Playlist: Bookmarks
Two Animals Switch Biomes
What if a capybara and a kangaroo rat switched homes? Would their adaptations be helpful at all?
Holiday Shuffle – Day vs Date
Wouldn’t some holidays be better on a certain day of the week? Should Thanksgiving have a set date?
What’s In My Brain: Guinea Pig vs Potbelly
What do guinea pigs, shooting stars, and seahorses have in common? They’re all misnomers!
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!
Tournament of Mythological Creatures
Who will win the tournament of mythological creatures!?
Not Like The Others: Cephalopods
Four cephalopods. One doesn’t belong. But which one? That depends on your argument.
Comparing Characters’ Bedrooms
What item’s in a character’s bedroom would reflect their deepest desires? And what if they toured a similar character’s room?
What’s In My Brain: Pentagon vs Pentagon
We’re looking at regular vs irregular polygons.
What’s In My Brain: Coral vs Water Lilies
Let’s look at saltwater vs freshwater organisms.
What’s In My Brain: Tree vs Tree
Let’s look at deciduous vs coniferous trees.
New Uses For A Cardboard Tube
So, what can a cardboard tube be used for other than holding wrapping paper?
What’s In My Brain: Ball vs Book
Let’s look at Kinetic vs Potential Energy!
What’s In My Brain: Crocodile vs Tree Frog
Is it a reptile or an amphibian?
What’s In My Brain: Narwhal vs Penguin
We’re looking at the arctic vs the antarctic.
Aquamorphotron (Greek and Latin)
What on earth is a Aquamorphotron? Break apart the Greek and Latin roots, figure out what it should mean, then invent what it describes.
Greekymon Studies – Round 2
What might a creature named “Hypermnemonicus” be like?
Mother’s Day Cards
Let’s write the cleverest Mother’s Day cards you’ve ever seen!
Domesticated Animals Tournament
Which domesticated animal will win the tournament?
Polar Weather Report
The North Pole hits -40°. The South Pole hits -60°. Calculate the averages, graph the data, and deliver your polar weather report.
Compare and Create New Year’s Traditions
Hey! Our New Year traditions have a lot in common.
Squiggles Introduction
What do you see in this squiggle?
Idiom Tasks
Four fantastically terrific tasks for a weekly idiom study.
Random Emoji Prompt Generator
Click up an interesting, visual writing prompt suitable for any grade or purpose.
Looking Closely at Holiday Photos
Let’s write from multiple perspectives using an old timey holiday photo!
Categorize and Re-Categorize Animals
Put these animals into groups. Then do it again. Then… do it one more time. How does re-re-grouping the same creatures reveal new patterns and give new insights?
Holiday Writing: Packing Crates
An old photograph. A holiday scene. Pick one object in the picture and write from its point of view.
Discussing An Important Decision from History
How would people with two different perspectives discuss a decision from history?
Famous Structures
The Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House — group them, pick the best from each group, then design your own.
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.
Investigating Population Changes
How have the ages of three countries’ populations changed from 1950 to 2020? And what problems might that create?
Concept Attainment: Hornet vs Tiger
Can your class spot the vertebrates vs invertebrates?
Not Like The Others: Penguins
Four penguins. One doesn’t belong. But which one? That depends on your argument.
Mow A Lawn
How long would it take to mow a very large lawn with a push-mower?
Tournament: 8 Wonders of the Solar System
Which location is the most wondrous place in the solar system?
Precipitation Tournament
Eight types of precipitation battle it out in this tournament.
Writing in Pilish
Pi can go beyond circles! What if you wrote using the digits of pi as your guide?
Not Like The Others: Snakes of the Rainforest
Four rainforest snakes. One doesn’t belong. But which one? That depends on your argument.
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?
Tournament of Presidents
So who was the strangest of these eight presidents?
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!
What’s In My Brain: Owl vs Eagle
Some of these animals are nocturnal and some are diurnal.
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?
Word Ladder – Cold to Cool (5-Steps)
COLD to COOL. BAND to SING. Change one letter at a time — can you find the path?
Word Ladder: Fast to Race (4 step)
COLD to COOL. BAND to SING. Change one letter at a time — can you find the path?
Game: Number Scrabble
What if we played Tic-Tac-Toe with numbers and instead of three-in-a-row, we add up to 15? Well… then we’d have Number Scrabble!
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?
Not Like The Others: Natural Disasters
Four natural disasters. One doesn’t belong. But which one? That depends on your argument.
Addition: 3 Digits Plus 2 Digits (Multiple Solutions)
Typical practice problems don’t move students up Bloom’s Taxonomy. With this framework, you’ll see kids stop and really think about how to approach multi-digit addition.
12 Phrases: The Zoo
Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place at the zoo.
Story Starter: Out To Eat
Students pick from 12 random phrases to create a story about an incident in a restaurant.
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.
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.
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!
Disneyland Parking Structure Math Project
Your students will use estimation strategies to figure out how many parking spots are there in the parking structure at Disneyland? And you bet I reveal the real answer!
What’s In My Brain: Trapezoids or Not?
Which are trapezoids and which are not?
Not Like The Others: Planets
Which of these planets is not like others? Well, it sure looks simple at first. But each option could be the one that doesn’t fit in.
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?
Investigating Christmas Trees
Start with facts about Christmas trees. Group them. Label them. Can you boil it all down to one big idea?
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!
Paradox: Crocodile Dilemma
A crocodile makes a deal. But the deal creates a paradox. Can your students untangle a 2,000-year-old logic puzzle?
Why Is Our Calendar So Weird!?
Why are there 12 months? Why don’t weeks fit into months evenly? Why don’t weeks fit into the year evenly? What’s going on with the calendar!
The Resiliency Tournament
Your students will set up a tournament to determine which person or character best demonstrated resiliency.
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.)
Analyzing Movies’ Success
So should we make another movie in this series?
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.
What Does it Cost to Fill a Car with Other Liquids
Is gas actually that expensive? What if we filled a car up with… orange juice?
Synonym Graphs
So, which is happiest: happy, joyful, or ecstatic? Which is most temporary?
The Thinking Hats
So… do your students moan when forced to work in a group? Part of the problem is that lack the structure to work well with peers. Edward de Bono’s Thinking Hats are a perfect tool to help with this problem.
A Donut Investigation
In this cross-curricular investigation, students will look into an intriguing question: do donuts or salads have more sugar? They’ll grapple with misleading information, bias, and use their math skills to create a visual representation of sugar in popular foods.
Multiple Meaning Matcher – Introduction
Your students will try to match up definitions that belong to the same homophone in this brain-boggling vocab puzzle.
A Caffeine Investigation – Part 3
Caffeine is everywhere. But what are the ads really saying? Analyze the claims, then create your own public service announcement.
A Caffeine Investigation – Part 2
What do people know about the amount of caffeine in common beverages?
A Caffeine Investigation – Part 1
So… just how much caffeine can you have before you end up in the ER?
Percents and Credit Cards
Let’s buy something expensive with a credit card and then make only the minumum payments!
Creating A Realistic Flower and Pollinator
Your students will create a new flower, designed to attract a specific pollinator.
Discovering Pi With Sticky Notes
Pi is mysterious and strange! Why not let students discover it on their own?
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!
“Its Big Day” – A Children’s Story About Its and It’s
Let’s spice up a typically dull lesson about the difference between “its” and “it’s” by asking students to write a children’s story about the adventures of a critter named It.
Analyze and Create Misleading Graphs
Let’s make some intentionally bad graphs to learn how to spot poorly made graphs.
How Many Students Can Fit On The Playground?
So… just how many kids could we cram onto the playground?
Literary Technique: Juxtaposition
Put a grumpy character next to a joyful one and they make each other stand out even more. Opposites are powerful!
Math Curiosity: Palindromic Number Conjecture
Using this one weird trick, it seems that you can turn any number into a palindrome!
An App For A Historical Figure
What kind of an app could have helped Abe Lincoln accomplish his goals?
Ways to Start a Sentence – Level 1
‘Add more variety!’ teachers say. But how? This lesson gives students actual techniques instead of vague advice.
Greekymon
Rather than just memorizing word parts, students will use those word parts to create four possible products.
A Nutrition-Based Math Project
Let’s create a parody ad attacking a surprisingly calorie-rich meal.
Motivation and Moral Development
Can someone do the right thing, but for the wrong reason?
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!
Teaching Empathy With Faberge Eggs
The story of the Fabergé Eggs is heartbreaking. It’s also the perfect way to build empathy in your classroom.
Furnishing A Hotel
Design and furnish hotel rooms on a budget. Real math, real constraints, real decisions. Then pitch your hotel to investors.
A Grid-Based Fraction Project
You’ve got 60 spaces on a grid to create an amusement park, a house, a farm, or whatever you’d like. Divide it into seven pieces, order it by size, combine into two halves, and more in this fraction project.
Writing Clear Directions
Can you write directions so clear that a group of kids can put a toy together with no illustrations?
Greek and Latin Dinosaur Names
Let’s create a new dinosaur using Greek and Latin stems!
Impostor Syndrome
For TeachersThe student who breezes through school may hit a wall in college. Here’s why — and what to do about it now.