Daily Activities That Support Students’ Creative Mindset

American author Gail Sheehy once noted, “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” A quiet and persistent myth shapes how learners see themselves: Creativity belongs to a small group of people—artists, performers, and the naturally imaginative. Everyone else is in search of the right answer. How do we as educators reinforce the notion that all students can be creative? How do we challenge all students so that creativity is more than being able to sketch a bowl of fruit?

Creativity can be viewed as a way of engaging with the world—students notice, question, connect ideas, and imagine alternatives. Creativity is the way students approach problems, interpret information, and express understanding. We believe that the process of developing a creative mindset should inspire confidence, curiosity, risk-taking, and a sense of identity in all students. The “creative mindset muscle” needs regular exercise. It’s not that disengaged students aren’t motivated; it may be that their creative minds need to be nurtured.

Here is our essential question: What opportunities do your students have to build their creative mindset? Carol Dweck defines a growth mindset as “individual beliefs regarding the potential for change in human characteristics such as intellectual ability and personality.” With an understanding of growth and fixed mindsets, we think it’s important to present learning experiences to help students build a growth-centered creative mindset.

We offer the following set of low-stakes, classroom-ready routines that can be used with learners at every grade level, K–12. They are designed to sit naturally inside your existing curriculum; no overhaul required. Most important, these routines help students move from “getting the right answer” to seeing themselves as thinkers who generate ideas, navigate uncertainty, and create new possibilities.

Ambiguous Object Activity

We’ve all opened the junk drawer in our kitchen, pulled out a long-ignored object, and asked ourselves, “What the heck is this?” This is the essence of the ambiguous object activity that Stanford’s d.school developed.

An ambiguous object (mystery objects or unknown objects) is “an object with a form or function that would stump someone,” such as a balloon tie for your fingers or a hot dog spiraler. As the d.school notes, “We sometimes struggle with ambiguity because we’re trying to find the correct solution when one might not exist.” The ambiguous object activity helps learners “practice detaching from the right answer and drawing on their interpretive skills.” Through thoughtful and intentional questioning, students are challenged to determine “What the heck is this?”

We’ve used this five-minute activity as a class opener or icebreaker. (Note: It also works well at faculty meetings and workshops.)

How does it work? We place several objects, selected at random from our collection of over 300 ambiguous objects, on the tables in class.

Students ask yes or no questions about the object:

• Do you use the object inside or outside the home?
• Is it used in the kitchen?
• Does it involve food?

As they ponder our answers to the questions, students slowly zero in on the object’s function, or they’re completely stumped.

How does this help students develop their creative mindset? When students are presented with unfamiliar or open-ended materials (and questions) and asked to interpret what they see, they must slow down. They observe more carefully and learn to tolerate uncertainty. That can be a challenge, but overcoming this challenge signals that students are engaging in sense-making rather than answer finding.

Wonder Wander

Creativity needs breathing room.

In their tightly packed daily schedules, students often don’t have the opportunity to explore. Offering students brief, intentional opportunities to wander and observe their surroundings builds the habit of wondering. How do we get our students out of their seats, out of the classroom, to explore the world around them? That’s where the “Wonder Wander” comes in.

High school students in Don’s Entrepreneurship or Design Thinking classes have their own “Wonder Wander” journals. At any time in the class, Don or a student may yell out “Wonder Wander!” Students grab their notebooks and head out for approximately 10 minutes. Sometimes the “Wonder Wander” is open-ended; other times, students are prompted to head to a certain floor or look for objects that are circular, square, or made from a certain material.

How does this help students develop their creative mindset? Noticing things more intentionally leads students to generate better questions. When they wander with purpose, they practice asking their own questions instead of waiting for someone else to supply them. These questions become entry points for both problem-solving and sensemaking.

Disruptus Activity

Creativity also develops when students regularly reimagine what already exists. We remind the students that invention is “the creation of a new, original process,” while innovation is “the practical improvement of an idea or product to provide value to users.” This is the essence of the Disruptus activity: Create, transform, disrupt.

Disruptus is a game (approximately $20) that, according to the game box, “revolves around new ways to create, transform, and improve ideas or objects.” The game includes cards with images of everyday objects, including a skateboard, a fire extinguisher, and a toaster.

For example, we start with the wire whisk card. As a class, we agree that the object is a wire whisk, and then the group is encouraged to propose ways to improve upon the wire whisk. Students draw two more Disruptus cards, take elements from each card, and use these elements to create a new object or idea. They’re required to sketch their new object and give it a name.

How does this help students develop their creative mindset? In our experience, this kind of remixing helps students move from copying what they see to intentionally transforming it. They begin to recognize that innovation is rarely about starting from nothing. Innovation is about noticing patterns, borrowing intelligently, and disrupting familiar forms in thoughtful ways. Students build confidence, learn to experiment and take creative risks, and approach new challenges as designers, ready to reshape existing ideas rather than wait for the “right” one to appear.

What the Creative Mindset Looks Like

When creativity becomes a daily habit of mind:

• Students ask more original questions.
• They share unfinished ideas with greater confidence.
• They approach challenges with flexibility.
• They notice opportunities for improvement and problem-solving.
• They develop their own creative identity.

Creativity doesn’t grow from occasional big projects. Instead, creativity grows from daily, low-stakes habits. By weaving short creative routines into class each day, we’ve watched students begin to see themselves differently: They ask more original questions, share half-formed ideas without apology, and approach complex problems with greater flexibility and persistence.

Over time, these small moments compound, and students start to develop their creative identity. The daily practice of sitting with ambiguity, noticing patterns, and reflecting on their thinking reshapes how they learn in general, helping them understand that uncertainty isn’t a barrier to success, but where meaningful learning and meaningful change begin.