A plethora of information about the blue crabs of Chesapeake Bay will amaze and delight your marine biologists. They learn, through direct instruction, about the characteristics and life cycle of this fascinating arthropod. A highlight...

Young learners explore gender roles in advertising by taking an ad campaign they have seen which is specifically directed to one gender, and redesigning the campaign to target the opposite gender. After leading a guided discussion about...

An introductory lesson shows learners how pervasive and influential advertising is in our culture; particularly, how teenagers are actively targeted by advertisers. As teenagers, your students already have all the information they need...

Teach your class to talk back in a constructive and respectful way. This focuses in particular on talking back to the media and to advertisers when they have concerns. Learners participate in a brainstorm and then compose letters or...

Zip through 13 physics problems with force! Equations are printed in large text in the upper-right corner of the page. Pupils change friction forces, deal directly with Newton's second and third laws of motion, and name fundamental...

What is a ‘Zine? Although the referenced PBS video that launches this study of self-published magazines is not available, the activities detailed and the step-by-step directions for creating ‘Zines would engage young writers. This...

Model for your class how to become a better reader through questioning. After conducting a picture walk that introduces prediction strategies, learners play an interactive questioning cube game. Complete directions for the game and...

Introduce young readers to the comprehension strategy of visualizing by asking them to think about a place that makes them happy. After illustrating or using words to describe this place, the class moves on to an interactive game using...

Get your morning mathematicians thinking with this set of warm-ups. You can do them all in one day, or separate them and have kids do one each day. They will review past concepts and sharpen newer ones with this assortment of problems...

Let's learn about squares. Youngsters complete this coloring worksheet with multiple objectives including printing practice, spelling, shapes, and colors. First, they trace the word green. Pupils color all the squares in a string of...

These animals need to find their homes! Young scholars help them by drawing lines from each animal on the left to its habitat on the right. There is no guessing to be done here, though; pairs are directly across from one another. They...

Uncover the hidden pictures. There are two sets of shapes here, and each has a CVC word inside. Beginning readers follow directions by coloring all the shapes with words that rhyme with a given sound (in for the first and ug for the...

There are hidden pictures here, but scholars must find the rhyming words to uncover them. They follow directions by coloring in only the shapes that rhyme with a given sound. Although the pictures aren't that well hidden, this puts a fun...

Quick! Can your mathematicians recall multiples of six in these timed exercises? There are 26 equations here, split into five distinct sections. Learners fill in products and factors, dealing with number sentences in both numeral and...

Step-by-step instructions for constructing a miniature traffic light make up this Picasa presentation. Directions are accompanied by high-quality photographs. This would make a worthy group project in an upper elementary or middle school...

Narrative essay writing is the focus of a series of exercises that model for learners how to not only read a narrative, but how to also examine the techniques fiction writers use to create a setting, develop their characters, represent...

Compelling discussions are the result of open-ended, challenging questions. An introduction to Paideia discussions includes explicit directions about how to prepare readers and how to model the kinds of questions they should develop...

Candide is a dense text. To assist in analyzing Voltaire's satire, groups employ a cubing strategy based on Bloom's taxonomy. Complete directions for the strategy, a template for the cube, a worksheet, and a topic list are included. 

Class members create literary mandalas for two characters from Maus, Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel about his father’s experiences with the Holocaust. After finding quotes that reveal three good traits and three bad traits of each...

Vladek's attitudes are difficult for many young learners to understand. Prepare your class for the events represented in Art Speigelman's graphic novel with a pre-reading activity that has them read articles about and interviews with...

Do your class members’ questions lack depth? “Sigh no more . . .sigh no more.” Use a questioning strategy based on Bloom’s taxonomy to encourage readers to create questions that probe the themes of any text. The model discussion...

Following detailed directions, teams collect the voltage and current outputs of a photovoltaic cell by adjusting the resistance. Using the collected data, they determine the highest power output. Implications for weather and a large...

Who exactly was George C. Wallace? A great lesson plan provides young historians with a hands-on activity, direct instruction, and discussion to learn about Wallace, why he was an important figure, and why he changed his mind about...

Inntroduce primary learners to essential critical reading strategies with an activity based on James Reeves' poem, "The Wind."  Learners listen as the poem is read, first as a riddle, and then re-read with the title visible. The...