Playlist: Bookmarks
Mother’s Day Cards
Let’s write the cleverest Mother’s Day cards you’ve ever seen!
Squiggles Collection 3
Everyone starts with the same squiggle. No two drawings end up the same. What do you see?
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
Everyone starts with the same squiggle. No two drawings end up the same. What do you see?
Squiggles Collection 2
Everyone starts with the same squiggle. No two drawings end up the same. What do you see?
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!
Words Within Words: Intro (SOLDIER)
How many words can you find within SOLDIER? 20? 35? 50? Even more!?
What’s In My Brain!? Gold vs Wood
Some of these examples are conductors and some are insulators!
What’s In My Brain!? Walnut vs Clouds
Let’s look at living vs non-living things.
Concept Attainment: Hornet vs Tiger
Can your class spot the vertebrates vs invertebrates?
Drawing An Impossible Triangle
Here’s how you can draw The Penrose Triangle, an example of an impossible shape.
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 in Pilish
Pi can go beyond circles! What if you wrote using the digits of pi as your guide?
What’s In My Brain: Owl vs Eagle
Some of these animals are nocturnal and some are diurnal.
Cram
Try this a simple (but surprisingly strategic) grid-filling game!
Word Ladder: Two to Six (6-steps)
COLD to COOL. BAND to SING. Change one letter at a time — can you find the path?
Game: Snakes
In this grid-based strategy game, who will be the last to add to the snake?
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!
Writing A Thanksgiving Letter
What if an inanimate object could express thanks for a special person in your life? What would it write?
Ghost
Ghost is a word-building game for two players. The first person to create an actual word loses.
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.
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!
Sprouts
Learn how to play the abstract, paper-and-pencil game Sprouts.
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.)
Fractals: Sierpinski’s Triangle
What if this triangle pattern just kept repeating… forever!?