No Prep Plans: Creativity & Innovation Skills – How to Improve Your Creativity

No Prep Plans: Creativity & Innovation Skills – How to Improve Your Creativity

Creativity isn't something you're simply born with—it's a skill that grows through curiosity, practice, experimentation, and persistence. In this engaging, hands-on lesson, students discover that creative thinking can be trained just like any other skill. They explore the habits used by inventors, artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and designers to generate original ideas and solve problems in new ways.
Students investigate the science behind creativity, learn practical habits that spark innovative thinking, and make connections between different subjects and experiences. They then design their own two-week creativity training plan filled with daily challenges before reflecting on their personal growth and identifying the creative habits they want to continue using long after the lesson is finished.

Designed for Grades 6–8, this no-prep lesson develops creativity, innovation, problem-solving, resilience, reflection, and growth mindset through meaningful, real-world activities.

What's Included
- Teacher Directions (1–2 class periods)
- Creativity Lab Notebook
- Build Your Creativity Challenge planning page
- My Creativity Journey reflection page
- Black-and-white versions of all student pages
- Online research resources

Students Will Learn How To
- Explain why creativity is a skill that can be developed
- Identify habits that help generate original ideas
- Explore strategies such as divergent thinking, constraint play, and cross-pollination
- Make creative connections between different subjects and experiences
- Design and follow a personal creativity improvement plan
- Reflect on personal creative strengths and areas for growth
- Evaluate progress using self-assessment and goal setting
- Develop lifelong habits that encourage innovation and curiosity

Perfect For
- Back-to-School activities
- Creativity and innovation units
- Gifted and enrichment programs
- STEM and STEAM classrooms
- Makerspace activities
- Genius Hour
- English Language Arts
- Career readiness
- Project-Based Learning (PBL)
- Advisory or homeroom lessons
- Future-ready skills programs

Why Teachers Love It
- No-prep, print-and-go lesson
- Helps students understand that creativity can be learned and strengthened
- Encourages curiosity, experimentation, and risk-taking in a supportive environment
- Includes engaging planning tools and reflection activities
- Promotes metacognition and personal goal setting
- Features large graphic organizers with generous writing space
- Bright, comic-style layouts designed specifically for middle school learners
- Connects creativity to real-world success across every subject area

Part of the Creativity & Innovation Skills Series
Help students develop future-ready skills with this growing collection of engaging, project-based lessons that build creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, innovation, design thinking, storytelling, media literacy, entrepreneurship, and confident problem-solving through authentic, real-world learning experiences.