Playlist: Bookmarks
Words Within Words: RAINBOW
How many words can you find within rainbow?
Tournament of Not-So-Famous Inventors
Which inventor and invention will win the tournament?
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?
Words Within Words: CORNMAZE
How many words can you find within CORNMAZE?
Geosynth (Greek and Latin)
What on earth is a Geosynth? Break apart the Greek and Latin roots, figure out what it should mean, then invent what it describes.
Thermocryptograph (Greek and Latin)
What on earth is a Thermocryptograph? Break apart the Greek and Latin roots, figure out what it should mean, then invent what it describes.
Greekymon Studies – Round 1
What might a creature named “Ursolunascope” be like?
Domesticated Animals Tournament
Which domesticated animal will win the tournament?
Types of Energy Tournament
Which type of energy will win the tournament!?
Natural Disasters Tournament
Earthquake vs. hurricane. Tsunami vs. wildfire. Students set the criteria, argue their case, and crown a champion. Warning: it gets heated.
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?
New Uses For A Pencil
So, what can a pencil be used for other than writing and drawing?
Shift Cipher (Codes Part 1)
Let’s encode and decode secret messages like Julius Caesar!
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?
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?
Exploration Technology Tournament
Which of these pieces of exploration technology is most important? Most underrated? Most long-lasting?
New Uses for a Paperclip
So what are some new ways to use a paperclip?
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: East to West (4 Steps)
COLD to COOL. BAND to SING. Change one letter at a time — can you find the path?
Word Ladder: Work to Hard (4 Steps)
COLD to COOL. BAND to SING. Change one letter at a time — can you find the path?
Word Ladder: Band to Sing (4 Steps)
COLD to COOL. BAND to SING. Change one letter at a time — can you find the path?
Story Starter: Amusement Park
Students use 12 random phrases to write a story that takes place in at an amusement park.
Word Ladders Introduction
You won’t believe how this spelling and vocabulary puzzle will get kids’ brains sweating over the smallest of words.
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?
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.)
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.
Multiple Meaning Matcher – Introduction
Your students will try to match up definitions that belong to the same homophone in this brain-boggling vocab puzzle.
Greekymon
Rather than just memorizing word parts, students will use those word parts to create four possible products.