Grade 1
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Language
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Reading: Foundational Skills
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Reading: Informational
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Reading: Literature
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Speaking & Listening
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Writing
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Writing Foundational Skills
Arizona ELA Standard: 1.RI.7
Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas.
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!
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
When does a simple symbol have more power than a word?
Notice, Wonder: Brooklyn
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
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!
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!
Looking Closely at Holiday Photos
Let’s write from multiple perspectives using an old timey holiday photo!
What’s In My Brain!? Japan vs Jamaica
Is it an island or an archipelago?
What’s In My Brain!? Walnut vs Clouds
Let’s look at living vs non-living things.
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!
Concept Attainment: Hornet vs Tiger
Can your class spot the vertebrates vs invertebrates?
Notice, Wonder: SLS Test
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Not Like The Others: Birds of the Desert
Four desert birds. One doesn’t belong. But which one? That depends on your argument.
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
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Notice, Wonder: Ramses
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Drawing An Impossible Triangle
Here’s how you can draw The Penrose Triangle, an example of an impossible shape.
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!
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
Pick a few numbers, draw some corresponding lines on grid paper, and you’ll end up with some interesting, looping math-y art!
Concept Attainment: Art
Can your students tell the difference between cubism and abstract art?
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!
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
What’s going on in this room? There are shoes everywhere! Are those… oranges? Let’s make some inferences!
Art Lesson: Two-Point Perspective
Let’s get students’ art really popping with two-point perspective!
An Escher-Style Tessellation Project
Create a piece of repeating art in the style of MC Escher!
Self Portraits: Pointillism
Turn your students into a bunch of Monets with q-tips and some tempera paint.
Notice, Wonder: Kuiseb
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
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)
A passage from The Jungle Book to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
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!
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!
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
A passage from “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
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!
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
Let’s get students thinking big and focusing on more abstract ideas.
Depth and Complexity: Patterns
Can your students spot anything that repeats? Or that has stopped repeating?
Depth and Complexity: 🌻 Details
Get kids focusing on the small, but essential, details of a topic.
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.
Create A Creature
Create a new creature based on the adaptations of existing creatures from the same biome.
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)
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 by learning to “change the channel.”
Reduce Anxiety: Square Breathing (Tool 1)
Reduce anxiety by breathing in a square pattern.
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
Take direction instruction beyond a monotonous practice of the same skill over and over.
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.