What’s New

Here’s what we’ve been working on recently…

July 2026

Introducing Universal Themes. Five new kickoff lessons that open the year with the theme of Power, from a primary-grade introduction to frame-based intros for older students:

• Introducing Power (Primary)
• Frame Intro: I Am A System
• Frame Intro: How I’ve Changed
• Frame Intro: Power In Me
• Frame Intro: Power Shifts Over Time

Author’s Voice. Two new reading lessons to determine (and use) an author’s voice.

• Beatrix Potter and Rudyard Kipling
• Charles Dickens and Jack London

Universal Theme: Order & Chaos

• Order & Chaos: The Snowflake A snowflake follows one strict rule, yet no two have ever matched. Students decide: is that order, or chaos?
• Order & Chaos: The Shuffle. Shuffling a deck follows exact steps to make the cards random. So is shuffling order, or chaos?

Reading Activities

• Changing A Plot’s Order Rearrange a story’s events and see what breaks
• Shrinking A Summary Squeeze a summary from five sentences to three to one, then do a summary that misses the point.
• Summarize In Haiku Boil a story down to seventeen syllables
• Summarize In Haiku: Power An upgraded haiku challenge which ends with a poem about a story’s transfer of power.
• Personification: The River In Wind in the Willows, Mole encounters a river with a lot of personality.

June 2026

New “How Many Ways?” math challenges. Students find every way to hit a target. One problem, but many right answers.

Bad Graphs. Students spot what makes a graph misleading, then build a sneaky one themselves. New this month: Teacher Votes (a class vote where the bars lie) and Boulder Throwing (a line plot that hides the truth).

5th Grade Math Lessons.

• Find The Smallest Fraction
• A Decimal Rounding Surprise
• How Many Ways: A Remainder of 5

Grade badges now match your state. Lesson cards show grade levels for the standards you teach: Common Core, Texas, Kentucky, Alabama, or Indiana.

Broken Calculator: Comparing Decimals. A calculator that compares decimals by counting digits. Students figure out the bug, predict when it slips up, then fix each comparison.

Power: Queen Bee vs. Hive Our Power theme worksheet is now a full video lesson.

Building curriculum alignment. We’re connecting our content to the units and modules you use in class. Please tell us which programs you use so we know what to focus on!

May 2026

More states’ standards. Browse lessons by Kentucky, Alabama, and Indiana standards, alongside Common Core and Texas. Pick your state and see every lesson matched to it.

15 new Universal Theme worksheets. Fresh printables for Change, Systems, and Order & Chaos. Each hands students two examples, asks which better shows the big idea, then has them defend their pick with evidence.

Rebus Puzzles worksheets. Students decode picture-and-word puzzles. Ready to hand out.

April 2026

Math apps rebuilt. Goldbach, Collatz, and Palindromes are faster, cleaner, and now include step-by-step animations and useful tips.

More Broken Calculator videos. Three new ones: 2-Digit Addition, 2-Digit Subtraction, and Multiplication Cross Product. Students figure out what’s wrong with the calculator, then duplicate its mistakes.

Find grade-level activities faster. Grade badges on each activity match the grades you teach. Plus, we added standards to 373 worksheets, puzzlements, and other resources.

Redesigned Lipogram app. Students rewrite text without a forbidden letter. The app now catches mistakes in real time, looks cleaner, and filters out words you don’t want in the classroom.

March 2026

For You Tab. The home page now features a tab with recommendations customized to your profile.

Tell Your Story kit. Four new videos for GT coordinators. How to explain your program to parents, teachers, and administrators. Includes a ready-to-use “We Do Not / Instead We” worksheet.

Puzzlement Links archive. Three years of weekly puzzlement links, searchable in one place. That puzzle about black holes you remember from last October? It’s probably there.

Accessibility improvements. Screen reader support, keyboard navigation, and skip links across the site. We completed a full WCAG 2.1 AA audit and fixed what needed fixing. If your district asks about accessibility, we have the documentation.

New lesson: What’s In My Brain: Primary Sources. Students work through examples and non-examples to figure out the difference between primary and secondary sources.

February 2026

139 new printable worksheets. Emoji Stories, Words Within Words, What’s In My Brain, New Uses For, and Parts of Speech Party. All downloadable and ready to hand to students.

Improved 62 Not Like The Others activities. Stars, planets, volcanoes, rivers, presidents, countries, and more. Each one fact-checked, with printable PDFs added.

New Buying Guide For Districts. One page with everything a coordinator needs: how it works, what teachers get, pricing, and how to start a pilot. See it here.

Group pricing calculator. Type in how many schools you have. See the price. That simple. See it here.

January 2026

Welcome quiz. New visitors get a quick quiz that figures out what you teach and what you’re looking for, then points you to the right starting place.

Coordinator help videos. Three new videos: how to track teacher usage, how to roll out Byrdseed.TV to your team, and how to use it for professional development.