Second graders investigate decision making skills that they can apply on a daily basis. In this decision making lesson, 2nd graders listen to a read aloud of Pinocchio and make a list of times when decisions have to be made. They access...

A fast and fun way to practice shooting basketball. Small cooperative groups help each other tally up the most baskets made in a certain period of time. There are a couple ideas included to increase or decrease the difficulty of the...

Dedicate one or two class periods to creating a class glossary of geometry terms. Many geometry terms also appear in our every day vocabulary, but they have very different meanings. For example, the word gross in geometry is very...

Learners will have fun creating a parachute to collect data with. They will construct the parachute in small groups, measure the materials, and create an observation sheet. Then they drop the parachute and make predictions about how long...

Fifth graders determine how freedom comes with rights and responsibilities through literature and poetry about World War II. In this World War II lesson, 5th graders use the letters in the word "infamy" to write an acrostic poem. They...

Based on the documentary film Savage Acts: Wars, Fairs, and Empire, this instructional activity explores concepts of National interests and imperialism. They view sections of the film and share which images exemplify the meaning of each...

Working in groups, the class will use what they know about whole number operations to solve a real-world problem involving a number line. They will focus on using the number line to correctly label the placement of whole numbers,...

Critical thinking and social justice are central themes for this resource on bias and crime in media. The class views and discusses an incisive PSA that highlights assumptions based on race. Small groups read newspaper opinion pieces...

Are there more apples or pears? Learners count images of familiar objects, and write the number below. Then, they color the object group with the most in number. There are four sets of objects to compare. Consider having students circle...

For beginners, present multiplication as repeated addition to give them a familiar context. They examine grouped sets of objects and add up the groups to get a total. Then, learners translate the addition sets to a basic multiplication...

What can young scientists discover from dissecting an owl pellet? Explore the owl food chain, beginning with an introduction to these predatory birds. Suggested strategies here include creating a podcast and purchasing a poster, however...

Bruce Springsteen’s “My Hometown” and Billy Joel’s “Allentown” motivate young lyricists to craft poems about their own home town. Groups compare the two songs, identifying details, symbols, and conflicts. Individuals then picture a place...

Pogrom, schlepped, meshuga. Kapo, reich, Wehrmacht. As part of a unit study of Maus I and II, readers use a list-group-label (LGL) strategy for vocabulary drawn from Art Spiegelman's famous graphic novels. The focus of the activity is...

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...

As part of the study of Japanese cultural history, introduce your class members to Chanoyu, the Way of Tea. After a discussion of the history and key elements of Chanoyu, class groups perform the ceremony.

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...

Slavery in India, Sudan, and Mauritania? What about in the United States? Groups research modern slavery in these four countries, collecting factual evidence (What), determine their feelings about this evidence (So what),...

Knowing the temperature coefficient allows for the calculation of voltage output at any temperature. Groups conduct an experiment to determine the effects of temperature on the power output of a solar panel. The teams alter the...

How does chemistry help deep-sea explorers? Part four of a five-part series of lessons from aboard the Okeanos Explorer introduces middle school scientists to technologies used in ocean exploration. Groups work together to analyze data...

Which option would most children choose: One marshmallow now, or two marshmallows in 10 minutes? Learners watch the social experiment on video and discuss their observations. They then read articles and work in small groups to analyze...

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...

Here is an interesting science lesson/activity which has learners working in groups in order to simulate experiments done at the Jefferson Science Lab. In this one, groups use a pie tin, a Hula Hoops, a marble, and a magic marker to...

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 are introduced to the lives and contributions of the first seven presidents of the United States. They, in groups, conduct further research on one of these president and his political platform and design a presentation for the...