Playlist: Bookmarks
Words Within Words: Chocolate
How many words can you find within Chocolate?
Word Ladder: Fly to Bee (6-steps)
COLD to COOL. BAND to SING. Change one letter at a time — can you find the path?
Words Within Words: PATRICK
How many words can you find within Patrick?
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!
What’s In My Brain: Crocodile vs Tree Frog
Is it a reptile or an amphibian?
Emoji Stories 🐌
Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?
Domesticated Animals Tournament
Which domesticated animal will win the tournament?
Super Specific Similes – Strong Uncle
Let’s make this simile about a strong uncle even more specific.
Super Specific Similes – Slimy Broccoli
Start with a basic simile. Now make it more specific. Now even more. Watch how much better writing gets with each round.
Super Specific Similes: Quick Baby
Let’s make this simile about a quick baby even more specific.
Super Specific Similes: Loud Class
Let’s make this simile about a loud class super specific!
Robot Writing: Volcano
Read three pieces of writing from three different robots about the same beautiful painting of a volcano. Who wrote it best?
Robot Writing: The Bridge
One painting of a bridge. Three robots. Who wrote it best?
Path Cipher (Codes Part 4)
Now let’s try the Path Cipher – a cipher that mixes things up even more than Zig Zag did.
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!?
Word Pyramids
Start with a one letter word, add another letter, then add another. How tall can you make the pyramid?
Word Pyramid: U to Brush
Add a letter at each step to form a new word. Can you connect the starting point and ending point?
Words Within Words: TROMBONE
How many words can you find within TROMBONE?
Lipogram: Rewrite “Twinkle, Twinkle”
What if we rewrote a piece of writing without using certain letters?
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?
Words Within Words: AIRPLANE
How many words can you find within airplane?
Drawing An Impossible Triangle
Here’s how you can draw The Penrose Triangle, an example of an impossible shape.
Word Pyramid: P to PLAINS
Add a letter at each step to form a new word. Can you connect the starting point and ending point?
Word Pyramid: T to PLANET
Add a letter at each step to form a new word. Can you connect T and PLANET?
Parabolic Curve Art
Create mathematical art with curves that, well, aren’t curvy.
Antonym Paths
Does the antonym of an antonym bring us back to the same meaning?
Fancier Figurative Language: Use the Opposite
Let’s start with “As cold as fire.”
Fancier Figurative Language: Move the Simile
What if we started a sentence with the simile?
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: Two to Six (6-steps)
COLD to COOL. BAND to SING. Change one letter at a time — can you find the path?
Game: Wild Tic Tac Toe
Imagine Tic-Tac-Toe, but both players can both play as both X and O throughout the whole game!
Word Ladder: Arm to Leg (6-steps)
COLD to COOL. BAND to SING. Change one letter at a time — can you find the path?
Jotto
Who can guess the codeword first?
Word Ladders Introduction
You won’t believe how this spelling and vocabulary puzzle will get kids’ brains sweating over the smallest of words.
Punctuation Power
In a sentence, punctuation may seem meek when compared to those mighty words, but punctuation has incredible power over the meaning of a sentence. Students will try re-punctuating sentences to find new meanings – without changing a single word!
What’s In My Brain: Trapezoids or Not?
Which are trapezoids and which are not?
Fancier Figurative Language: Advanced Repetition
Is your students’ use of repetition limited to, “The girl was very, very, very fast.”? Let’s borrow some ideas from Shakespeare!
Advanced Alliteration and Consonance
When students learn about alliteration, it’s hard to steer them away from goofy tongue-twisters. Certainly, there must be more powerful and practical ways of using alliteration. In this lesson, I draw on delicious examples from Shakespeare to show how a very advanced writer used alliteration. Then, I break those ideas down so students can try them out.
What’s In My Brain: Cute Baby vs Fast Cheetah
Can students spot similes vs metaphors?
Run On or Not? – What’s In My Brain
Can your students spot the run-on sentences?
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.
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!
Fancier Figurative Language: Start with a Cliche
We’ll start with the cliché “as cold as ice” and go somewhere much more interesting.