I had no idea it was a thing. In researching the topic of creative constraint, I was led to this Wikipedia article, and proceeded down a rabbit hole! Writing “with limitations” is ubiquitous. Six-word memoirs, seven-word summaries, haiku poetry, and 280-character tweets are all examples of constrained writing. I became interested in exploring more about … Read more
If your students have not yet tried Kyudoku, it’s a logic puzzle that reinforces strategies similar to those used in solving Sudoku but introduces new constraints and an entirely different goal. You can share the tutorial below with your students, and the Kyudoku puzzles can be found on Brainzilla. See also LOGIC EQUATIONS, BEYOND SUDOKU … Read more
Here’s an activity that my 4th-grade students created for a MYSTERY DAY event they hosted in their homeroom classrooms at the end of each school year. I’ll spare you the details about the messy process we went through to figure this out and get right to the how-to. MISSION: To create a 90-minute “experience” in … Read more
x——————————-x In the U.S., most students have a holiday break at the end of December and return to school sometime in early January. With the long month of January ahead, many teachers and students struggle to chase away those January blues! The past few years have been unprecedented in their challenges for students and teachers, … Read more
Time and date patterns have gained in popularity in recent years and seem to pop up in my social media feeds almost every month. Every year, for example, on February 22nd at 10:22 p.m.(and 22 seconds), the date and time can be written as 2-22 22:22:22. And in the year 2022, the pattern increased by … Read more
Here’s an event you’ll want to share with your students before the holiday break! On December 21st, Jupiter and Saturn will appear as a double planet! Their orbits will bring them closer together than they’ve been in centuries. This phenomenon is called a conjunction, and when it involves the two largest planets in our solar … Read more
Few language exercises provide as much bang for the buck as analogy challenges do! Students learn to think critically and logically as they evaluate word meanings, connotations, characteristics, parts of speech, and many other possible relationships connecting words and ideas. With more advanced analogies, students engage in verbal reasoning that requires an extensive vocabulary and … Read more
The other day I was thinking about the challenges of monitoring and assisting students virtually, especially as they complete independent studies. By any name (Genius Hour, 20% Time, Wonder Workshop), gifted and advanced students benefit in many ways when they are allowed to explore their own passions and interests, but they need guidance along the … Read more
My students and I first celebrated POWERS of TEN DAY in 2014. My 3rd-5th-graders see the film on their first day of class and we discuss it (see “POWERS of TEN and COSMIC EYE ~ Mind-Expanding for Students), but October 10th is the perfect day to revisit the film and introduce a few advanced math … Read more
If you haven’t seen David Lee’s VIRTUAL MUSEUM TEMPLATE, it’s an exciting addition to the virtual learning resources out there! My brain has been pondering its many uses ever since I discovered it. Consider what students usually do when they visit a museum on a field trip. They push buttons to view interactive displays. They … Read more
