Nails can get really dirty really fast. Prepare your special education class for life on their own by introducing them to a regular nail care routine. They discuss why it is important to care for your nails and practice washing,...

Getting kids thinking about climate change now, will hopefully push them into action when they become adults. Young environmentalists discuss the evidence and causes of climate change seen in the state of California. They brainstorm ways...

What is a parfleche? It is a box used by the Plains Indians to carry goods as they traveled. First, the class will discuss the uses of these highly ornate boxes and the nature of the Plains Indians' nomadic lifestyle. Then, the class...

Understanding the concept of equality is fundamental to the success of young mathematicians. To explore this basic idea, children compare the dots arranged in pairs of rectangles in order to determine whether or not they contain an equal...

Young scientists learn what it takes for life on Earth to survive with this series of photosynthesis resources. Offering twelve different activities ranging from independent practice worksheets to in depth scientific...

What occurs following a natural disaster? High schoolers research this question and others as they investigate natural succession after a disaster. First, as they differentiate between primary and secondary succession, they explain...

Groups research participatory democracies and compare the role and rights of citizens in ancient history with those in recent U.S. history. Guided by a series of questions, individuals compose a persuasive essay in which they discuss the...

Young scientists present their experimental designs from the previous experiment. The ninth lesson in the series outlines what learners should present, what class discussions should happen, and the solution NASA came up with for the same...

Seventh graders give examples of local sources of pollution and postulate reasons as to why local sources of pollution can harm the ecosystem. They address the following question in short answer form: "Why is litter/chemical pollution...

Before your students reached your morning class to learn about persuasive writing, they probably saw dozens of examples of persuasive communication in the form of advertisements. A short, introductory instructional activity inspires...

Celebrities and economics? Business or economics classes discuss how different celebrities' stocks have been affected by supply and demand. They track the news to identify factors that impact value, discuss and justify their choice of...

Use a kinesthetic activity to elucidate ordered pairs and coordinate planes. Arrange desks in a square array and distribute to learners cards with ordered pairs based on the locations of their seats. By having various groups of...

Students advocate for people with disabilities. In this Helen Keller lesson, students listen to the story A Picture Book of Helen Keller by David A Adler. Students discuss how Helen Keller learned to communicate and became an advocate...

Focus on similarities and differences with a jigsaw activity that requires pupils to compare Waiting for the Biblioburro to other texts they have read. To prepare, class members first respond to text-dependent questions, moving on to...

Children explore what life might be like for refugees and people migrating to a different country. Each student lists the five most precious items he/she owns and is then given an extreme scenario to consider. By the end of the exercise,...

Your young learners will delve into the language of primary source documents in order to identify the characteristics, benefits, and costs of nonviolence. The lesson includes a mix of activities, including an anticipatory activity,...

Here is a well-designed science lesson that shows learners that everything that organisms do in ecosystems, including running, breathing, burrowing, growing, requires energy. After a thorough discussion of their own eating and drinking...

Take out a map, a paper, a ruler, and those coveted colored pencils for a lesson on Chinese culture and geography. This is a multifaceted approach to basic geography skills that incorporate story telling, class discussion, primary source...

Marbles to learn math? What fun! Discuss the rules of multiplication and division when applied to whole numbers, decimals, and fractions. Small groups use6 marbles to design different types of multiplication and division problems, and...

Students sort teddy bears according to types and then graph the results. They each bring a bear to class and then discuss their similarities and differences. Once the bears have been sorted into groups according to size and color,...

A reading of Brenda Z. Guiberson’s, Cactus Hotel, launches a study of animal habitats. Working with parent volunteers or teacher aides, groups travel outside the classroom to select a habitat, take digital pictures, and incorporate the...

Tenth graders complete a variety of activities related to the first two chapters of the book The Outsiders. They define metaphor, simile, idiom, and hyperbole, and take a vocabulary pre-quiz. In small groups, they write a character...

Read and analyze a variety of Shakespearean and contemporary puns using Visual Thesaurus computer software. Middle and high schoolers analyze a pun as a class; in small groups they analyze a Shakespearean pun using contextual clues and...

Explore scientific notation in this mathematics lesson. Young mathematicians explore multiple representations of large number in scientific notation through the use of models, visual representation and expanded form. The lesson provided...