What Can’t You Do with a Paper Clip?
Creative Calisthenics
Grade Level: 2 through 8
Participants: Individuals and teams
Objectives: Exercise fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration, critical thinking, and
brainstorming skills
Time: 15 to 30 minutes
Quick View
In this companion lesson to “What Can You Do With a Paper Clip?” students go
head-to-head to prove that virtually anything is possible with an ordinary paper clip.
As students brainstorm seemingly impossible feats, or CANNOTS, their opponents
counterattack with YES, YOU CANS, proving the tasks feasible after all.
Take Home
Enhanced brainstorming and critical thinking skills as well as a collection of ideas
for transforming ordinary things into original creations.
Examples
CANNOTS:
• Spaceship
• Megaphone
• Window
• Compass
• Children’s Book • Road Sign
• Writing Tool
• Food Bowl
YES YOU CANS: A student might suggest creating a Food Bowl by forming the
wires into a bowl shape and adding a wax paper lining. Or, one could use a paper
clip as a Writing Tool by scratching messages onto any painted surface.
Materials
• Pencils
• Paper
• Dozens of paper clips
• Chalk and chalkboard or equivalent
• Timer
Getting Ready
• Refer to the “Rules of Brainstorming” on the last page of this lesson plan. These rules are
important and should not be overlooked before you begin.
• Place a small pile of paper clips on each student’s desk as a brainstorming aid.
Activities and Procedures
1 Inform students that they will be participating in a contest called “What Can’t You Do With a
Paper Clip?”
2 Tell students that they will be listing as many things as possible that they believe absolutely,
positively CANNOT be done with one or more paper clips.
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What Can’t You Do with a Paper Clip
Creative Calisthenics
3 Divide the class into two teams, and instruct each student to create an individual list of
CANNOTS to contribute to the team’s “master” list at the end of the contest.
4 Set the timer for three to five minutes, and encourage students to strive for quantity, not quality.
5 When time is up, a student from each team will begin reading their list of CANNOTS as
follows:
A member of Team A reads a CANNOT from the master list.
Team B then has 10 seconds to respond with “YES, YOU CAN!” and state how the task in
question could be accomplished.
For example, if Team A says “You CANNOT use paper clips as a warm blanket,” Team B could
say, “YES, YOU CAN!” and explain that one could use paper clips to attach small scraps of
fabric or tissue paper to each other, creating a warm blanket.”
Now, Team B reads a CANNOT from their master list, and Team A has ten seconds to respond
with a “YES, YOU CAN!” For example, Team B might say, “You CANNOT use paper clips for
food,” and Team A could respond with “YES, YOU CAN!” Paper clips make a great breakfast
cereal for robots.”
NOTE: The “YES, YOU CANS” can be wildly imaginative as long as they are logical within
their own context.
If the other team remains silent for ten seconds without countering with a “YES, YOU CAN,”
the CANNOT is considered unchallenged. For instance, if Team A says, “You CANNOT use
paper clips to hold water,” and Team B does not have a “YES, YOU CAN” response within
ten seconds, the CANNOT remains unchallenged and Team A reads the next CANNOT on
their list.
Teams alternate CANNOTS and YES, YOU CANs until both lists are completed.
6 Award points and announce a winner according to the following guidelines:
2 points for each CANNOT that goes unchallenged.
4 points for each acceptable YES, YOU CAN
The Team with the highest number of points wins the contest!
Extensions
Complete the activity above, but instead of asking students to think of CANNOTS for paper clips,
invite them to think things that cannot be done with:
• Ball of string
• Drinking straws
• Bars of soap
• Erasers
• Bricks
• Pocket combs
• Buttons
• Rolls of tape
• Cans of soup
• Tennis shoes
• Crayons
• Toothbrushes
From the book “Creative Genius” by Marjorie Sarnat
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©2012 Jr Imagination. All Rights Reserved
Rules for Brainstorming
Break Any Rules Except These
No value judgments of anyone’s ideas
The weirdest, silliest, or stupidest idea might be
the seed for something great.
Welcome wacky ideas
The more ridiculous the idea, the better!
Ideas that are way out of the box have a life of their own.
Go for quantity, not quality
Resist the temptation to evaluate the ideas being tossed about.
Instead, keep the ideas flowing
Combine and improve
Encourage participants to offer ways to
build upon ideas of others.
No interrupting
When someone is speaking, their thoughts deserve
respectful consideration and should be heard.
No right or wrong answers
All answers are possibilities, including your own.
Evaluate ideas later, but not during brainstorming.
No laughing at anyone’s ideas
Unless the idea is meant to be humorous!
Laugh with others, but not at others.
Lighten up and have fun
Humor itself grows out of the creative process,
and gets our creative juices flowing.
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