Taking a “Whole Brain” approach when teaching something new is a great way to get children engaged and used to using different Multiple Intelligences. For a description of the different Multiple Intelligences, please see the post here.

Planning activities to support a lesson engaging all forms of Multiple Intelligence ensures your child will pick up the lesson through their primary Intelligence. It will also strengthen their lesser used intelligences, giving them more ways to learn in the future. It is especially useful for small groups or classes where there are children with different types of primary Intelligences.

When considering the Multiple Intelligences you want to make sure your activities include something for each type of learners. They are: Spatial, Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal and Naturalistic.

This may seem like a lot, but may activities do use more the one type of Intelligence.

Here is an example of activities to teach the concept of Recycling.

• Introduce the topic through age appropriate reading/visual material. This might be a story book for young children or an article on garbage dumps from National Geographic for teens.

Multiple Intelligences utilized: Linguistic

• Learn about how long it takes different materials to decompose if they are dumped in a landfill instead of being recycled. Keep track of one day’s garbage produced in your house and do the math. How long does one day of daily living impact the environment?

Multiple Intelligences utilized: Logical/Mathematical, Naturalistic, Kinesthetic

• Create an “active song” together that your child could teach their friends or younger children about recycling. Active songs use actions and music. To make it easier choose a tune you are already familiar with and create new words.

Multiple Intelligences utilized: Musical, Interpersonal, Kinesthetic

• Come up with some personal goals that each person can do to recycle more or lessen their impact on the environment. Create a chart to mark progress or a visual aid to help you remember your goals.

Multiple Intelligences utilized: Intrapersonal, Spatial

• Go on a field trip to a local dump and a local recycling center. See the differences. Talk with the employees and, if possible, get a tour of each facility (call ahead to find out if this is possible and if there are any safety concerns). Have children come up with some sort of recycling project of their own choice to show everything they have learned. Given a choice, they will most likely choose to represent their ideas in the form that displays their primary intelligence.

Multiple Intelligences utilized: Spatial, Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal and Naturalistic.

As you might notice, field trips are a great way of touching on all the forms of intelligence. Using the ideas of multiple intelligence to plan activities is an easy way to make sure your child is having a well-rounded and fun learning experience.

How do you incorporate different multiple intelligences into your activities? Please share your ideas below!