Chapter 2 – Learning Through Reading 32 Chapter 11 – Creativity

Creativity is about making connections –expected and unexpected. Each of us view the world in our own unique way and sharing that vision is essential for every person. Let’s expose the people we support to new experiences in art, stories and music and see what connections they all can make! While making holiday crafts is fun, helping people experience new things stimulates the mind and broadens their universe.

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How many times do people with disabilities get to experience great works of art in a museum? Not many, it’s sad to say. The goal isn’t to develop the next Picasso, but to help people learn to observe, be part of and take notice of this incredible world.

The Internet gives us access to many art collections around the world. Let’s share

those incredible resources with the people we support by viewing them on an iPad, or better yet, on a SMART TV or Smart Board.

Let’s look, talk and discover!

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• Colors of her dress? • Colors of the chair? • The color of her hair? • Who is she looking at? • Is she wearing any jewelry? • What do you think she is thinking about? • Is she happy or sad? • Can we look at the person sitting next to us and tell us the colors of their clothes? • What makes this painting different from a photo? • Anyone want to try and draw a picture of the person next to them? • When do you think this painting was made? Is that a long time ago? LEARN-WORK-LIVE

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• Have they ever watched a soap opera? What were their favorites?

• Do soap operas wrap everything up in one episode? NEVER!

• Do you have to be a genius to write a soap opera? NO!

• Do you dream about things? Do you have an imagination?

• Let’s write our own soap opera!

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• If someone has writing skills, let them take down the story notes. If there isn’t someone with those skills, then the support staff can be the scribe. Use a simple Word document to record the notes – you can always transfer it to something fancier like

PowerPoint or Book Creator.

• So – turn on everyone’s imagination…!!!!

• Where will the story be set? In the mountains? A big city? Out West? A tropical setting? In the present day or in the past or future?

• Find a picture in Google that looks like the setting and save it!

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 Have the group add some characters to the setting

(young, old, men, women, different professions such as teachers, DSPs, lawyers, mechanics)  Every story must have some conflict - something that needs resolution - balance must be found.  Who do these people interact with?

Give prompts for these items, but don’t write the story! Your job is to get everyone thinking, expanding the story.

 After 15 to 30 minutes, wrap up things for the session and take the info gathered and expand it into a basic story, along with any pictures the storytellers have found on Google. And of course, the soap opera NEEDS A NAME!

At your next meeting – within a couple of days, have someone read the first installment, then build onto it during your next session. This can be endless,

Click HERE for the related webinar recording, The Soaps

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E-Scavenger Hunts

 Being able to find things on the internet is an important life skill.

 Searching on the Internet can be done via voice input or text. How you ask a question is important.

 Teach that adding quotes (“ “) or an ampersand (&) can help focus and reduce number of search results.

 It’s good to practice basic typing skills or they’ll get lost.

 Even if it takes a long time, it’s good to make the effort in typing. Verbal prompts are fine. The QWERTY keyboard can be intimidating!

 Typing can be a great fallback for people whose speech is difficult to understand.

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