Thinking Critically and Creatively: A Review of Critical & Creative Thinking Activities

I received a COMPLIMENTARY copy of this book from Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you. 

Are you looking to add some fun activities into your homeschool day that will help your children think critically and creatively? In Critical And Creative 5, students will work through 46 engaging topics with over 140 pages of challenging activities to help them build their critical and creative thinking skills. We were blessed with the chance to review this book in our homeschool thanks to Timberdoodle. 

About Critical and Creative Grade 5 

In Critical and Creative Thinking Activites, Grade 5, students will gain valuable practice through a broad range of thinking skills. The first two pages in the unit present the topic in a general way. They might need to draw on previous experience or look at the topic in a new way. The third and last page of each unit features things like logic puzzles, riddles, and secret codes. 

Let's take a look at one unit: Earthquakes and Volcanoes. On page one, students are asked what would be scarier, to be caught near a volcano when it erupts or to be caught in a big earthquake and why. Here is where the creative part of their brain should be getting a workout. Then they need to identify words using only the letters found in Volcanoes. The clues include: helps to walk or not to win.  On page two, children are asked to write sentences about earthquakes, identify true and false statements, and discover what volcano erupted in Washington state on May 18, 1980 thorugh a series of clues. Finally, on page three children work through a logic puzzle to discover facts about Mount Saint Helens. 

What are the topics that will help you think critically and creatively? Your child will find the following general topics: 

• Places (in the woods, in the kitchen, etc.) 
• Nature in Action (rain, sunshine, giant squid, etc.) 
• Time to Eat (school lunch, breakfast, etc.) 
• Sports and Games 
• Things I Use (shoes and socks, wheels, etc.) 
• In My World (light and dark, sticks and stones, etc.) 

How Did We Use Critical and Creative? 

I started off assigning each page in each topic to our fifth grader. After a few units, I discovered that this was not going to work for our son. There were some topics where he lacked experience and some where he had no interest whatsoever. The first topic where we hit a roadblock was "In the Water." He does not know how to swim and while enjoyed time in the pool and beach this summer, he has no interest in jumping in the water or diving. So when one activity asked him to number water activiteis 1 to 9 of things he would must like to do, he froze. He had no interest in swimming laps, jumping off the low dive, or going down a waterslide. And I couldn't see the point of forcing him to complete that activity. 

The beauty of homeschooling is that I can tailor his education to his needs and interests. So we changed things up. I would assign one topic every few days and ask him to pick from among the three pages. Sometimes I asked him to do more than one page from the topic but it all depended on the topic. 

When looking at the pages he chose to complete, there is no pattern. While he does enjoy the logic puzzles, he doesn't necessary pick on page over another in each topic. I think it really depends upon the day when he selects which page to complete. 

Some of the pages definitely seem to interst him more. For example, he showed me several time the page Dinosaur names in Greek and Latin while he was working on it. And was very proud of his own made up dinosaur. 

Our Thoughts 

I love books that help develop critical and creative thinking skills so I was looking forward to using this book with our son. He has enjoyed other books with a similar approach but this one didn't seem to meet his needs. Since we are homeschooling, we are making the book work for us by picking and choosing what we are completing. 

One thing to note is that it is designed for use in a classroom. You are given permision to copy it for a single-classroom. At least one page made mention of completing something on the reverse side which confused our son since we are just completing the work in the workbook and on scrap paper. 

I would recommend you check out this book for yourself to see if it would fit well in your homeschool. You can easily complete it in a year if you assign about three pages per week. It would be a good resource for your child to work on indepdently while you work with another child in your homeschool. 

Do You Want To Learn More About Timberdoodle Resources?

• Adding Writing Into Our Curriculum: A Review of Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 3
• Dice, Decks, and Boards: Penguins Huddle Up™ Game
• Including Geography in Your Homeschool: A Review of Skill Sharpeners Geography - Grade 2
• Supplementing Fifth Grade with a Geography Workbook