Creative Thinking Activities and Exercises for a Smarter Brain

This creative exercise works well for students as well as adults and is a great idea to develop one's linguistic skills. Take a short word, say for example Dye. Now make a sentence using the letters of this word as the first letter of each word in a sentence. So in the given example, one could make a sentence: Did You Eat? With the word What, a sentence can be made: Who Has A Torch?

The common question usually asked by people is, "What is creativity?" The answer is simple. It is a way of looking at things with a new and different perspective.

Everybody is born with certain creativity. All it takes is some efforts to develop this ability and stimulation of the brain! Creativity brings with it a fresh attitude towards ideas and solutions. It is a way of breaking the conventional and traditional barriers, and going beyond the obvious. Companies today are actively promoting the 'out of the box' perspective. Creative thinking sessions are organized at the professional as well as educational level. Take a look at some exercises and activities listed below to help you give wings to your imagination.

Shapes and Perceptions

This exercise will help students develop skills of looking at things through various angles. Give each individual a picture that has three shapes drawn on it. It can be simple designs like a circle, hexagon and triangle in any color. Now ask them to describe the shapes in ways that are different from the obvious. A person may describe the circle as a basketball or even the Sun! The whole point about this exercise is to change the way we perceive things.

Unrelated Relations

Divide the people into two groups and hand each group an object. For example, a cherry and cake. Ask them to describe the objects, like a cherry is red in color and the flavors of a cake can vary from chocolate to butterscotch. Next, ask the participants to relate the two objects to each other, like in the above example: the cherry can be used as a topping on the cake. The groups must try to come up with endless possibilities to correlate and bring about a connection between the objects.

Creatively Use Me

This is a good activity to add a twist of creativity to daily life. Collect 5 items of different kinds like a cup, bag, bottle, piece of jewelry and folder. Ask the participants to list various uses for these objects but, creatively. For example, the cup can be used as a jewelry box or the folder can act as a coaster. Encourage them to come up with wacky and creative answers. It will be surprising to see the variety of answers that you get.

Wedded Words

This exercise is an ideal choice for stimulating your brain in a fun way. Give a random word to the participants. For example, white. Then, ask them to add words to the given word in order to make combinations that ideally go together. So, they can come up with white lie, white-wash, white elephant, etc. as a part of the example.

Ask Me Anything

In order to get creative answers, it is important to ask creative questions! You can use questions like, how does one write with invisible ink or what does one plant to grow a seedless watermelon? These are bound to set the creative juices flowing, and you never know you may actually get possible solutions to some questions!

Opposites Attract

The following exercise will make sure that people look beyond the obvious for the answers. Make a list of random words. For example, ugly, night, down, etc. Now, ask the participants to note down the first opposite word that comes to their mind in relation to these words. They must come up with at least three or four such antonyms. For night, one may think of day, shine, awake, bright, etc. as the opposite words.

Against the Rules

Unusual combinations and thinking in the reverse way often helps one to come up with the desired, unconventional results. Make a list of questions that would give you creative answers in an unusual manner. For example, list four items that you would not find typically in a Walmart store or list three ways in which you can drink the milk from a cup without holding the cup in your hands.

Connecting the Dots

Here is an activity that combines individual creativity with group effort. Make groups of 4 people and distribute a sheet of paper and pencils to the groups. The first person draws something on the sheet of paper and passes it to the next person, who then adds to the drawing. Make the activity more fun by setting a time limit of 5 seconds for each participant. After all the members of a group have finished their turns, ask them to describe the drawing in three words.

Make It Yourself

Take a look at this creative activity that is great for students. Make groups of three people and give each group a long piece of wire that can be molded flexibly. Ask the members to make something creative and useful with the wire, like a tool. They may make a coat hanger out of the wire or come up with several other creative possibilities.

These activities and exercises can work as fun icebreakers when working in teams. At the same time, they are a great option to stimulate the brain and hone one's creative abilities.