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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?
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?
Tired of boring ol’ chess? Then you need to try FOUR PLAYER chess!
These two tables are the same size. But how!?
Let’s try a cipher that doesn’t substitute new letters or shapes. We just mix things up.
Now let’s try the Path Cipher – a cipher that mixes things up even more than Zig Zag did.
Who will win the tournament of Van Gogh self-portraits!?
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!?
Chomp away at your opponent in this grid-based strategy game.
A music video filmed on 64 phones and then displayed on 64 phones. What?
One artist, two paintings. Notice details, compare, synthesize, then find a parallel in another creator’s work.
What if each square on a Tic-Tac-Toe board had another Tic-Tac-Toe board inside of it?
A worksheet pack featuring writing prompts, a summer essay project, a science-based escape room activity, and image analysis prompts.
Let’s make valentines with an educational twist!
Teach your students about basic cryptography and code making.
Imagine Tic-Tac-Toe, but both players can both play as both X and O throughout the whole game!
Everyone starts with the same squiggle. No two drawings end up the same. What do you see?
This optical illusion looks like a 3D staircase, but it’s all drawn on a plain piece of paper.
Let’s encode and decode secret messages like Julius Caesar!
Pick a few numbers, draw some corresponding lines on grid paper, and you’ll end up with some interesting, looping math-y art!
Let’s give our students an art history lesson while teaching them how to enhance their drawings using one-point perspective.
So, what can a pencil be used for other than writing and drawing?
Nothing like a paradox to get your kids brains exploding 🤯! This one starts with five simple words: “This statement is a lie.”
Here’s how you can draw The Penrose Triangle, an example of an impossible shape.
Why does this dinosaur keep looking at me…
So, what CAN a CAN be used for other than storing liquids?
What if you only played Tic-Tac-Toe with Xs and you could play on multiple boards?
You won’t believe how fascinating it is to watch a map of the most popular baby names by US state.
What if you had really weak chess pieces, but you could always move twice?
What if we rewrote a piece of writing without using certain letters?
Writing prompts, non-fiction analysis, and science topics related to Christmas and Hanukkah.
The barber shaves everybody who doesn’t themselves. So… does the barber shave himself?
So, what can a chair be used for other than, you know, sitting in?
What if we played chess on a board that’s only 4×5?
A mosaic technique that makes watercolor approachable. Students walk away with something they’re proud of.
Turn your students into a bunch of Monets with q-tips and some tempera paint.
Create a piece of repeating art in the style of MC Escher!
Shaolin kung fu students as seen from a satellite.
