In order to assess their mastery of the concepts taught in a 12-lesson plan unit study of Christopher Paul Curtis' Bud, Not Buddy, individuals read excerpts from President Barack Obama's 2009 Back-to-School Speech and use the strategies...

Involve class members in establishing classroom rules by providing them with a worksheet that asks them to develop four rules, describe how they will teach these rules to their classmates, how they will reinforce the rules, and detail...

Foster community in your classroom and encourage learners to get up and get to know each other. Individuals each receive the classmate inventory handout included and use it to fill in information about their fellow scholars. Once they...

A lesson challenges scholars to get organized. A thoughtful discussion sheds light on time management and the benefits of staying organized. Learners then reflect on their current time management skills, organize notebooks or...

The final lesson in the First Days of School series focuses on how to build a classroom community where all class members can feel safe, heard, and valued. The resource includes step-by-step directions for engaging pupils in developing...

Many of us have multiple identities. There's who we are at home, school, friends, and strangers. And often these identities come with different names. The third activity in the First Days of School series examines how names reflect...

Change is inevitable. Kindergarteners discuss coping skills to properly manage changes that can occur outside the family.  Scholars reflect on their life changes after starting kindergarten. They discuss their feelings and draw a...

Add some variety to your traditional getting-to-know-you activity with a game of bingo! Learners meet and greet with their classmates, filling in squares on a bingo card with students who fit the appropriate description...

Use song and dance to help your youngsters identify their feelings and embrace learning. Starting with a brainstorming activity, class members talk about learning new things and how this made them feel. After listing to the song, and...

Find out how many of your learners take the bus, how many walk, and how many bike with a quick survey. Class members gather data about how each individual gets to school and mark the results on this page in order to create a bar graph.

Assess your new learners' writing abilities and knowledge of literary terms with these diagnostic activities. Part of a back-to-school unit, this is meant to provide the teacher with information about the ability levels of their class....

Perhaps it's time to consider further education or training. In today's job market, the competition is fierce. Applicants are more qualified and better educated than their counterparts of only a few years ago. Many times, the only way to...