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Introduction to Puzzlements

For Teachers

How I accidentally discouraged curiosity in my classroom.

Random Emoji Prompt Generator

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

Back to School: Rewriting The Beatles’ “Help!”

Can your students come up with a one-syllable word to sum up their time away from school? And then rewrite The Beatles’ song Help!?

Olympics: Medals by Population

Do big countries always have the most medals? Which smaller countries rank surprisingly high in the Olympics?

Trains – Mixed Up Paragraph

Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about trains back into the correct order?

Analyze Paragraphs: Cucumbers

Three paragraphs about cucumbers. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.

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?

Writing Sample: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Shrinking)

A passage from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

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: A Long Line

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Evens and Odds – Addition and Subtraction

When we’re adding and subtracting, do evens make odds into evens? Do odds make evens odd? Which one has… more power!?

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!

Parentheses: How big of a change can they make!?

Two tiny parentheses. One expression. How big of a change can they make? Bigger than you think.

Paragraphs: Systems of Sentences

Blow up a paragraph into individual sentences. Now reassemble it. The clues hiding in each sentence will surprise you.

Bulls and Cows

How quickly can you break the numeric code?

Ghost

Ghost is a word-building game for two players. The first person to create an actual word loses.

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.

Sprouts

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

Investigating Cost of Living

Would you save money if you lived in Las Vegas and commuted every day to San Francisco?

Multiple Meaning Matcher – Introduction

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

Elements of The Fantasy Genre

Every fantasy story has patterns hiding underneath the magic. Once your students see the elements, they’ll spot them everywhere — and use them in their own writing.

Running A Curiosity Based Research Project

Skip the assigned topics. Let students research what they’re genuinely curious about — here’s how to structure it so it actually works.

Ways to Start a Sentence – Level 1

‘Add more variety!’ teachers say. But how? This lesson gives students actual techniques instead of vague advice.

Teaching Criticism

For Teachers

Ask students to go beyond “I don’t like it” and form critical opinions based on a set of criteria. Students can produce written arguments or turn their opinion into oral presentations.

New Uses for Everyday Things

For Teachers

Here’s how Joelle Trayers gets even her youngest students ready to think in unexpected ways.

Multiple Perspectives in Primary

For Teachers

Even our youngest students can learn to think from multiple perspectives!

Better Stories Part 2: Types of Conflict

If your students’ stories are packed with endless ninja fights or arguments between frenemies, it’s time to expose them to a wider range of conflicts.

Better Stories Part 1: The Big Idea

We open our unit on narrative writing with a big idea: “structure increases creativity.” I show how this is true by bringing in examples from across all disciplines.