Alabama ELA Standard: 5.LF.10

Order and Chaos: Recipe or Instinct?

Two cooks make the same dinner. One follows the recipe to the exact gram. The other just throws things in by feel. Whose food turns out better — the ordered cook or the chaotic cook?

Order and Chaos: The Perfect Heartbeat

A heartbeat sounds steady, but a perfectly regular one is a warning sign — healthy hearts speed up and slow down a little. Is a healthy heart ordered or chaotic?

Order and Chaos: The Shuffle

Shuffling follows exact steps to make cards random. Are you creating chaos, or doing something very orderly?

Order and Chaos: No Traffic Lights

One town runs its intersections with signals. Another has no lights at all — drivers just work it out. Which town’s traffic is more orderly?

Order and Chaos: The Snowflake

A snowflake always has six sides, yet no two have ever matched. Is a snowflake order, or chaos?

Systems: Grandpa’s Axe

Grandpa’s axe broke, so he put on a new head. Years later the handle cracked, so he replaced that too. Now no original piece is left. Is it still the same axe, or a new one?

Systems: The Thermostat

A thermostat fights to keep a room the same — open a window and it just cranks the heat to undo you. In a system that pushes back like that, can you ever really change just one thing?

Systems: Watch vs. Forest

A watch stops dead if one tiny gear breaks. A forest can lose a whole species and barely notice. Which is the better-built system — the one where every part matters, or the one where no part is essential?

Systems: The Traffic Jam

Picture a jam where no one crashed and no one even stopped on purpose — everyone crawls for an hour, then it clears for no reason. Did anyone actually cause this traffic jam?

Systems: Pull One Thread

A sweater is really one long thread looped a thousand times. Pull the right loose end and the whole thing unravels in seconds. So is a system like that strong or fragile?

Change: The Caterpillar’s Bargain

To become a butterfly, a caterpillar doesn’t just sprout wings — inside the cocoon it dissolves into liquid first, almost nothing left, then rebuilds. Would you trade everything you are now to become something far greater?

Change: The Sealed Jar

You love a flower so much you seal it in a jar to keep it exactly as it is, forever. A month later it’s brown and crumbling. Did sealing it stop the change, or just hide it?

Change: The Tree’s Scar

A nail got hammered into a young tree. The tree didn’t push it out — it grew around it, sealing the nail inside a knot of new wood. Was that change the tree healing, or the tree getting damaged?

Change: One Domino

You nudge one domino. It tips the next, which tips two more, which tip four, until a thousand have fallen. Did you cause one change, or a thousand?

Change: Canyon vs. Earthquake

It took a river six million years to carve the Grand Canyon. An earthquake can drop a cliff into the sea in ten seconds. Which one changed the land more — the slow river or the fast quake?

Notice, Wonder: Fountain

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Dazzle

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Burton Island

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Tenzing

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Brooklyn

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

New Uses For A Cardboard Tube

So, what can a cardboard tube be used for other than holding wrapping paper?

Student Introductions With Depth, Complexity, and Frames: Level Two

Once students know the prompts of Depth and Complexity, let’s take them much higher up Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Notice, Wonder: Sombrero

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

New Uses For A Chair

So, what can a chair be used for other than, you know, sitting in?

Notice, Wonder: Silver Torch

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Barringer

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Rosetta

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Phrases to Join a Discussion

Want your classroom discussions to go a bit more smoothly? Train students to use a few simple phrases and it’ll make all the difference in the world.

Notice, Wonder: Critter

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: A House

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: SLS Test

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Butterball

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Ramses

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Craters

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Bloom

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Skylight

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Krzywy Las

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Scales

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Vortices

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Swirls

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Witch’s Fingers

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Green Circles

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: An Orange Thing

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Kuiseb

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: A Long Line

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Blood Falls

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Generalization: Change Leads to More Change

Can you think of a time in your life when “Change lead to more change?”

How Renewable Is That Resource?

Which resource is more renewable? And which is easier to find?

Notice, Wonder: Forest

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Akron

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Electronics

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Turbine

Your students will be surprised by the size of this turbine… and by what’s hanging from it!

Notice, Wonder: Z-Machine

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Climber

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: A River

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: The Cliff

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Michael

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Etna

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Plateau

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: A Ship

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

The Thinking Hats

So… do your students moan when forced to work in a group? Part of the problem is that lack the structure to work well with peers. Edward de Bono’s Thinking Hats are a perfect tool to help with this problem.

Depth and Complexity: 🌻 Details

Get kids focusing on the small, but essential, details of a topic.

Creating A Classroom Motto

Starting with specific examples of fantastic classroom behavior, your class will end up with one sentence summing up their expectations. It’s a classroom motto!

Intellectual Intensity

Do you know someone who becomes a bit overexcited by ideas?