Pupils listen to a teacher reading of The Little Red Hen, identify the story elements and sequence them. They talk about different jobs associated with providing food and act out a play based on the story. Be aware that although several...

Fourth graders practice spelling words that have prefixes un-, re-, and pre-. Assign this as homework. To help meet Common Core standards, you could also have learners look up each word in the dictionary and write down definitions.

Youngsters learn about simple machines that could be used on a farm.  They learn about agricluture, listen to a farmer speak, compare and contrast different farm machines, and then design their own. Note that although the publisher...

Fe, phi, fo, fum. This activity leads pairs to find the ratio of consecutive terms of the Fibonacci sequence. The pairs find that the Fibonacci sequence can be found in many places. A discussion with the class shows that the ratios...

Wanted! Pests are on the loose! Here, class members create a wanted poster highlighting one pest. Posters includes a picture, description, and signs of pest activity. 

Keep your eyes peeled for pests! Here, scholars inspect their campus for signs of living things such as insects and rodents. Upon observation, class members record their findings and present the information to their peers.  

Give learners a chance to shine. The last installment of a 21-part series is an end-of-module assessment. Scholars show their understanding of operations with decimals and division of fractions by solving problems in the context of a...

“What is the theme of this story?” Now there’s a question all pupils dread. Rather than encountering a sea of faces that look like they were painted by Edward Munch, face a classroom filled with smiles and confidence. Show your readers...

Draw back the curtain, add a spot of joy to your class, and let learners be lessoned by a close reading exercise that models how to develop an interpretation based on evidence drawn from a text. Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue “My...

Students demonstrate some common operations done while using fractions based upon mathematical standards. They are also changing common fractions to decimals with estimation skills and the use of a calculator.

Students establish classifications of shapes by various properties (angles, sides, etc.). They introduce the important properties of common shapes. Students develop an awareness of the wide variety of ways the 2-D shapes can be alike.

Systematically diluting a full-strength sample of food coloring is meant to help earth scientists understand concentration in parts per million. While they will enjoy the lab exercise, it might be a challenge to help them relate it to...

Pupils compare the temperature change in a closed and open box as a demonstration of the greenhouse effect. 

If you're a pest, come and get a tasty meal here! Scholars work collaboratively to construct a mini restaurant out of a shoe box and create a menu that feeds a pest their favorite food. 

Do you have pests at your school? Find out through a series of interviews with school personnel. Scholars visit a variety of knowledgable individuals to ask them questions, record their answers, and present their findings to their...

Count this assessment in the "use" pile. Middle schoolers solve a set of five problems in the seventh and eighth grade number system domains. All problems are in pure mathematics with no applications.

Intended for science instruction, this word search could be used to reinforce vocabulary. Class members find the following words: electrical, potential, heat, chemical, gravitational, kinetic, mechanical, nuclear, and radiant. While the...

Bilateral suborbital hematoma? Call an audible? 404? Have fun with “the twittering or warbling of birds,” or as 14th century French speakers would say, have fun with “jargon.” Groups match specialized jargon with plain speech, decode...

Lost! (or misplaced) a modifier. Last seen dangling at the end of a sentence! Reward offered! To underscore the humor, class members are each given a sample sentence to illustrate (A woman passed by, leading a Springer Spaniel, in a...

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" serves as an exemplar for a mini-activity on semicolons. Working alone or in small groups, class members first circle all the semicolons in the letter, and then consider how...

Identify the identity. Learners first solve equations to find the number of solutions. Scholars then determine if given equations are always, sometimes, or never true, leading to the concept of identities.

Round and round we go. Learners first complete a task on writing equations of circles. They then take part in a collaborative activity categorizing a set of equations for circles based on the radius and center.

A little bit complicated, but a whole lot of fun. Show your class an episode of the British television game show Just a Minute. After an explanation of the rules (no repetition, hesitation, or deviation) groups develop topics, based on...

While examining fractions and ratios, your leaners get to read about one of their favorite subjects: candy! There are four word problems on this worksheet. Learners consider situations in which "for every x caramels there are y...