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Arizona ELA Standard: 1.RI.7

Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas.

Notice, Wonder: Fountain

Notice, Wonder: Fountain

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

Notice, Wonder: Dazzle

Notice, Wonder: Dazzle

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

Notice, Wonder: Burton Island

Notice, Wonder: Burton Island

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

Notice, Wonder: Tenzing

Notice, Wonder: Tenzing

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

Main Idea and Details

Main Idea and Details

Young students can use this big idea organizer to identify the main idea and support it with details.

Power and Symbols

Power and Symbols

A skull and crossbones says “danger” faster than any sentence can. So why can’t a symbol say “I forgive you, but I’m still upset”?

Notice, Wonder: Brooklyn

Notice, Wonder: Brooklyn

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

Van Gogh Self-Portrait Tournament

Van Gogh Self-Portrait Tournament

Who will win the tournament of Van Gogh self-portraits!?

How to Reset Your Brain When You’re Flooded

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

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

Notice, Wonder: Sombrero

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

Notice, Wonder: Silver Torch

Notice, Wonder: Silver Torch

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

Notice, Wonder: Barringer

Notice, Wonder: Barringer

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

Notice, Wonder: Rosetta

Notice, Wonder: Rosetta

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

Looking Closely at Holiday Photos

Looking Closely at Holiday Photos

Let’s write from multiple perspectives using an old timey holiday photo!

Notice, Wonder: Critter

Notice, Wonder: Critter

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

Notice, Wonder: A House

Notice, Wonder: A House

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

Notice, Wonder: SLS Test

Notice, Wonder: SLS Test

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

Writing About Art: Impression, Sunrise

Writing About Art: Impression, Sunrise

Look closely at Impression, Sunrise. What do you notice? Now turn those details into a poem you didn’t know you could write.

Notice, Wonder: Butterball

Notice, Wonder: Butterball

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

Notice, Wonder: Ramses

Notice, Wonder: Ramses

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

Drawing An Impossible Triangle

Drawing An Impossible Triangle

Here’s how you can draw The Penrose Triangle, an example of an impossible shape.

Notice, Wonder: Craters

Notice, Wonder: Craters

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

Notice, Wonder: Bloom

Notice, Wonder: Bloom

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

Notice, Wonder: Skylight

Notice, Wonder: Skylight

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

Notice, Wonder: Krzywy Las

Notice, Wonder: Krzywy Las

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

Notice, Wonder: Scales

Notice, Wonder: Scales

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

Notice, Wonder: Vortices

Notice, Wonder: Vortices

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

Notice, Wonder: Swirls

Notice, Wonder: Swirls

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

Notice, Wonder: Witch’s Fingers

Notice, Wonder: Witch’s Fingers

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

Writing About Art: Chōshi in Shimosha

Writing About Art: Chōshi in Shimosha

Get your students writing some pretty darn impressive poetry based on Japan’s most famous artist.

Looping Grid Art

Looping Grid Art

Pick a few numbers, draw some corresponding lines on grid paper, and you’ll end up with some interesting, looping math-y art!

Notice, Wonder: Green Circles

Notice, Wonder: Green Circles

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

Notice, Wonder: An Orange Thing

Notice, Wonder: An Orange Thing

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

Thinking With Art: Head Down

Thinking With Art: Head Down

One artist, two paintings. Notice details, compare, synthesize, then find a parallel in another creator’s work.

Inferring With Art: A Couple

Inferring With Art: A Couple

What’s going on in this room? There are shoes everywhere! Are those… oranges? Let’s make some inferences!

Art Lesson: Two-Point Perspective

Art Lesson: Two-Point Perspective

Let’s get students’ art really popping with two-point perspective!

An Escher-Style Tessellation Project

An Escher-Style Tessellation Project

Create a piece of repeating art in the style of MC Escher!

Self Portraits: Pointillism

Self Portraits: Pointillism

Turn your students into a bunch of Monets with q-tips and some tempera paint.

Notice, Wonder: Kuiseb

Notice, Wonder: Kuiseb

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

Writing Sample: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Shrinking)

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: The Jungle Book (Bagheera)

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: A Long Line

Notice, Wonder: A Long Line

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

Notice, Wonder: Blood Falls

Notice, Wonder: Blood Falls

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

Notice, Wonder: Forest

Notice, Wonder: Forest

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

Notice, Wonder: Akron

Notice, Wonder: Akron

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

Notice, Wonder: Electronics

Notice, Wonder: Electronics

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

Notice, Wonder: Turbine

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

Notice, Wonder: Z-Machine

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

Writing Sample: The Wind in the Willows

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: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

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.

Notice, Wonder: Climber

Notice, Wonder: Climber

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

Notice, Wonder: A River

Notice, Wonder: A River

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

Notice, Wonder: The Cliff

Notice, Wonder: The Cliff

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

Notice, Wonder: Michael

Notice, Wonder: Michael

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

Notice, Wonder: Etna

Notice, Wonder: Etna

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

Notice, Wonder: Plateau

Notice, Wonder: Plateau

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

Notice, Wonder: A Ship

Notice, Wonder: A Ship

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

Investigating Christmas Trees

Investigating Christmas Trees

Start with facts about Christmas trees. Group them. Label them. Can you boil it all down to one big idea?

Depth and Complexity: 🏛️ Big Idea

Depth and Complexity: 🏛️ Big Idea

Let’s get students thinking big and focusing on more abstract ideas.

Depth and Complexity: Patterns

Depth and Complexity: Patterns

Can your students spot anything that repeats? Or that has stopped repeating?

Depth and Complexity: 🌻 Details

Depth and Complexity: 🌻 Details

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

Create A Creature

Create A Creature

Create a new creature based on the adaptations of existing creatures from the same biome.

An App For A Historical Figure

An App For A Historical Figure

What kind of an app could have helped Abe Lincoln accomplish his goals?

Reduce Anxiety: Brain Plate (Tool 3)

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: Change The Channel (Tool 2)

Reduce Anxiety: Change The Channel (Tool 2)

Reduce anxiety by learning to “change the channel.”

Reduce Anxiety: Square Breathing (Tool 1)

Reduce Anxiety: Square Breathing (Tool 1)

Reduce anxiety by breathing in a square pattern.

Think Like An Economist

Think Like An Economist

How would an economist read Goldilocks? How would they see a rainforest? How would they study the American Revolution?

Add Layers To Direct Instruction

Add Layers To Direct Instruction

For Teachers

Take direction instruction beyond a monotonous practice of the same skill over and over.

Better Stories Part 1: The Big Idea

Better Stories Part 1: The Big Idea

We open our unit on narrative writing with a big idea: “structure increases creativity.” I show how this is true by bringing in examples from across all disciplines.