Guide your readers to explore character traits. As a class, discuss and record the traits of a commonly-known fairy tale character. Then do the same with the main character in the class novel. Finally, have learners use magazines...

Class members create a PowerPoint presentation showing artifacts they would include in a time capsule. The artifacts and explanations reflect personal hobbies, grooming choices, school life, etc. A great way for class members to...

Clever! Use a clip from the 1997 film, Volcano, to get your chemistry class knee-deep in heat concepts related to lava. In the movie scene, lava flow is stopped in the nick of time. Your class must use calculations to determine if this...

The wonderful world of Oobleck is entered in order to awaken your learner's sense of touch! As a warm up, learners put their hands in mystery bags in order to identify things that are wet, dry, hot, cold, hard, soft, rough, and smooth....

Young scientists explore the world of entomology. They focus on the life cycle of butterflies and moths. They utilize the entire school year in order to see how butterfly eggs turn into the chrysallis, then into a butterfly, who then...

A project-based learning plan focuses on landscapes in the community. After identifying problems, such as dead trees or misplaced automatic sprinklers, learners design solutions, contact local organizations to fix the problems, and do...

Tenth graders explore mathematics by participating in hands-on daily activities. Learners identify a list of different shapes and classify them by shape, size, sides and vertices. They utilize tangrams and geometric pieces to gain...

Illustrate the importance of specific details and clear directions. Sitting back-to-back, partners take turns building a Lego structure and giving directions to their partners to create an identical structure. The subsequent discussion...

After walking in a nearby neighborhood, have your class create this amazing city street pop-up. They study the facades of the buildings they see, focusing on geometric line, shape, and architecture. They then draw, cut, and create a city...

Introduce the topic of water conservation with a little drama. Dressed as snowflakes, hail stones, or rain drops class members dramatize the events in a narration of the water cycle. The series of lessons that follow focus on...

Pair learners to define synonyms. They search flash cards to find a synonym partner. Then they chart pairs of synonyms on a synonym tree.

Middle Schoolers produce a class newspaper about the American cowboy and the times in which he lived with illustrations, feature stories and advertisements typical of the times. This is an ambitious, yet worthwhile project for youngsters...

Here is a very good instructional activity on magnets, magnetism, and magnitic fields that is chock full of great activities for you to implement with your young scientists. Learners discover the properties of magnets, look at the forces...

Use this communication skills lesson to emphasize evaluating a speaker's main point and argument. After reading Martin Luther King's, "I Have a Dream Speech" and John F. Kennedy's speech, "I Believe in an America Where the Separation of...

Whether it is a protagonist, antagonist, hero or heroine, characters are a must in any story. Learners analyze a character from a narrative they are reading, then use that character as inspiration. They create a ceramic bust depicting...

Learners elucidate themselves by writing up to six entries in different formats. Some formatting choices include a dictionary, encyclopedia, or atlas entry, a magazine article, a newspaper article, and a table of contents. Some...

Animals oftentimes elicit various characteristics which make them symbolic or representative of human feeling, action, or emotion. The class creates horse characters out of clay to show character action and symbolism. This is a great...

Geometric shapes are used in math and in art. Learners discuss the various names, dimensions, and attributes of geometric shapes, then apply that knowledge to design a vase. They use 3-D shapes to make a cubist-style vase out of clay.

A simple, yet effective classroom activity is described in this resource on leaves and how they grow. The activity should lead pupils to discover how plants make their own food and what they need to survive. In the activity, they create...

Young scholars investigate similarities and differences between popular films made in Asia and those made in the West.

Fifth graders build increasingly larger squares and triangles using pattern blocks. They record the growth patterns on a chart and look for corresponding numerical patterns. Students describe the patterns they find and use them to...

Sixth graders design rectangular gardens with a given perimeter and generalize how to maximize the area Students applying the formulas for perimeter and area of polygons. They analyze length, area, and volume and make relationships...

Students study the water cycle and create a booklet entitled: "Discover the Wonder of Water" They observe and record data regarding evaporation, condensation, and precipitation and how water moves from a solid to a liquid to a gas. They...

Students, in cooperative groups, design and create a wildflower garden for the community. They write letters to property owners requesting use of their land and then write invitations to their parents and to local, state, and federal...