Enrichment ＊ Byrdseed.TV

Contig

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

Summer Activity Pack

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

Earth Day Worksheets

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

Drawing A 3D Staircase

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

A Land Octopus

The only type of octopus that routinely wanders onto land!

St. Patrick’s Day Worksheets

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

OK Go Music Video on 64 Phones

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

Optical Illusion: Two Tables

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

Lego Paper Shredder

Can you shred paper using just Lego?

Martial Arts in Space

Shaolin kung fu students as seen from a satellite.

New Uses For A Cardboard Tube

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

Van Gogh on Water

Oil paint floats on water and becomes a familiar scene.

Van Gogh Self-Portrait Tournament

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

Slow Motion Popcorn

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

Compare and Create New Year’s Traditions

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

Cooking In Space

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

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.

Frozen Bubble

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

Shadow Spinner

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

Squiggles Collection 3

Students start with the same squiggle and then draw on it, turning it into whatever they think it might be.

Path Cipher (Codes Part 4)

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

Squiggles Introduction

What do you see in this squiggle?

Squiggles Collection 1

Students start with the same squiggle and then draw on it, turning it into whatever they think it might be.

Squiggles Collection 2

Students start with the same squiggle and then draw on it, turning it into whatever they think it might be.

What If… Unreliable Water?

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

What If… Long Life?

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

What If… No Sleep?

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

New Uses For A Chair

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

New Uses For A Pencil

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

New Uses For An Aluminum Can

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

Zig Zag Cipher (Codes Part 3)

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

Pig Pen Cipher (Codes Part 2)

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

Shift Cipher (Codes Part 1)

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

Lipogram: Rewrite “Mary Had A Little Lamb”

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

Lipogram: Rewrite “Twinkle, Twinkle”

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

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?

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?

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!?

Chess Variant: Monster Chess

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

Racetrack – Race Around A Graph

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

Drawing An Impossible Triangle

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

Fizz Buzz: A Counting and Divisibility Game

Ready for a tricky counting and divisibility game?

Microchess (Chess Variant)

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

Charge of the Light Brigade – Chess Variant

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

Horde Chess Variant

What if one player had, say, 32 pawns?

Drawing Knots, Level 3

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

Drawing Knots, Level 2

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

Drawing Knots, Level 1

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

Parabolic Curve Art

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

New Uses for a Paperclip

So what are some new ways to use a paperclip?

Anti-Checkers

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

Four Player Chess

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

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!

Ultimate (or Inception) Tic Tac Toe

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

Writing About Art: The Scream

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

Concept Attainment: Art

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

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?

Math Game: Cram

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

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?

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!

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?

Inferring With Art: A Couple

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

Inferring With Art: Two Women

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

Game: Wild Tic Tac Toe

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

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: Text Art

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

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.

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 Part One: Line Drawings

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

Self Portraits: Pointillism

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

Game: Snakes

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

Game: Jotto

Who can guess the other person’s codeword first? This game practices inducting thinking and encourages the development of a strategy.

Math Game: Heaps

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

Game: Gomoku

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!

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.

Game: Order and Chaos

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

Game: Bulls and Cows

How quickly can you break the code with Bulls and Cows?

Game: Ghost

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

Paradox: The Barber’s Paradox

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

Investigating Christmas Trees

Students start with facts, then make groups, and then work with a single statement about Christmas Trees.

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: 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.”

Game: Chomp

Learn how to play the abstract, paper-and-pencil game Chomp!

Game: Col

Learn how to play the abstract, paper-and-pencil game Col!

Game: Notakto

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

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.

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.