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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.
Students identify letters that cannot be used in their words and search for the longest words encoding to 720.
Notice the ways that I accidentally discouraged curiosity in my classroom.
First, students will realize that asking questions is safe, then they will have opportunities to be curious, and finally, they will be encouraged by the teacher to explore their interests without fear of embarrassment.
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.
Students write their own stories based on an award-winning tale, changing elements while keeping the main problem similar.
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.
Students identify the most controversial decision made by their historic figure and discuss differing opinions about that choice.
Students outline arguments for and against their historical figure’s controversial decision.
Students write a dialogue between opposing perspectives, then create a big idea both sides can accept.
Students sort famous structures and design one of their own.
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!).
Students create short labels for each group of famous structures and choose one that best represents each category.
Students choose a category and design a new structure that improves upon a famous one from the previous lesson.
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.
Students discuss details and background knowledge to refine their inferences about the scene in the painting.
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.
Students identify patterns in placing parentheses that significantly change the value of expressions for their guidebook project.
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
A passage from “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
What do students notice about this image of a river? What does it make them wonder?
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?
Students learn how to color maps using different colors for neighboring regions to avoid confusion and reduce printing costs.
Next, students will determine the fewest number of colors needed to fill in a more complex map.
Finally, students are challenged to color a complex map using only four colors or to create a map needing more.
Students factor 365 in an attempt to create a better system of months and weeks than our current calendar.
Students create three different ways to group three hundred sixty-five days into months with an even number of days each.
Students divide 365 days into months and create a special intercalary month for leftover days to maintain a full year.
Students group the days of their month into even weeks with five days each to create a structured calendar.
Students create names for their months and days of the week to finalize their new calendar system.
Students work in base 9, then invent a number system of their own.
Students consider what a “numeral” is and just how many we actually use.
Students learn about the decimal system and how grouping numerals creates place value to represent numbers beyond nine.
Students calculate the value of base nine numbers by grouping and using base blocks to visualize their quantities.
Students learn how different number systems represent values, focusing on base nine, base sixty, binary, and hexadecimal systems.
Students learn about resiliency and create a tournament of people who have displayed this trait.
Students brainstorm examples of materials that stretch, squish, or bounce back, comparing them to rubber bands and rocks.
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.
Students brainstorm vocabulary related to human bodies and volcanoes to create connections and develop unique analogies.
Then, they flesh out the connections between the vocabulary, writing definitions and connections.
Students create a comic, short story, or skit to show the similarities between two unrelated topics through their analogies.
Students write a scene that shows a trait, and another that just tells it.
Students brainstorm actions and movements that show a character’s feelings and traits in a specific location.
Students write a scene that shows Darth Vader’s actions instead of telling how he feels.
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 create their own Greek creatures, naming them using Greek and Latin word parts, and illustrating their unique characteristics.
Next, students will create new phobias using Greek or Latin words and write a haiku for each one.
Finally, students will create an invention using Greek and Latin parts, naming it, describing it, and drawing an illustration.
Students create an invention by naming it, explaining its meaning, writing a description, and drawing an illustration.
Students will learn a method for reducing anxiety.
Allison Edwards explains her first anxiety reduction tool, Square Breathing
Students will look at six different levels of motivation behind a person’s actions.
Students think of different actions to take if a classmate cheats, then identify motivations for each action.
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.
Students discuss characters who break rules to do the right thing and reflect on their own moral choices.
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.