Playlist: Bookmarks
Two Animals Switch Biomes
What if a capybara and a kangaroo rat switched homes? Would their adaptations be helpful at all?
Words Within Words: Chocolate
How many words can you find within Chocolate?
Tournament of Not-So-Famous Inventors
Which inventor and invention will win the tournament?
Not Like The Others: Flowers
Four flowers. One doesn’t belong. But which one? That depends on your argument.
Order, Chaos, and the Holiday Season
Let’s write a holiday song about order and chaos!
Mother’s Day Cards
Let’s write the cleverest Mother’s Day cards you’ve ever seen!
Words Within Words: ORNAMENT
How many words can you find within ORNAMENT?
Comparing Fraction Strategies
For TeachersComparing fraction strategies? Let’s take it even further!
Not Like The Others: Branches of the US Government
How is each part of the United States Government not like the other parts?
What’s In My Brain: Owl vs Eagle
Some of these animals are nocturnal and some are diurnal.
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!
Changing Coordinating Conjunctions
What happens when we switch out a “but” with a “so”? An “and” with a “for”? How can such tiny words make such big differences?
Characters Dressed as Other Characters for Halloween
What if one character dressed up as another for Halloween? Would the Cat in the Hat pick Captain Jack Sparrow, because they’re both chaotic yet good-natured people? Would Elsa dress up as The Ice King since they are both lonely?
Order Can Be Natural or Constructed
When is order natural and when is it designed by people?
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!
Paragraphs: Systems of Sentences
Blow up a paragraph into individual sentences. Now reassemble it. The clues hiding in each sentence will surprise you.
Notice, Wonder: Turbine
Your students will be surprised by the size of this turbine… and by what’s hanging from it!
What’s In My Brain: Cute Baby vs Fast Cheetah
Can students spot similes vs metaphors?
Complex or Compound – What’s In My Brain
Can your class spot the complex sentences vs compound sentences?
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!
Words Within Words: NUTCRACKER
How many words can you find within NUTCRACKER?
Content Imperatives: Paradox
How can one idea pull in opposite directions, being both true and false or right and wrong at the same time? It’s time to explore Paradoxes!
Creating A Realistic Flower and Pollinator
Your students will create a new flower, designed to attract a specific pollinator.
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.
The Game of 100
Who can get to 100 first in this simple, but delightful, math game?