“This website is my sub plans.” ~ a teacher describing Byrdseed.TV
Students will create a Holiday-themed story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a Holiday-themed story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a Holiday-themed story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a Holiday-themed story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a Holiday-themed story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a Halloween-themed story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a Halloween-themed story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will create a story using these five emoji as their starting point.
Students will use the factors of a number to turn that number into words.
First, students encode PIE, BREAD, and BEARD.
Then they’ll find other words that would encode to 720.
Students explore the “Forbidden Letters” of 720, starting with G.
Finally, they look for the longest 720 words possible. BARED, FABLE, AIDED, and DEBAR are other 5-letter words. BALBOA and BABIED are two 6-letter words.
Notice the ways that I accidentally discouraged curiosity in my classroom.
Quickly click up interesting, visual writing prompts suitable for any grade or purpose.
Students will analyze stories with similar problems, choosing the one with the most unique solution and, eventually, adding their own story to the group.
Students will list stories that have similar problems.
They’ll decide which of the stories in this group has the most unique way of solving the similar problem.
Next, they’ll choose two new awards to give to two other stories in the group.
Finally, students will think of their own version of a story with this same problem along with what award their story would win.
Students will think from two perspectives to discuss an important decision from history.
First, students will list what they consider their historic person’s most important decisions.
Next, they’ll pick the one decision they think is most controversial – not a bad decision, but a decision people could debate.
Then they’ll think from two perspectives who would disagree over this decision. Students will write out the main arguments of both sides.
Finally, they’ll write out a conversation between those two perspectives and end with a big idea – a statement both people could agree on.
After categorizing existing structures and evaluating which structure best represents its category, students will design their own structure that fits one of their categories.
Students will make a list of famous structures from around the world, representing all continents.
They’ll group those structures into 3 to 5 categories based on any characteristic they’d like (except location!).
After naming their groups from last time, students will pick one winning structure from each group that best represents that group.
Finally, students will pick a single winning structure and design a new structure that they think will outdo the current winner.
Develop a creative task that climbs up Bloom’s Taxonomy, demanding a high level of thinking.
Students will make inferences about this piece of art, back it up with evidence, and then adjust their inference based on new information.
First, students will simply note interesting details about this painting.
Next, they’ll try to make an inference about what is going on in this scene.
Finally, after I explain a little about the painting, they will refine or redo their inference – even writing a small story if they’d like!
Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place in space!
Students will analyze and judge a holiday from the perspective of another holiday’s mascot.
Students choose their two holidays and the mascot they’ll be using.
Students brainstorm facts about both holidays using three categories that they choose (food, songs, decorations, clothing, etc).
Using their mascot’s perspective, students write about each of those categories.
Students take that writing and turn it into a final product of your (or their) choosing.
Students will add sets of parentheses to expressions to see how large of a change they can create.
First, I model the process and then give them a sample to try: 7 × 3 + 7 × 2
I show my best answer (see below) and then present four more samples.
I reveal my best answers, then ask students to think about what patterns or rules they spotted to help them place their parentheses. They write these out as 3 to 5 tips to create a guidebook.
Write a short story about a fraction who needs to go undercover and fit in with a group of unlike fractions.
How few colors do you need to color in any map so that no two neighboring regions are the same color?
First, we introduce the idea of coloring in regions on a map with a very simple example that needs only three colors.
Then, we increase the challenge a bit with a second map that still only needs three colors.
Next, we present an even more challenging map.
We reveal the coloring problem’s true solution: no map needs more than four colors.
Students factor 365 in an attempt to create a better system of months and weeks than our current calendar.
Students are asked (by the Supreme Council for Calendars) to clear up the confusing mess of 28, 30, and 31-day months by factoring 365.
Students will discover that 365 has very few factors: 1, 5, 73, and 365 — not so great for even months. We introduce intercalary days: days outside of any month. Students reserve a few days for a special holiday, then create nice, even months.
Now students will divide those months into even weeks so that the year and each month have nice, whole numbers of weeks.
Finally, we do some naming: what will we call our months? What about our days of the week?
To help students understand place value, we venture beyond our typical decimal number system and explore a Base 9 system. Students will be exposed to ancient Babylon’s Base 60 system and computers Binary and Hexadecimal before creating their own number system.
Students consider what a “numeral” is and just how many we actually use.
We discuss our ten numerals and how the base 10, or decimal, system works. Then we introduce base 9, pondering what 8 + 1 would equal in a system without a symbol for 9.
We dig further into Base 9, asking students to complete a worksheet transforming base 9 numbers into base 10.
After correcting the worksheet, we explore real world number systems: Babylonian, Binary, and Hexadecimal. Finally, students develop their own, non-base-10 system and create two-digit numbers using this worksheet.
Students learn about resiliency and create a tournament of people who have displayed this trait.
Students brainstorm examples of materials that: cannot stretch or squish, can stretch or squish (but don’t bounce back), and can stretch or squire, and do bounce back.
After learning about how muscle becomes stronger under stress, students will brainstorm people who have grown because of difficult situations.
Finally, students will build a tournament with eight resilient competitors and work their way through to determine the champ!
Students pick two seemingly unrelated pieces of content (say volcanoes and the human body). Then they build analogies to connect the two ideas.
Students will learn about analogies and practice some simple ones.
They begin their creative analogies, choosing two seemingly unrelated topics. They brainstorm vocabulary for both and look for parallel ideas, building 3-5 analogies.
Then, they flesh out the connections between the vocabulary, writing definitions and connections.
They write a script in which the two seemingly unrelated topics meet each other and note how much they have in common. Students can go on to create a skit, comic, or short story (or anything else they might come up with).
To practice the common writing advice of “show, not tell,” students will write two examples of a scene: one showing a character’s trait, and one just telling. They’ll put a famous character into a mundane situation and develop their scene.
Students pick a well-known character and put them into an everyday situation. They identify the character’s main trait and come up with an event that will highlight that trait. They brainstorm ten specific ways that the character will show that trait (words they’ll say, noises they’ll make, actions they’ll take, how they’ll look, etc).
Finally, they write up the situation – using their ten ideas to show the character’s main trait. They’ll also write a non-example in which they only tell the trait. No showing allowed!
Learn to lead a lesson that is built entirely on student curiosity.
Students construct fractions from a limited number of digits in order to reach a given solution.
First students will try to create fractions that will get them to 0.
Now, using the same digits, students will try to create fractions that will get them to 1.
Students try to get as close as possible to 1/2 – without actually reaching it.
Now they’ll try to get as close as possible to 0 – without actually reaching it.
Then they try to get as close as possible to 1 – without actually reaching it.
Finally, students chose their own denominators to try to add up to 1/5.
Adults will help students reduce anxiety through the 5 Question Rule.
Students will continue to practice changing the beginning of their sentences to add more variety to their overall writing.
Start with “The Reason” using because, since, or to.
Start with prepositional phrases to show location (or time!).
Start with a simile.
Write a c-c-c-combo paragraph!
Adults will learn to reduce students’ anxiety with the tool Worry Time.
Students will learn to reduce anxiety with the tool Brain Plate.
In this ongoing project, students use a list of Greek and Latin word parts to create four possible products.
Students develop creatures called Greekymon whose features and behaviors match their name. Gotta catch ’em all!
Students create a Book of Spells packed with incantations made from Greek and Latin word parts.
Students develop a new phobia, based on their list of word parts.
Students develop a series of inventions based on Greek and Latin word parts.
Students will learn a method for reducing anxiety.
Reduce anxiety by breathing in a square pattern.
Students will look at six different levels of motivation behind a person’s actions.
First, we introduce the idea that one positive action can have different motivations – and those motivations can be positive or negative.
Then, students learn about Levels 1 and 2 and note characters and historic figures who match up with those levels.
Next, students learn about Levels 3 and 4 and note characters and historic figures who match up with those levels.
In this part, students learn about Level 5 and look for characters and historic figures who fit this level.
Finally, they’ll learn about Level 6 and note how characters can match up with different levels depending on which point in a story we’re looking at.
Students will improve their figurative language by making a cliché into something very interesting.
Students will begin with a cliché and add a detail to make it more specific.
Students will continue to add more details and make that cliché even more specific.
Students will learn about strategies to cope with an intellectual overexcitability.