After reading Elie Wiesel's Night, watching the movie Life is Beautiful, and researching World War II, class members write a comparison essay on the book and film. This includes a prior knowledge activity, discussion in whole and small...

Greed is the theme of this collection of multidisciplinary activities. As a class, read The West African folktale, Anansi Goes to Lunch by Bobby Norfolk, and take part in a grand discussion about it's plot and theme. Reinforce the...

Why does an author write an informative article? Learners examine passages of a short reading on Spain and determine what the author wanted to inform the reader about.

First graders engage in this interesting lesson on letter writing and writing skills. In it, youngsters listen to the Jan Brett story, The Mitten, as a warm-up. They think of other animals of the world they could ask Jan Brett to...

Illustrate the importance of specific details and clear directions. Sitting back-to-back, partners take turns building a Lego structure and giving directions to their partners to create an identical structure. The subsequent discussion...

Take a journey to India with a read aloud of The Drum: A Folktale from India by Rob Cleveland. Make connections to the story's theme by building and practicing drums, role playing story characters, and practicing skills in phonics, math,...

Reinforce persuasive and argumentative writing skills with this lesson, which utilizes SchoolNet News Network's website/SNN Monthly magazine. Young writers review journalism writing styles that help them explain that writing a persuasive...

Students explore and react to the painting The Road to Santa Fe. In this interacting with art lesson, students locate various objects in the painting.  Students copy the angle of objects by using their bodies.  Students discuss...

Combine participial phrases and creative writing with this lesson, which is equally helpful for writing skills and conventions. After a mini-lesson on participial phrases and reading the picture book Dancing in the Wings, pupils use a...

Plan a Parts of a Book scavenger hunt. Begin by giving your young adventurers a book, and asking them to find the title, author, illustrator, and table of contents. After a discussion of the purpose of each of these items, class members...

What kinds of foods include corn? Corn syrup? Start by viewing a clip of Food Inc. with your middle or high schoolers. Then, study a list of corn-derived ingredients, encouraging your class to see how many food products contain corn. A...

Here is instructional activity 5 from a 7 instructional activity unit on using blogging to create a community of writers. The aim of this instructional activity is to get students writing about what Archaeologists do and how they use...

Keep the art of letter writing alive in this age of Tweet and Twitter! The 10 activities detailed in this resource lead pupils through the process of crafting classic forms. A list of and links to famous letters is also included as part...

Interrogatives—who, what, where, when, why, and how—are the focus of a grammar worksheet that reinforces writing questions and using auxiliary verbs. 

Students recognize the value of multiple perspectives and differences of opinion. They build empathy and open-mindedness for other points of view. They study the complexity of social and cultural issues such as violence in media.

Scholars discuss the many ways they use persuasion in their everyday lives and brainstorm specific ideas for encouraging someone to do something. With the list of persuasive techniques they made, young writers complete a graphic...

Stories from "The Great Lakes Mariner" provide pupils with an opportunity to practice their synopsis-writing skills. The tabloid, which focuses on the Great Lakes region, is filled with stories written by sea captains, that are filled...

Fun awaits both you and your class as you embark on a musical activity. After discussing different rhythmic meters they choose a poem to set to music. The poem must rhyme and be set to a melody in the key of C Major. Because the activity...

Challenge scholars to identify and use heteronyms in a sentence with a two-page worksheet designed to boost grammar skills. 

Explore Japanese society and national identity. Class members share ideas about the Japanese economy and then investigate a series of resources, including an article, a film, a lecture, and a poem, to learn about Japan's Bubble Economy...

Practice ten vocabulary words with a series of critical thinking activities. After reviewing each word in context and matching them to their definitions, kids complete analogies and find antonyms to complete the assignment.

Commas are helpful for separating names of cities from states, setting off interjections, and listing items in a series. Practice the many uses of commas with a set of grammar exercises designed for both elementary and middle school...

Encourage more pun-derstanding of word play in your literary scholars as they explore Brian P. Cleary's book Rhyme and Punishment: Adventures in Wordplay. Although this isn't suggested, consider beginning this study by simply showing...