TEKS ELA Standard: 4.11.A

invents a seed-launching backpack

best pre-game warmup trickshots

Martial Arts in Space

Hot Dog Built With Construction Equipment

An Under-Appreciated Planet

Students write from the point of view of the most under-appreciated planet.

Chaos Can Be Positive or Negative

Sometimes we want order, but sometimes we need chaos!

Introducing Order and Chaos

Introduce Order by exploring “written” vs “unwritten” rules.

Maze Generator

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

Power Can Be Fast, Slow, Loud, or Quiet

Power may seem loud and fast, but it can also be slow and quiet.

Writing Compound Sentences

Students work with subjects, predicates, and conjunctions to write compound sentences.

Writing Haiku in Primary

Your youngest students will learn to write Japanese Haiku poetry.

Founding The Colonies

13 colonies activities including a word search and task cards packed with facts. Plus, students will create their own colony with a name, story, and map!

Summer Activity Pack

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

A Land Octopus

The only type of octopus that routinely wanders onto land!

Two Animals Switch Biomes

What if a capybara and a kangaroo rat switched homes? Would their adaptations be helpful at all?

Characters’ Faults Can Also Be Strengths

Strength and weakness are often two sides of the same coin. Students will explore how a character’s flaw can be a benefit.

Holiday Shuffle – Day vs Date

Wouldn’t some holidays be better on a certain day of the week? Should Thanksgiving have a set date?

Halloween Problems and Solutions

When we try to solve a problem, sometimes we end up creating new problems. Which lead to new solutions. Which lead to new problems.

Getting Specific With St. Patrick’s Day Writing

Let’s take a starting phrase about St. Patrick’s Day and get specific. No, even more specific!

New Uses For A Cardboard Tube

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

Order, Chaos, and the Holiday Season

Let’s write a holiday song about order and chaos!

Holiday Emoji Story ⛷️

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Holiday Emoji Story 🍪

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Holiday Emoji Story ☃️

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Holiday Emoji Story 🎅

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Holiday Emoji Story 🚚

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Halloween Emoji Story 🎃

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Halloween Emoji Story 🌕

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Halloween Emoji Story 🕷️

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Emoji Stories 🐌

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Emoji Stories 🚚

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Emoji Stories 🏟️

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Emoji Stories 🕰️

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Emoji Stories 👁️

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Emoji Stories 🚗

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Emoji Stories 🤖

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Emoji Stories 🏰

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Mother’s Day Cards

Let’s write the cleverest Mother’s Day cards you’ve ever seen!

Compare and Create New Year’s Traditions

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

Bobbing for Apples

What is bobbing for apples like… for an apple?

A Halloween Costume Gone Wrong

Let’s go roller skating in a Halloween costume! What could possibly go wrong?

Squiggles Collection 1

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

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?

Random Emoji Prompt Generator

Click up an interesting, visual writing prompt suitable for any grade or purpose.

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?

Looking Closely at Holiday Photos

Let’s write from multiple perspectives using an old timey holiday photo!

Holiday Writing: Packing Crates

An old photograph. A holiday scene. Pick one object in the picture and write from its point of view.

Thanksgiving Photo Writing

Starting with an old-timey photo, students will write from a particular item’s point of view.

Stories with the Same Problems and Solutions

Have you ever noticed that some stories have awfully similar problems? What if we looked for the most unusual way of solving a repeating problem?

Famous Structures

The Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House — group them, pick the best from each group, then design your own.

Introducing Universal Theme of Conflict

So what could you do with a Universal Theme of Conflict? Well, here’s an introduction that will get your students’ brains sweating.

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!?

Introducing Universal Theme of Change

Everything changes. But how does it change? Students brainstorm dozens of examples and boil them down to one big idea.

Introducing Universal Theme of Systems

So what could you do with a Universal Theme of Systems? Well, here’s an introduction that will get your students’ brains sweating.

Introducing Universal Theme of Power

So what could you do with a Universal Theme of Power? Well, here’s an introduction that will get your students’ brains sweating.

Writing About Art: Impression, Sunrise

Look closely at Impression, Sunrise. What do you notice? Now turn those details into a poem you didn’t know you could write.

New Uses for a Paperclip

So what are some new ways to use a paperclip?

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?

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?

Cram

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

Writing Technique: 3 Dependent Clauses

A specific technique to help students add some spice to their writing. We’ll be writing sentences with three dependent clauses.

Writing Technique: Opposite Adjectives

A specific technique to help students add some spice to their writing. We’ll be using antonyms to describe the same topic!

Story Starter: A Day At School

Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place at school.

Story Starter: Out To Eat

Students pick from 12 random phrases to create a story about an incident in a restaurant.

Story Starter: Amusement Park

Students use 12 random phrases to write a story that takes place in at an amusement park.

Story Starter: A Magical School

Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place in at a magical school.

Story Starter: Somewhere In Space

Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place in space!

Writing A Thanksgiving Letter

What if an inanimate object could express thanks for a special person in your life? What would it write?

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.

Writing Seuss Style Poetry

Sure, Dr. Seuss wrote for young students, but can older students analyze his writing and learn to mimic his style? THEN, they can produce Seuss-style poetry about any topic: Ancient China, the electromagnetic spectrum, Pride and Prejudice, and (yes) fraction division!

The Personalities of Rocks

What would an igneous rock be like? Would it get along with a sedimentary rock? Could they handle the hot personality of a metamorphic rock?

Student Introductions With Depth and Frames

Want to introduce the tools of Depth and Complexity and learn more about your students and introduce the Frame graphic organizer? Have I got the activity for you!

What Would Poetry Think About Prose?

Poetry and Prose meet at a party. What would they say to each other? How would they feel about each other’s style?

More Specific than “Smart”

When students are told that they’re “smart”, what does this word actually mean to them? (Psst. It isn’t what we intended.)

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.

Improving Presentations 2: Planning The Outline

After watching some great presenters, let’s outline your presentation!

Create A Civilization Introduction

Your students build a civilization from scratch — rivers, flags, calendars, currency, government. Social studies, science, and writing woven into one year-long project.

Elements of The Fantasy Genre

Every fantasy story has patterns hiding underneath the magic. Once your students see the elements, they’ll spot them everywhere — and use them in their own writing.

Educational Valentines

Let’s make valentines with an educational twist!

Create A Creature

Create a new creature based on the adaptations of existing creatures from the same biome.

Creating A Classroom Motto

Starting with specific examples of fantastic classroom behavior, your class will end up with one sentence summing up their expectations. It’s a classroom motto!

Writing Clear Directions

Can you write directions so clear that a group of kids can put a toy together with no illustrations?

Better Stories Part 1: The Big Idea

We open our unit on narrative writing with a big idea: “structure increases creativity.” I show how this is true by bringing in examples from across all disciplines.