Playlist: Bookmarks
A System Similar to a Cell
Which parts of a cell serve a similar job to the parts of a cruise ship, human body, computer, or other system?
Order, Chaos, and the Holiday Season
Let’s write a holiday song about order and chaos!
Word Pyramids
Start with a one letter word, add another letter, then add another. How tall can you make the pyramid?
Lipogram: Rewrite “Twinkle, Twinkle”
What if we rewrote a piece of writing without using certain letters?
Looking Closely at Holiday Photos
Let’s write from multiple perspectives using an old timey holiday photo!
Not Like The Others: Microorganisms
Four microorganisms. One doesn’t belong. But which one? That depends on your argument.
How Many Ways: Fractions Divide Equals 2/3
One equation. Digits one through nine. How many ways can you make it work?
How Many Ways: Fractions Multiply 2/3
How many different ways can you make this fraction multiplication statement true using only the digits one through nine?
Not Like The Others: US States
How is each of these states not like the others?
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?
Notice, Wonder: An Orange Thing
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Paradox: Rebuilding A Ship
What if we completely rebuild something slowly? What if we completely rebuild it all at once? Is it still the same thing?
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.
Word Ladders Introduction
You won’t believe how this spelling and vocabulary puzzle will get kids’ brains sweating over the smallest of words.
Notice, Wonder: Blood Falls
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
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.
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!
How Many Ways: Fraction Equivalence
How many different ways can you make this math statement true using only the digits one through nine?
Notice, Wonder: Climber
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Upgrade Research Questions With Depth and Complexity
Ever ask students to create research questions? Were their ideas a bit… blah? My own students had a very hard time writing questions they didn’t already know the answer to! This video is how I solved that problem: upgrade research questions with depth and complexity.
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: The Liar’s Paradox
Nothing like a paradox to get your kids brains exploding 🤯! This one starts with five simple words: “This statement is a lie.”
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!
Pronouns With Too Many Antecedents
What happens when a pronoun could refer to more than one noun? Big problems!
The Resiliency Tournament
Your students will set up a tournament to determine which person or character best demonstrated resiliency.
Finding The Volume of Laptops
How has the volume of laptops changed over time? You know you want to check out how huge those first versions were!
Describing Author’s Voice
What if… Edgar Allen Poe wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?
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?
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.
Climbing Bloom’s with Depth and Complexity
For TeachersBloom’s tells you how high to aim. Depth and Complexity tells you where to look. Combine them and things get interesting.
Improving Presentations 4: The Big Day
How do you mentally (and emotionally) prepare yourself for the big day?
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!
Curriculum Compacting
For TeachersShrink the curriculum down to what students actually need to learn. Then use the freed-up time for something better.
Introduce Symbolism with Pixel Art
Create a pixelated icon that represents the essence of a character!
Create A Creature
Create a new creature based on the adaptations of existing creatures from the same biome.
Greekymon
Rather than just memorizing word parts, students will use those word parts to create four possible products.
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!
Greek and Latin Dinosaur Names
Let’s create a new dinosaur using Greek and Latin stems!