation and Comprehension to Categorize Books
A primary-grade lesson plan that addresses critical-thinking skills, observation and categorization processes, as well as reading comprehension and writing skills, while at the same time providing teachers with a vast array of diagnostics through observation of student interaction and conversation.

Voyage Across the Ocean
An elementary physical education lesson plan designed to foster cooperation and critical thinking skills.

An Exploration of Simple Machines
An elementary lesson plan designed to promote the use of critical thinking and problem solving skills to help students understand how simple machines work.

Internet Investigations: Unsolved Mysteries
A language arts lesson plan for grades 4-5. See also Literature Units to Foster Critical Thinking.

Detective Fiction: Focus on Critical Thinking
A unit for grade 6.

Critical Thinking Skills
An 8th-grade lesson plan designed to teach students how to use critical thinking skills to solve everyday problems.

Fostering Critical Thinking Skills for Consumer Health Decisions
A high school lesson plan for a health class.

Introduction to Critical Thinking Using a Lateral Thinking Game
A lesson plan for an AP high school class.

Draft Letters: Improving Student Writing through Critical Thinking
A  high school lesson plan from Read-Write-Think in which students write reflective letters to the teacher, identifying their own thoughts on the piece that the teacher is about to read. See also Analyzing Character Development in Three Short Stories about Women and Lights, Camera, Action . . . Music: Critiquing Films Using Sight and Sound for other high school critical thinking lesson plans from Read-Write=Think.

Critical Thinking
A lesson plan for grades 9-12 designed to  to foster critical thinking over Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

Critical Thinking Resources
Mission Critical
A "virtual lab," capable of familiarizing users with the basic concepts of critical thinking in a self-paced, interactive environment.

Rubric for Assessing Critical Thinking
See also Higher-Order Thinking Rubric.

The Critical Thinking Community
Much information and many resources.       

Critical Thinking: What Is It?
Concise article written by Robert H. Ennis.

Holistic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric
From Insight Assessment. See also Critical Thinking Competency Rubric.  

Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum Project - Glossary
A glossary of terms and concepts related to critical thinking from Longview Community College.  See their index page, Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum Project, for a great deal of information as well as resources for integrating critical thinking into college classes.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving in Art
A list of suggestions for building students' skills of critical thinking and problem solving in art. See also Aesthetics: Critical Thinking about Art.