In this engaging activity involving close analysis of abstract expressionist art, your class members will not only discover more about artist Friz Scholder's Native American art, but they will also have the opportunity to consider...

What is considered a valuable gift? As the class will come to find out, what is considered a gift varies by time and location. After viewing images of a Mayan pot that depicts men giving cacao to the gods, learners research three...

Independent living skills and skills that can be used to gain employment are very important for any learner. Teens with visual impairments explore the kitchen to understand what everything is and what it all does. The lesson includes a...

Many organizations put on barbecues in order to make money. In a real-world math problem, the money allotted to purchase steak and chicken at this barbecue is only one hundred dollars. It is up to your potential chefs to figure out how...

This instructional activity is hilarious! To understand how to investigate a topic, collect data, and evaluate the results, learners research the effects of laughter on health. Each group is assigned a research task, which they will turn...

Nothing says classroom fun like an invertebrate and a magnifying glass! Snails, earthworms, and roly-poly bugs become the center of attention as pint-sized investigators hone their inquiry and observation skills. They are...

Prior to class, individuals visit the Department of Energy website to examine the process of refining oil. After discussing what they learned, they find the Gulf of Mexico on a richly illustrated map that specifically indicates...

Point out the Gulf of Mexico and tell your class about the 2010 oil spill. Give each emerging ecologist a large bird feather. Have them make observations about it and then predict what would happen if it were to be placed in oil. Have...

Elementary ecologists examine trophic relationships using a coral reef food pyramid as an example. They play a game applying math skills that ultimately demonstrate the important role of the ever-scary top predator, the shark. This is a...

National Geographic's MapMaker Interactive is a wonderful tool to use when introducing your hydrologists to the water cycle. Show your class Earth's oceans and the movement of water from place to place. Then, using a large colorful...

Just like a painting or the symbols on a flag, quilts can express ideas that reflect a cultural context, space, and time. The class discusses the history of quilt making throughout US history and what different types of quilts mean. They...

High School geometers verify through experimentation certain properties about dilations. This multi-step problem challenges them to construct examples of dilations to verify specific facts, the final step provides an opportunity to more...

Expose your class to Waiting for the Biblioburro, narrative nonfiction that will act as the bridge between ficiton and informational texts to come. Class members do a close reading of the text, looking at excerpts instead of the whole...

Ease into informational text with the instructional activity suggested here. Part of a unit series, the instructional activity draws from previous lessons and acts as a natural moment to add in informational text. Class members read one...

Trying to get your class to think of decimals as fractions and vice versa can lead to interesting discussions. After all, we can usually understand quickly that 1/4 is .25 but why is 1/7 not so easy to convert? This activity looks...

Show your class how to read a map and decipher all of the markings and features. Start out by connecting maps to their homework from the night before and their current reading, in this case That Book Woman, and a related informational...

When you divide two integers you can get a decimal form of a rational number that repeats. How do you interpret that number in real-world situations? Her is an example question: What does 2.6666666666 mean in terms of an amount of...

Fourth and fifth graders define the term media literacy, then come up with examples that they share with the class. The types of media studied are auditory, visual, and written. Learners get together in pairs and perform a media...

What makes a poem difficult? Explore that topic and more with your class as you work through the lesson detailed here. Using materials from Poetry Out Loud, a national recitation contest, individuals or small groups examine poems and...

“What’s in a name?” Just about everything. Barack Obama, Vincent van Gogh, Justin Bieber. Famous names evoke a multitude of reactions and poets often use the names of famous people in their works precisely because names carry...

High schoolers get together in groups to read and learn about the life of film actress Anne Bancroft. After a teacher-led presentation on her life, each of the groups must complete tasks described by the worksheets embedded in the plan....

If your class doesn't know what a haiku is, show them two examples from the Japanese poet Issa (both included here), and have them make some observations. How long are they? What is the structure? A video and a list of questions help...

A unique lesson on the solar system, and some of the mathematics associated with it, is here for your high schoolers. Pupils are put into groups of four, and each group is assigned one of the planets from our solar system. They must...

Light is such an amazing thing! Elementary schoolers explore the wonderful world of light and shadow. The lesson is meant to be carried out on a whiteboard. Objects are placed in front of a light source, and learners must predict what...