First graders utilize observational skills to articulate similarities and differences in the plants they observe. They make comparisions of size, color, and height. Lima beans are planted at successively farther distances from a water...

Students listen as the teacher reads A Country Far Away. They predict what they will do and what they think their partner student will be doing. Students create a KWL chart for Japan. They collect information about their activities on an...

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...

Pair your reading of Farmer McPeepers and His Missing Milk Cows with the questions and activities provided here. Learners answer questions about the text, create story maps, put together brochures, relate math to the story, practice...

Students identify missing characters from a text, particularly a school text. They increase critical thinking by supplying missing perspectives in a text an build empathy through surveying different points of view. They reflect on the...

Before kids become readers, they can build foundational pre-reading skills using visual worksheets like this one. Learners examine six words with corresponding pictures, circling the words and guessing what they say. They use the images...

Have you ever wondered where the money comes from to pay for your school, teachers, supplies, and building? The 1989 Supreme Court case Edgewood ISD v. Kirby lays a framework for open discussion on the funding of public schools. Using a...

With a discussion and a brief film, introduce populations. Using paper fish models, your class participates in a simulation in which they survey numbers of fish. As a class, they tally up the different types. The challenge with this...

You can learn a lot from a robe, especially if that robe is from the Qing Dynasty. Examine the beauty and symbolism that covers a functional and piece of clothing entitled Winter Dragon Robe. The class will consider and analyze all...

Support a class reading of the novel Song of the Trees by Mildred D. Taylor with this series of discussion questions. Covering a variety of topics from character and setting to historical accuracy and symbolism, these questions...

Step into the great outdoors and develop young scientists' skills of observation with a nature journaling lesson. Given a specific focus or goal, children practice making and recording observations of nature through written descriptions...

Here is an imaginative take on a classic lesson! Young scholars discover what color Valentine Candy is found more often than any other in a standard bag of Valentine Conversation Hearts. They observe, predict, sort, and classify the data...

An interesting quiz awaits your English Language Learners. In it, they answer ten questions pertaining to why they are learning English, and how they think they can best learn the language. Some thought-provoking discussion should ensue...

Do your language arts students love to draw? Use this lesson to reinforce poetic techniques with illustration. After drawing what they think poem would look like with no words, middle and high schoolers work on several different...

In a single, soundly-designed class period, high schoolers define good character, think-pair-share about thought-provoking quotes on character (More options would enhance the discussion, worth searching online for other quotes to add.),...

Third graders describe some of the factors that brought early settlers to Ann Arbor. They read Narrative-A Trip from Utica, New York, to Ingham County, Michigan in 1838. As an added challenge, 3rd graders can use maps to track Silas...

If you could pick the color of your car, what would you choose? The lesson asks scholars to tally car colors and analyze the data they collect. They create a bar graph and calculate the measures of central tendancies. As a conclusion,...

Introduce young writers to the process of writing a book. Start by reading a book of your choice and discussing the essential elements of any book such as the cover, story, and illustrations as well as who is responsible for each...

What are some things you think are special enough to keep? Discussing special things launches young learners into reading Keepers. They investigate related vocabulary and practice before, during, and after reading comprehension...

Are you preparing for state testing or hoping to develop literacy skills in your classroom? Give your class this short reading assignment and the questions that follow. The reading passage is about a page in length, and there are 15...

Start by defining the word sitcom with the goal of launching a discussion. What exactly is a sitcom? How is a sitcom different from sketch comedy, drama, and reality television? Class members give examples, remember storylines...

How do you represent a tragic event? Are stories of tragic events better left untold? After reading chapter two of Maus and studying other representations of the Holocaust (suggestions are included), class members create a representation...