What’s In My Brain: Primary Sources
Two columns. One is an example, one isn’t. Can you figure out the hidden rule before the big reveal?
Notice, Wonder: Fountain
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Notice, Wonder: Burton Island
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Order and Chaos Hide Inside Each Other
Chaos can contain order. Order can contain chaos! Is chaos ever truly random?
Power and Traditions
We compare the power of traditions shared by millions with smaller traditions shared by perhaps just one family.
Power in Autumn
Autumn was once powerful because of the harvest. What gives Fall its power now?
Who has more power: the Queen Bee or the Hive?
Sometimes power is concentrated in one place. Other times it is spread out.
Indirect Power – Lighthouse vs Magnetism
Students explore the idea of indirect power – which can be both visible (a lighthouse) or invisible (magnetism).
Founding The Colonies
13 colonies activities including a word search and task cards packed with facts. Plus, students will create their own colony with a name, story, and map!
Hero or Not A Hero?
Students will determine what makes a hero a hero.
Notice, Wonder: Brooklyn
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Tournament of Not-So-Famous Inventors
Which inventor and invention will win the tournament?
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.
Domesticated Animals Tournament
Which domesticated animal will win the tournament?
Types of Energy Tournament
Which type of energy will win the tournament!?
Natural Disasters Tournament
Earthquake vs. hurricane. Tsunami vs. wildfire. Students set the criteria, argue their case, and crown a champion. Warning: it gets heated.
Van Gogh Self-Portrait Tournament
Who will win the tournament of Van Gogh self-portraits!?
How to Reset Your Brain When You’re Flooded
Allison Edwards explains how changing your senses can reset your brain.
What Happens In Your Brain When You’re Worried or Afraid
Allison Edwards explains how blood flow in your brain affects your decision-making
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?
New Uses For An Aluminum Can
So, what CAN a CAN be used for other than storing liquids?
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!
Not Like The Others: African Nations
Four African nations. One doesn’t belong. But which one? That depends on your argument.
Discussing An Important Decision from History
How would people with two different perspectives discuss a decision from history?
Chess Variant: Monster Chess
What if you had really weak chess pieces, but you could always move twice?
Notice, Wonder: Butterball
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Plant Adaptation Tournament
Who will win in a tournament of eight plants with Interesting adaptations!?
Notice, Wonder: Craters
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Notice, Wonder: Skylight
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Charge of the Light Brigade – Chess Variant
What if one side played with THREE QUEENS and the other had SEVEN KNIGHTS!? What if?
Horde Chess Variant
What if one player had, say, 32 pawns?
Tournament: 8 Wonders of the Solar System
Which location is the most wondrous place in the solar system?
Notice, Wonder: Vortices
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
The 8th Wonder of the World Tournament
Which of these eight wonders deserves to become the Eighth Wonder of the World!?
Notice, Wonder: Swirls
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Precipitation Tournament
Eight types of precipitation battle it out in this tournament.
Tournament of Ancient Inventions
Which of these inventions of the ancient world is most influential? Least useful today? Most taken-for-granted?
Animal Adaptation Tournament
Which animal has the most interesting, most valuable, or strangest adaptations?
Habitable Planets and Moons Tournament
Which object in the solar system is most habitable?
Not Like The Others: Birds of the Tropical Rainforest
Which of these four birds is not like the others?
Tournament of Presidents
So who was the strangest of these eight presidents?
Four Player Chess
Tired of boring ol’ chess? Then you need to try FOUR PLAYER chess!
Ultimate (or Inception) Tic Tac Toe
What if each square on a Tic-Tac-Toe board had another Tic-Tac-Toe board inside of it?
Notice, Wonder: Green Circles
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
A Lunar Survival Mission
A favorite of mine! This task is delightfully complex and ambiguous, forcing students to make choices without enough information and with no right answer. How will they survive on the moon for three days?
Paradox: Rebuilding A Ship
What if we completely rebuild something slowly? What if we completely rebuild it all at once? Is it still the same thing?
Inferring With Art: Two Women
What are these two women up to? What’s that thing she’s holding? Let’s make some inferences!
Art Lesson: Two-Point Perspective
Let’s get students’ art really popping with two-point perspective!
Self Portraits: Pointillism
Turn your students into a bunch of Monets with q-tips and some tempera paint.
The Pros and Cons of Producers and Consumers
Sure, students might know the difference between a producer and a consumer… but have they considered how they feel about each other? What, in a producer’s opinion, are the pros and cons of a consumer?
Game: Snakes
In this grid-based strategy game, who will be the last to add to the snake?
Math Game: Heaps
Try this a simple (but surprisingly strategic) subtraction game!
Writing Sample: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Falling)
A passage from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Writing Sample: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Shrinking)
A passage from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Writing Sample: White Fang (The Wild)
A passage from White Fang to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Writing Sample: The Jungle Book (Bagheera)
A passage from The Jungle Book to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
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?”
Generalization: Problems Lead to New Rules, Which Lead to New Problems
Problems create rules. Rules create new problems. Can you trace the cycle in history, stories, and your own life?
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!
Create A Civilization: A Change In Government
It’s a great moment for your civilization! Power is moving from the hands of a few to a more democratic government.
The Tournament of Biomes
Want to move beyond memorizing the characteristics of biomes? In this lesson, students work through a Tournament of Biomes, explaining which biome wins in each round (based on criteria you choose). In the end, they crown a 👑 Champion Biome!
Writing Sample: The Wind in the Willows
A passage from The Wind in the Willows to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Writing Sample: Moby Dick
A passage from Moby Dick to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Writing Sample: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
A passage from “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Writing Sample: The Fall of the House of Usher
A passage from “The Fall of the House of Usher” to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Writing Sample: Anne of Green Gables
An intriguing passage from Anne of Green Gables to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Notice, Wonder: A River
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Bulls and Cows
How quickly can you break the numeric code?
Upgrade Research Questions With Depth and Complexity
Ever ask students to create research questions? Were their ideas a bit… blah? My own students had a very hard time writing questions they didn’t already know the answer to! This video is how I solved that problem: upgrade research questions with depth and complexity.
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!
Paradox: Crocodile Dilemma
A crocodile makes a deal. But the deal creates a paradox. Can your students untangle a 2,000-year-old logic puzzle?
Chomp
Chomp away at your opponent in this grid-based strategy game.
Col – A Strategy Game
The first person to run out of regions loses in this strategy game.
Game: Notakto
What if you only played Tic-Tac-Toe with Xs and you could play on multiple boards?
Dots and Boxes
Who can make the most boxes from dots in this strategy game?
The Resiliency Tournament
Your students will set up a tournament to determine which person or character best demonstrated resiliency.
Developing Extension Questions: Panning
Your textbook covers a topic in one paragraph. But what’s next door? Pan the camera and you’ve got a question worth exploring for weeks.
Improving Presentations 1: Watching The Greats
Get better at giving presentations by studying the greats!
Create A Civilization: From Hunter Gatherers to Farmers
What happens when your civilization suddenly has a surplus of food? Think of the possibilities!
Content Imperatives: Convergence
Add complexity by considering how multiple factors 🔄 Converge within one topic.
Content Imperatives: Contribuition
Pull on one thread and watch the whole topic move. Contribution asks: what single factor is quietly shaping everything else?
Content Imperatives: Origin
Take students back to the beginning by using the Content Imperative ⏺️ Origin.
Depth and Complexity: ❓ Unanswered Questions
This underutilized tool focuses students on what we don’t yet know and even what we can’t know.
Depth and Complexity: 📚 Across Disciplines
No topic is an island! With the 📚 Across Disciplines prompt, students note connections within and across multiple fields.
Depth and Complexity: 🌻 Details
Get kids focusing on the small, but essential, details of a topic.
Create A Civilization Introduction
Your students build a civilization from scratch — rivers, flags, calendars, currency, government. Social studies, science, and writing woven into one year-long project.
Creating A Realistic Flower and Pollinator
Your students will create a new flower, designed to attract a specific pollinator.
Drawing Natural Curves Like Andy Goldsworthy
Andy Goldsworthy turns leaves and stones into art. Your students will learn to draw his signature natural curves — then build on them.
Reduce Anxiety: Brain Plate (Tool 3)
When a student’s brain is full of worries, everything feels urgent. Brain Plate helps them sort what’s real from what’s noise — and actually do something about it.
Reduce Anxiety: Square Breathing (Tool 1)
Reduce anxiety by breathing in a square pattern.
Building Brush Bots and Art Bots
What if we turned a tooth brush into a robot… that could do art?
Asynchrony: Developing At Different Rates (For Students)
For students! In some areas, a student may be shockingly advanced, while in others… surprisingly average. This is asynchrony in action.
Teaching Empathy With Faberge Eggs
The story of the Fabergé Eggs is heartbreaking. It’s also the perfect way to build empathy in your classroom.