Enrichment

Asking students to “think creatively” won’t get you far. They won’t know how to start, they’ll get stuck with simple ideas, or they’ll just go completely wild. SCAMPER is a tool for scaffolding the process of creativity.

Who can get to 100 first in this simple, but delightful, math game?

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?

So what are some new ways to use a paperclip?

How fast do you get your mathematical car going without crashing?

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

Everyone starts with the same squiggle. No two drawings end up the same. What do you see?

Turn your students into a bunch of Monets with q-tips and some tempera paint.

What would the consequences be if no one had to sleep anymore?

What if each square on a Tic-Tac-Toe board had another Tic-Tac-Toe board inside of it?

What would the consequences be if all people lived much, much longer?

Who can guess the codeword first?

How to draw a simple version of this twisty Henri Matisse knot!

What surprises can you spot when a kernel pops in super slow-mo?

Shaolin kung fu students as seen from a satellite.

Let’s try a cipher that doesn’t substitute new letters or shapes. We just mix things up.

Anyone, yes anyone, can create a (somewhat) realistic self-portrait using these steps. Anyone!

Everyone starts with the same squiggle. No two drawings end up the same. What do you see?

What if we rewrote a piece of writing without using certain letters?

A worksheet pack featuring writing prompts, a summer essay project, a science-based escape room activity, and image analysis prompts.

It’s Hamlet in just about five minutes!

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

One artist, two paintings. Notice details, compare, synthesize, then find a parallel in another creator’s work.

Sure, anyone can win at checkers… but can you lose!?

What’s going on in this painting? Who is that guy? What’s his job? And where’s his other boot?

The story of the Fabergé Eggs is heartbreaking. It’s also the perfect way to build empathy in your classroom.

Start with facts about Christmas trees. Group them. Label them. Can you boil it all down to one big idea?

What happens when you blow a bubble in below-freezing temperatures?

What’s going on in this room? There are shoes everywhere! Are those… oranges? Let’s make some inferences!

Let’s make valentines with an educational twist!

So, what can a cardboard tube be used for other than holding wrapping paper?

An animated summary of Shakespeare’s utterly ridiculous “Twelfth Night.”

Watch astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti cook a meal in zero gravity on the International Space Station.

Ready to learn a 2,500-year-old Chinese board game? Let’s… Go!

Who will win the tournament of Van Gogh self-portraits!?

Shakespeare’s Much Ado summarized in just five minutes!

A crocodile makes a deal. But the deal creates a paradox. Can your students untangle a 2,000-year-old logic puzzle?

It’s a car made out of Lego with a working engine.

Now let’s try the Path Cipher – a cipher that mixes things up even more than Zig Zag did.

Try this a simple (but surprisingly strategic) subtraction game!

This optical illusion looks like a 3D staircase, but it’s all drawn on a plain piece of paper.

So, what can a chair be used for other than, you know, sitting in?

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!?

What if this triangle pattern just kept repeating… forever!?

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

What if we played chess on a board that’s only 4×5?

Can your students tell the difference between cubism and abstract art?

What would the consequences be if a town’s tap water became… unreliable?

Create and print mazes for your students – with bonus side quests!

Writing prompts, non-fiction analysis, and science topics related to Christmas and Hanukkah.

Worksheets for Earth Day! Featuring reading, writing, and math… with a pinch of Depth and Complexity.

What if one player had, say, 32 pawns?

Let’s give our students an art history lesson while teaching them how to enhance their drawings using one-point perspective.

Roll three dice and combine them using any mathematical operation. But be strategic to maximize your points!

In this grid-based strategy game, who will be the last to add to the snake?

These two tables are the same size. But how!?

Create a piece of repeating art in the style of MC Escher!

What are these two women up to? What’s that thing she’s holding? Let’s make some inferences!

Let’s encode and decode secret messages like Julius Caesar!

A music video filmed on 64 phones and then displayed on 64 phones. What?

How to draw the final version of the twisty Henri Matisse knot!

Put these animals into groups. Then do it again. Then… do it one more time. How does re-re-grouping the same creatures reveal new patterns and give new insights?

You won’t believe how fascinating it is to watch a map of the most popular baby names by US state.

So, what CAN a CAN be used for other than storing liquids?

Vulcan Point Island is an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island

Nothing could possibly go wrong with a love potion on the loose!

What do you see in this squiggle?

Let’s get students’ art really popping with two-point perspective!

Romeo and Juliet in just about five minutes.

The only type of octopus that routinely wanders onto land!

We’ll take two seemingly unrelated pieces of content (say volcanoes and the human body) and then build analogies to connect the two ideas. In the end, students can create a skit, comic, or story relating the two concepts.

So, what can a pencil be used for other than writing and drawing?

Teach your students about basic cryptography and code making.

What if we rewrote a piece of writing without using certain letters?

Create mathematical art with curves that, well, aren’t curvy.

How quickly can you break the numeric code?

The barber shaves everybody who doesn’t themselves. So… does the barber shave himself?

What if one side played with THREE QUEENS and the other had SEVEN KNIGHTS!? What if?

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

Hey! Our New Year traditions have a lot in common.

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

Oil paint floats on water and becomes a familiar scene.

Tired of boring ol’ chess? Then you need to try FOUR PLAYER chess!

Why does this dinosaur keep looking at me…

A mosaic technique that makes watercolor approachable. Students walk away with something they’re proud of.

Everyone starts with the same squiggle. No two drawings end up the same. What do you see?

Pick a few numbers, draw some corresponding lines on grid paper, and you’ll end up with some interesting, looping math-y art!

Ready for a tricky counting and divisibility game?

Various desserts melt in surprisingly different ways.

Nothing like a paradox to get your kids brains exploding 🤯! This one starts with five simple words: “This statement is a lie.”

You could keep zooming in on this snowflake forever!

What if you had really weak chess pieces, but you could always move twice?

How to draw a more complex version of this twisty Henri Matisse knot!

Here’s how you can draw The Penrose Triangle, an example of an impossible shape.

Try this a simple (but surprisingly strategic) grid-filling game!

Andy Goldsworthy turns leaves and stones into art. Your students will learn to draw his signature natural curves — then build on them.

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

Crosswords, image analysis, and writing prompts for Halloween!

Let’s encode some secret messages with a cipher that was actually used during the American Civil War!

Imagine Tic-Tac-Toe if both players could play as both Xs and Os!

Imagine Tic-Tac-Toe, but both players can both play as both X and O throughout the whole game!

Put these countries into groups. Then do it again. Then… do it one more time. How does re-re-grouping the same places reveal new patterns and give new insights?

What if we completely rebuild something slowly? What if we completely rebuild it all at once? Is it still the same thing?

What if we turned a tooth brush into a robot… that could do art?

Can you shred paper using just Lego?

Watch this block of Lego cast three completely different shadows of three distinctly different objects! How’d he do it?

Want to take Tic-Tac-Toe to the next level!? Imagine a 15×15 board. You must get five-in-a-row. You cannot get six-in-a-row. That’s Gomoku!

What if a students’ self-portrait was made of words that describe the student!?

St. Patrick Day’s themed word searches, crossword puzzle, reverse crossword, transition writing practice, and a math puzzle.

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