Enrichment

Asking students to “think creatively” won’t get you far. They won’t know how to start, they’ll get stuck with simple ideas, or they’ll just go completely wild. SCAMPER is a tool for scaffolding the process of creativity.

Who can get to 100 first in this simple, but delightful, math game?

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?

So what are some new ways to use a paperclip?

Ready for a tricky counting and divisibility game?

You won’t believe how fascinating it is to watch a map of the most popular baby names by US state.

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.

Worksheets for Earth Day! Featuring reading, writing, and math… with a pinch of Depth and Complexity.

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?

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

These two tables are the same size. But how!?

St. Patrick Day’s themed word searches, crossword puzzle, reverse crossword, transition writing practice, and a math puzzle.

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

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

Tired of boring ol’ chess? Then you need to try FOUR PLAYER chess!

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

Can you shred paper using just Lego?

What are these two women up to? What’s that thing she’s holding? Let’s make some inferences!

So, what can a pencil be used for other than writing and drawing?

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

Everyone starts with the same squiggle. No two drawings end up the same. What do you see?

In this grid-based strategy game, who will be the last to add to the snake?

What would the consequences be if no one had to sleep anymore?

Can your students come up with a one-syllable word to sum up their time away from school? And then rewrite The Beatles’ song Help!?

Shakespeare’s Much Ado summarized in just five minutes!

It’s a car made out of Lego with a working engine.

Let’s make valentines with an educational twist!

Imagine Tic-Tac-Toe, but both players can both play as both X and O throughout the whole game!

Your students will turn the iconic painting The Scream into a vivid, sensory poem.

Now let’s try the Path Cipher – a cipher that mixes things up even more than Zig Zag did.

Shaolin kung fu students as seen from a satellite.

Everyone starts with the same squiggle. No two drawings end up the same. What do you see?

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

Learn how to play the abstract, paper-and-pencil game Sprouts.

A crocodile makes a deal. But the deal creates a paradox. Can your students untangle a 2,000-year-old logic puzzle?

Let’s encode some secret messages with a cipher that was actually used during the American Civil War!

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

What if a students’ self-portrait was made of words that describe the student!?

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

Why does this dinosaur keep looking at me…

The story of the Fabergé Eggs is heartbreaking. It’s also the perfect way to build empathy in your classroom.

Romeo and Juliet in just about five minutes.

Vulcan Point Island is an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island

So, what CAN a CAN be used for other than storing liquids?

What if you only played Tic-Tac-Toe with Xs and you could play on multiple boards?

It’s Hamlet in just about five minutes!

A mosaic technique that makes watercolor approachable. Students walk away with something they’re proud of.

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

Can your students tell the difference between cubism and abstract art?

A music video filmed on 64 phones and then displayed on 64 phones. What?

What if one side played with THREE QUEENS and the other had SEVEN KNIGHTS!? What if?

Who can guess the codeword first?

Writing prompts, non-fiction analysis, and science topics related to Christmas and Hanukkah.

What would the consequences be if a town’s tap water became… unreliable?

What if we rewrote a piece of writing without using certain letters?

Who can make the most boxes from dots in this strategy game?

A worksheet pack featuring writing prompts, a summer essay project, a science-based escape room activity, and image analysis prompts.

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

Ready to learn a 2,500-year-old Chinese board game? Let’s… Go!

You could keep zooming in on this snowflake forever!

What’s going on in this painting? Who is that guy? What’s his job? And where’s his other boot?

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

How to draw a more complex version of this twisty Henri Matisse knot!

Nothing could possibly go wrong with a love potion on the loose!

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

Let’s encode and decode secret messages like Julius Caesar!

What if we turned a tooth brush into a robot… that could do art?

What if one player had, say, 32 pawns?

What if you had really weak chess pieces, but you could always move twice?

How to draw a simple version of this twisty Henri Matisse knot!

Watch astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti cook a meal in zero gravity on the International Space Station.

What do you see in this squiggle?

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

An animated summary of Shakespeare’s utterly ridiculous “Twelfth Night.”

Crosswords, image analysis, and writing prompts for Halloween!

Sure, anyone can win at checkers… but can you lose!?

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

Roll three dice and combine them using any mathematical operation. But be strategic to maximize your points!

How to draw the final version of the twisty Henri Matisse knot!

The first person to run out of regions loses in this strategy game.

What surprises can you spot when a kernel pops in super slow-mo?

Anyone, yes anyone, can create a (somewhat) realistic self-portrait using these steps. Anyone!

The barber shaves everybody who doesn’t themselves. So… does the barber shave himself?

How quickly can you break the numeric code?

What if this triangle pattern just kept repeating… forever!?

What if each square on a Tic-Tac-Toe board had another Tic-Tac-Toe board inside of it?

Let’s try a cipher that doesn’t substitute new letters or shapes. We just mix things up.

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

What happens when you blow a bubble in below-freezing temperatures?

Teach your students about basic cryptography and code making.

How fast do you get your mathematical car going without crashing?

Try this a simple (but surprisingly strategic) subtraction game!

Let’s give our students an art history lesson while teaching them how to enhance their drawings using one-point perspective.

Watch this block of Lego cast three completely different shadows of three distinctly different objects! How’d he do it?

What if we rewrote a piece of writing without using certain letters?

What would the consequences be if all people lived much, much longer?

Nothing like a paradox to get your kids brains exploding 🤯! This one starts with five simple words: “This statement is a lie.”

This optical illusion looks like a 3D staircase, but it’s all drawn on a plain piece of paper.

Ghost is a word-building game for two players. The first person to create an actual word loses.

The only type of octopus that routinely wanders onto land!

What if we played chess on a board that’s only 4×5?

Andy Goldsworthy turns leaves and stones into art. Your students will learn to draw his signature natural curves — then build on them.

Oil paint floats on water and becomes a familiar scene.

Imagine Tic-Tac-Toe if both players could play as both Xs and Os!

Various desserts melt in surprisingly different ways.

Create and print mazes for your students – with bonus side quests!

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

Want to take Tic-Tac-Toe to the next level!? Imagine a 15×15 board. You must get five-in-a-row. You cannot get six-in-a-row. That’s Gomoku!

What if we completely rebuild something slowly? What if we completely rebuild it all at once? Is it still the same thing?

Everyone starts with the same squiggle. No two drawings end up the same. What do you see?