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Arizona ELA Standard: 3.W.2.a

Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.

Order to Chaos: Dominoes or Dam?

Order to Chaos: Dominoes or Dam?

Sometimes outside forces turn order into chaos. But sometimes chaos comes from within.

Order and Chaos Hide Inside Each Other

Order and Chaos Hide Inside Each Other

Chaos can contain order. Order can contain chaos! Is chaos ever truly random?

Chaos Can Be Positive or Negative

Chaos Can Be Positive or Negative

Sometimes we want order, but sometimes we need chaos!

Introducing Order and Chaos

Introducing Order and Chaos

Introduce Order by exploring “written” vs “unwritten” rules.

Power Big Idea Worksheets

Power Big Idea Worksheets

Your students will investigate statements like: Power leads to change, Power comes in many forms, Power can be used or abused.

Power Can Be Fast, Slow, Loud, or Quiet

Power Can Be Fast, Slow, Loud, or Quiet

Power may seem loud and fast, but it can also be slow and quiet.

Improving Shakespeare’s Repetition

Improving Shakespeare’s Repetition

Let’s help William Shakespeare with his use of repetition.

A System Similar to a Cell

A System Similar to a Cell

Which parts of a cell serve a similar job to the parts of a cruise ship, human body, computer, or other system?

New Uses For A Cardboard Tube

New Uses For A Cardboard Tube

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

Order, Chaos, and the Holiday Season

Order, Chaos, and the Holiday Season

Let’s write a holiday song about order and chaos!

Compare and Create New Year’s Traditions

Compare and Create New Year’s Traditions

Hey! Our New Year traditions have a lot in common.

Create A Civ: Capital City

Create A Civ: Capital City

Every great capital is part geography, part human design. Research real ones, then build your own from scratch.

Categorize and Re-Categorize Countries

Categorize and Re-Categorize Countries

Put these countries into groups. Then do it again. Then… do it one more time. How does re-re-grouping the same places reveal new patterns and give new insights?

Famous Structures

Famous Structures

The Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House — group them, pick the best from each group, then design your own.

Introducing Universal Theme of Conflict

Introducing Universal Theme of Conflict

So what could you do with a Universal Theme of Conflict? Well, here’s an introduction that will get your students’ brains sweating.

Introducing Universal Theme of Power

Introducing Universal Theme of Power

So what could you do with a Universal Theme of Power? Well, here’s an introduction that will get your students’ brains sweating.

Washington, DC – Mixed Up Paragraph

Washington, DC – Mixed Up Paragraph

These sentences about Washington, DC got scrambled. Can you put them back in order using nothing but context clues?

Earthquakes – Mixed Up Paragraph

Earthquakes – Mixed Up Paragraph

Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about earthquakes back into the correct order?

Drawing An Impossible Triangle

Drawing An Impossible Triangle

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

Parabolic Curve Art

Parabolic Curve Art

Create mathematical art with curves that, well, aren’t curvy.

Create A Civilization: Design A Flag

Create A Civilization: Design A Flag

What makes for a good flag? What makes a bad flag?

Analyze Paragraphs: Cucumbers

Analyze Paragraphs: Cucumbers

Three paragraphs about cucumbers. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.

A Lunar Survival Mission

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?

Cram

Cram

Try this a simple (but surprisingly strategic) grid-filling game!

Art Lesson: Two-Point Perspective

Art Lesson: Two-Point Perspective

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

The Pros and Cons of Producers and Consumers

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?

Impostor Syndrome

Impostor Syndrome

How high-performing students can often feel like they aren’t really that great.

Change Leads to More Change

Change Leads to More Change

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

Order Can Be Natural or Constructed

Order Can Be Natural or Constructed

When is order natural and when is it designed by people?

Invisible Power Can Have Visible Effects

Invisible Power Can Have Visible Effects

Can you think of times when power is unseen, but we can clearly see its effects?

Plurals: An Inductive Spelling Lesson

Plurals: An Inductive Spelling Lesson

Plural nouns in English are deliciously fascinating. Yet most plural lessons are so dull! In this experience, students are given a pile of plurals and then inductively create groups and pull out rules and patterns.

How Renewable Is That Resource?

How Renewable Is That Resource?

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

Paragraphs: Systems of Sentences

Paragraphs: Systems of Sentences

Blow up a paragraph into individual sentences. Now reassemble it. The clues hiding in each sentence will surprise you.

Simple or Compound Sentences – What’s In My Brain?

Simple or Compound Sentences – What’s In My Brain?

Can your students spot simple sentences vs compound sentences?

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?

Student Introductions With Depth and Frames

Student Introductions With Depth and Frames

Want to introduce the tools of Depth and Complexity and learn more about your students and introduce the Frame graphic organizer? Have I got the activity for you!

Chomp

Chomp

Chomp away at your opponent in this grid-based strategy game.

Building Creative Analogies

Building Creative Analogies

We’ll take two seemingly unrelated pieces of content (say volcanoes and the human body) and then build analogies to connect the two ideas. In the end, students can create a skit, comic, or story relating the two concepts.

The Thinking Hats

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.

Create A Civilization: Calendars

Create A Civilization: Calendars

Why 12 months? Why 30ish days? Why 7 days in a week? Your civilization could organize a year in any way you want!

Improving Presentations 3: The Storyboard and Slides

Improving Presentations 3: The Storyboard and Slides

It’s time to turn that outline into a storyboard and then some actual slides.

Improving Presentations 2: Planning The Outline

Improving Presentations 2: Planning The Outline

After watching some great presenters, let’s outline your presentation!

Create A Civilization: The River

Create A Civilization: The River

The Nile, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Seine, the Thames, and now… your river!

Content Imperatives: Parallel

Content Imperatives: Parallel

Get students thinking broadly by exploring similarities across multiple topics. Combine with Depth and Complexity for bonus points!

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?

Create A Civilization Introduction

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.

Educational Valentines

Educational Valentines

Let’s make valentines with an educational twist!

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.

Asynchrony: Developing At Different Rates (For Students)

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.

Creating A Classroom Motto

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!

Writing Clear Directions

Writing Clear Directions

Can you write directions so clear that a group of kids can put a toy together with no illustrations?

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.