Enrichment
SCAMPER: Scaffolding Creativity
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.
The Game of 100
Who can get to 100 first in this simple, but delightful, math game?
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?
New Uses for a Paperclip
So what are some new ways to use a paperclip?
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.
An Escher-Style Tessellation Project
Create a piece of repeating art in the style of MC Escher!
Ultimate (or Inception) Tic Tac Toe
So, I heard you like Tic-Tac-Toe. What if each square on a Tic-Tac-Toe board had another Tic-Tac-Toe board inside of it? 🤯
Educational Valentines
Let's make valentines with an educational twist!
Writing About Art: The Scream
Your students will turn the iconic painting The Scream into a vivid, sensory poem.
Game: Number Scrabble
What if we played Tic-Tac-Toe with numbers and instead of three-in-a-row, we add up to 15? Well… then we'd have Number Scrabble!
Self Portraits Part One: Line Drawings
Anyone, yes anyone, can create a (somewhat) realistic self-portrait using these steps. Anyone!
Game: Bulls and Cows
How quickly can you break the code with Bulls and Cows?
Game: Jotto
Who can guess the other person's codeword first? This game practices inducting thinking and encourages the development of a strategy.
Self Portraits: Text Art
What if a students' self-portrait was made of words that describe the student!?
Game: Snakes
In this grid-based strategy game, who will be the last to add to the snake?
Fizz Buzz: A Counting and Divisibility Game
Ready for a tricky counting and divisibility game?
Fractals: Sierpinski’s Triangle
What if this triangle pattern just kept repeating… forever!?
Fractals: Koch Snowflake
You could keep zooming in on this snowflake forever!
Game: Order and Chaos
Imagine Tic-Tac-Toe if both players could play as both Xs and Os!
Game: Ghost
Ghost is a word-building game for two players. The first person to create an actual word loses.
Game: Wild Tic Tac Toe
Imagine Tic-Tac-Toe, but both players can both play as both X and O throughout the whole game! First to get three-in-a-row still wins!
Squiggles Introduction
What do you see in this squiggle?
Game: Dots and Boxes
Learn how to play the abstract, paper-and-pencil game Dots and Boxes.
Game: Sprouts
Learn how to play the abstract, paper-and-pencil game Sprouts.
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!
Investigating Christmas Trees
Students start with facts, then make groups, and then work with a single statement about Christmas Trees.
Game: Gomoku
Want to take Tic-Tac-Toe to the next level!? Imagine a 15Ă—15 board. You must get five-in-a-row. You cannot get six-in-a-row. That's Gomoku!
Inferring With Art: A Man
What's going on in this painting? Who is that guy? What's his job? And where's his other boot?
Game: Col
Learn how to play the abstract, paper-and-pencil game Col!
Game: Chomp
Learn how to play the abstract, paper-and-pencil game Chomp!
Back to School: Rewriting The Beatles’ “Help!”
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!?
Lipogram: Rewrite “Twinkle, Twinkle”
What if we rewrote a piece of writing without using certain letters?
Game: Notakto
What if you only played Tic-Tac-Toe with Xs and you could play on multiple boards?
Shift Cipher (Codes Part 1)
Let's encode and decode secret messages like Julius Caesar!
Categorize and Re-Categorize Animals
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?
How to Play Go (A Chess and Checkers Alternative)
Ready to learn a 2,500-year-old Chinese board game? Let's… go!
Paradox: The Liar’s Paradox
Nothing like a paradox to get your kids brains exploding 🤯! This one starts with five simple words: "This statement is a lie."
Inferring With Art: Two Women
What are these two women up to? What's that thing she's holding? Let's make some inferences!
Racetrack – Race Around A Graph
How fast do you get your mathematical car going without crashing?
Paradox: Crocodile Dilemma
Students grapple with The Crocodile Dilemma, a paradox from Ancient Greece in which a tricky crocodile makes a deal with some parents. Warning: students brains might explode 🤯
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?
Math Game: Heaps
Try this a simple (but surprisingly strategic) subtraction game!
Drawing Knots, Level 1
How to draw a simple version of this twisty Henri Matisse knot!
Thinking With Art: Head Down
Students will work their brain in several ways, noticing details, comparing, synthesizing, and finally identifying a parallel. All with one artist's work!
Pig Pen Cipher (Codes Part 2)
Let's encode some secret messages with a cipher that was actually used during the American Civil War!
Parabolic Curve Art
Create mathematical art with curves that, well, aren't curvy.
Math Game: Cram
Try this a simple (but surprisingly strategic) grid-filling game!
Squiggles Collection 1
Students start with the same squiggle and then draw on it, turning it into whatever they think it might be.
Building Brush Bots and Art Bots
What if we turned a tooth brush into a robot… that could do art?
Self Portraits: Pointillism
Turn your students into a bunch of Monets with q-tips and some tempera paint.
Art Lesson: One-Point Perspective
Let's give our students an art history lesson while teaching them how to enhance their drawings using one-point perspective.
Paradox: The Barber’s Paradox
The barber shaves everybody who doesn't themselves. So... does the barber shave himself?
Drawing An Impossible Triangle
Here's how you can draw The Penrose Triangle, an example of an impossible shape.
Path Cipher (Codes Part 4)
Now let's try the Path Cipher - a cipher that mixes things up even more than Zig Zag did.
Inferring With Art: A Couple
What's going on in this room? There are shoes everywhere! Are those… oranges? Let's make some inferences!
Concept Attainment: Cubism (Art)
Students will be working with examples and non-examples to deduce the topic of cubism.
Art Lesson: Two-Point Perspective
Let's get students' art really popping with two-point perspective!
New Uses For A Pencil
So, what can a pencil be used for other than writing and drawing?
Lipogram: Rewrite “Mary Had A Little Lamb”
What if we rewrote a piece of writing without using certain letters?
Zig Zag Cipher (Codes Part 3)
Let's try a cipher that doesn't substitute new letters or shapes. We just mix things up.
Microchess (Chess Variant)
What if we played chess on a board that's only 4Ă—5?
Chess Variant: Monster Chess
What if you had really weak chess pieces, but you could always move twice?
Four Player Chess
Tired of boring ol' chess? Then you need to try FOUR PLAYER chess!
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Nothing could possibly go wrong with a love potion on the loose!
New Uses For An Aluminum Can
So, what CAN a CAN be used for other than storing liquids?
Drawing Knots, Level 2
How to draw a more complex version of this twisty Henri Matisse knot!
Squiggles Collection 2
Students start with the same squiggle and then draw on it, turning it into whatever they think it might be.
New Uses For A Chair
So, what can a chair be used for other than, you know, sitting in?
What If… No Sleep?
What would the consequences be if no one had to sleep anymore?
Slow Motion Popcorn
What surprises can you spot when a kernel pops in super slow-mo?
Drawing Knots, Level 3
How to draw the final version of the twisty Henri Matisse knot!
Squiggles Collection 3
Students start with the same squiggle and then draw on it, turning it into whatever they think it might be.
Cooking In Space
Watch astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti cook a meal in zero gravity on the International Space Station.
Romeo and Juliet Summary
Romeo and Juliet in just about five minutes.
Frozen Bubble
What happens when you blow a bubble in below-freezing temperatures?
What If… Unreliable Water?
What would the consequences be if a town's tap water became… unreliable?
Horde Chess Variant
What if one player had, say, 32 pawns?
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?
Charge of the Light Brigade – Chess Variant
What if one side played with THREE QUEENS and the other had SEVEN KNIGHTS!? What if?
What If… Long Life?
What would the consequences be if all people lived much, much longer?
Hamlet Summary
It's Hamlet in just about five minutes!
Van Gogh Self-Portrait Tournament
Who will win the tournament of Van Gogh self-portraits!?
“Much Ado About Nothing” Summary
Shakespeare's Much Ado summarized in just five minutes!
Twelfth Night Summary
An animated summary of Shakespeare's utterly ridiculous "Twelfth Night."
Changing Baby Names
You won't believe how fascinating it is to watch a map of the most popular baby names by US state.
Melting Ice Cream
Various desserts melt in surprisingly different ways.
Shadow Spinner
Watch this block of Lego cast three completely different shadows of three distinctly different objects! How'd he do it?