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Multiple Meaning Matcher – Beta

Can your students match multiple meanings of the same five words?

Multiple Meaning Matcher – Alpha

Can your students match multiple meanings of the same five words?

Parts of Speech Party – Gift

How many different ways can we use the word “gift” in a single paragraph? Let’s find out in this Parts of Speech Party!

Parts of Speech Party: Introduction (Check)

How many ways can we use “check” in a paragraph? And can your students spot when it’s a verb, or a noun, or an adjective?

Bobbing for Apples

What is bobbing for apples like… for an apple?

Words Within Words: Intro (SOLDIER)

How many words can you find within SOLDIER? 20? 35? 50? Even more!?

Random Emoji Prompt Generator

Click up an interesting, visual writing prompt suitable for any grade or purpose.

Models of Instruction: Inquiry Training

For Teachers

Want your students to ask better questions? Why not train them to inquire!?

Writing Concept Attainment Lessons

For Teachers

In a Concept Attainment lesson, we give students examples and non-examples of a concept — without telling them what that concept is!

An Introduction to Models of Instruction

For Teachers

As a new teacher, I only knew one model of instruction: Direct Instruction. I was like a chef who only knew how to deep fry!

Greek and Latin Word Part Paths

How can we go from Biology to Immobile?

Writing About Art: The Scream

Your students will turn the iconic painting The Scream into a vivid, sensory poem.

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: Fast to Race (4 step)

COLD to COOL. BAND to SING. Change one letter at a time — can you find the path?

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.

Writing Technique: Triple Anadiplosis!

Have students mastered the art of anadiplosis: ending one sentence with the beginning of the next? Now it’s time to take it to the next level!

Story Starter: Out To Eat

Students pick from 12 random phrases to create a story about an incident in a restaurant.

Word Ladders Introduction

You won’t believe how this spelling and vocabulary puzzle will get kids’ brains sweating over the smallest of words.

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.

How Many Ways: Times Equals Minus

How many different ways can you make this math statement true using only the digits one through nine?

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!

Math Curiosity: Magic Squares

Imagine a 3×3 square in which every row, column, and diagonal have the same sum. That’s a magic square!

Math Curiosity: The Coloring Problem

No video gets me more email from students! How few colors can you use to color in any map so that no two, neighboring regions are the same color?

Chomp

Chomp away at your opponent in this grid-based strategy game.

Col – A Strategy Game

The first person to run out of regions loses in this strategy game.

Game: Notakto

What if you only played Tic-Tac-Toe with Xs and you could play on multiple boards?

Dots and Boxes

Who can make the most boxes from dots in this strategy game?

Sprouts

Learn how to play the abstract, paper-and-pencil game Sprouts.

Upgrading Compare and Contrast Writing

Upgrade compare and contrast writing with just a couple of key words.

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.

Showing A Character’s Trait

We tell students to ‘show, not tell’ — but that advice is useless until they experience the difference. This lesson makes it click.

Multiple Meaning Matcher – Introduction

Your students will try to match up definitions that belong to the same homophone in this brain-boggling vocab puzzle.

Academic Love Letters

What if Kylo Ren wrote a love letter to Abe Lincoln or the Sahara Desert wrote one to the Moon?

Running A Group Investigation Lesson

For Teachers

Learn to lead a lesson that is built entirely on student curiosity.

Persuasion and Packaging: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

How does a drink’s packaging affect us emotionally and logically?

Depth and Complexity: 👓 Multiple Perspectives

Every topic looks different depending on who’s looking. This prompt teaches students to see through someone else’s eyes.

“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.

Literary Technique: Juxtaposition

Put a grumpy character next to a joyful one and they make each other stand out even more. Opposites are powerful!

Ways to Start a Sentence – Part 3

Your students’ sentences all start the same way. Here are three techniques that fix that overnight.

Ways to Start a Sentence – Level 2

We’ll show students how to add more variety to their writing by starting sentences with a reason, a prepositional phrase, and a simile.

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.

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!

Add Layers To Direct Instruction

For Teachers

Take direction instruction beyond a monotonous practice of the same skill over and over.