TEKS ELA Standard: 7.6.E

massive snow drawings

Mathematical Art Flip Book

How Foley Artists Create Movie Sound Effects

Chaos Makes Sense (Later)

In the moment, a chaotic event makes no sense. But later, that same event can feel like it was part of a larger story.

Halloween Worksheets

Crosswords, image analysis, and writing prompts for Halloween!

Indirect Power – Lighthouse vs Magnetism

Students explore the idea of indirect power – which can be both visible (a lighthouse) or invisible (magnetism).

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!

Hero or Not A Hero?

Students will determine what makes a hero a hero.

Martial Arts in Space

Shaolin kung fu students as seen from a satellite.

Improving Shakespeare’s Repetition

Let’s help William Shakespeare with his use of repetition.

St. Patrick and Other Legends

How would real people feel about the legends that have been created about them?

A System Similar to a Cell

Which parts of a cell serve a similar job to the parts of a cruise ship, human body, computer, or other system?

Student Introductions With Depth, Complexity, and Frames: Level Two

Once students know the prompts of Depth and Complexity, let’s take them much higher up Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Emoji Stories 🏟️

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

Van Gogh on Water

Oil paint floats on water and becomes a familiar scene.

How to Reset Your Brain When You’re Flooded

Allison Edwards explains how changing your senses can reset your brain.

Cooking In Space

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

Lego Shadow Spinner

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

A Character’s Playlist

What playlist of songs best goes with a character’s change over time?

Squiggles Collection 3

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

Create A Civ: Capital City

Every great capital is part geography, part human design. Research real ones, then build your own from scratch.

Looking Closely at Holiday Photos

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

Thanksgiving Photo Writing

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

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!?

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.

Writing About Art: Chōshi in Shimosha

Get your students writing some pretty darn impressive poetry based on Japan’s most famous artist.

Not Like The Others: Types of Volcanoes

Which of these types of volcanoes is not like the others?

Writing About Art: Twilight in the Wilderness

Look closely at Twilight in the Wilderness. What do you notice? Now turn those details into a poem you didn’t know you could write.

Not Like The Others: Deserts

Which of these deserts is not like the others?

New Uses for a Paperclip

So what are some new ways to use a paperclip?

Create A Civilization: Design A Flag

What makes for a good flag? What makes a bad flag?

Think Like A Historian

Here’s how effects be causes and causes can be effects!

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!

Writing About Art: The Scream

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

Thinking With Art: Head Down

One artist, two paintings. Notice details, compare, synthesize, then find a parallel in another creator’s work.

Inferring With Art: A Couple

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

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.

The Pros and Cons of Producers and Consumers

Sure, students might know the difference between a producer and a consumer… but have they considered how they feel about each other? What, in a producer’s opinion, are the pros and cons of a consumer?

Writing Sample: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Falling)

A passage from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Writing Sample: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Shrinking)

A passage from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Writing Sample: White Fang (The Wild)

A passage from White Fang to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Holiday vs Holiday (from a Mascot’s Perspective)

Want something to do during the holiday season that is both fun and involves thinking? Get students writing about what a snowman would think about Halloween or what a ghost would think about Thanksgiving.

Change Leads to More Change

Can you think of a time in your life when “Change lead to more change?”

Virtue or Vice?

Aristotle noted that positive traits and negative traits are often the same thing, but just in different amounts. The right amount is a virtue, but too much or too little and it’s a vice.

How Renewable Is That Resource?

Which resource is more renewable? And which is easier to find?

Writing Sample: The Wind in the Willows

A passage from The Wind in the Willows to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Writing Sample: Anne of Green Gables

An intriguing passage from Anne of Green Gables to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Do Narrators Have Too Much Power?

Imagine being a character in a story. Are you worried that your story’s narrator may inaccurately describe you? What if they reveal something you wanted to be kept secret? Do narrators have too much power!?

Student Introductions with Complexity and Frames

How have you changed over time? Students introduce themselves through the lens of change — and learn a Depth and Complexity tool in the process.

Col – A Strategy Game

The first person to run out of regions loses in this strategy game.

Game: Notakto

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

Dots and Boxes

Who can make the most boxes from dots in this strategy 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.

Create A Civilization: Calendars

Why 12 months? Why 30ish days? Why 7 days in a week? Your civilization could organize a year in any way you want!

Improving Presentations 1: Watching The Greats

Get better at giving presentations by studying the greats!

Academic Love Letters

What if Kylo Ren wrote a love letter to Abe Lincoln or the Sahara Desert wrote one to the Moon?

Content Imperatives: Parallel

Get students thinking broadly by exploring similarities across multiple topics. Combine with Depth and Complexity for bonus points!

Depth and Complexity: ⏳ Change Over Time

Want to get students thinking about how a topic has changed or might change in the future? The ⏳ Change Over Time thinking tool is just what you need!

Historic Social Media

How would people from history have interacted online? Students will develop a conversation online between people involved in the same event from history.

Educational Valentines

Let’s make valentines with an educational twist!

How to Play Go

Ready to learn a 2,500-year-old Chinese board game? Let’s… Go!

Introduce Symbolism with Pixel Art

Create a pixelated icon that represents the essence of a character!

An App For A Historical Figure

What kind of an app could have helped Abe Lincoln accomplish his goals?

Reduce Anxiety: Brain Plate (Tool 3)

When a student’s brain is full of worries, everything feels urgent. Brain Plate helps them sort what’s real from what’s noise — and actually do something about it.

Greekymon

Rather than just memorizing word parts, students will use those word parts to create four possible products.

Reduce Anxiety: Square Breathing (Tool 1)

Reduce anxiety by breathing in a square pattern.

Intellectual Intensity

Do you know someone who becomes a bit overexcited by ideas?

Engineering: Build A Bridge

Using real bridges as their starting point, students will construct bridges out of straws and paperclips.

Better Stories Part 4: Character Archetypes

Are students’ characters a bit flat? Archetypes give them a strong foundation on which to build their own characters as well as a tool to analyze existing stories.