What do figures of speech have to do with financial literacy? Take an interdisciplinary look at The Berenstain Bears' Trouble with Money to find out. Young analysts read about the cubs' spendthrift ways and how Mama and Papa Bear...

Financial literacy is such an important, and often-overlooked, skill to teach our young people. Here is a terrific lesson which has pupils explore how to come up with a personal budget. They consider income, saving, taxes, and their...

Develop media smarts by considering the power of celebrity involvement in world issues. A look at the work of such celebrities as Angelina Jolie, Oprah, and Bono prepare learners to develop their own media campaign for a global...

Students read information on the importance of literacy and complete a worksheet. For this community service lesson, students evaluate children's literature and practice reading fluency. Students spend two hours per week reading to...

Free speech, privacy, and cyberbullying are the focus of a series of activities that prompt class members to engage in discussions about these interrelated topics. They view a segment from PBS’s series on bullying, read...

The options are vast with this Ancient Greece and Olympics research project! Using Scholastic online resources, historians have interactive and educational supports to guide them through researching and writing about the 2004 Olympics in...

After analyzing and evaluating news summaries found in the New York Times "Week in Review" section, middle schoolers study the steps for summarizing a news article briefly and accurately. They write two news summaries: one on a newspaper...

Explore the influence social activism can have on important issues, and create a class full of young citizen activists. This plan calls for learners to participate in a whole class discussion and brainstorm about ways to effectively...

Dealing with the very topical subject of cyberbullying, this lesson plan will surely create some engaged discussion in your classroom. Young learners discuss the laws concerning cyberbullying in Canada, and then respond to a series of...

Hot off the presses! A perfect instructional activity idea for a journalism class or even a language arts class looking to incorporate some informational texts. Young writers analyze the front pages of various newspapers to determine the...

Challenge young learners to cut the clutter with this fun engineering project. As employees of a home and office supply company, young engineers are asked to develop devices that organize everyday items. After participating in a...

Interviewing skills are important, even outside of a news reporter's desk or employer's office. Take your class through the process of interviewing people they don't know with a set of case studies featuring journalists and various...

Most teenagers want to buy a car, but do they know how much it really costs? Calculate the cost of purchasing a car, securing auto insurance, and maintaining the new investment with a thorough and engaging personal finance...

Learn the difference between saving money and investing money, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each. Kids review banking and personal finance terms before studying the different ways that people can reach their financial...

Learners explore the 5 themes of geography. In this cross curriculum literacy and geography lesson, students listen to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett, and make a list of the needs of the people in Chewandswallow....

Middle schoolers study the three types of mass media messages: visual media, written media, and audio media. After a class discussion which has them list examples of each, learners get into pairs and work on analyzing the "Four A's" in...

The New York Times article “Online Diary,” launches this study of websites and how to assess them. Richly detailed, the lesson includes warm-up activities, procedures, journal prompts, discussion questions, and links to valuable...

Is, as Walt Whitman contends, America’s “almost maniacal appetite for wealth,” the heart of the American dream? Class members grapple with this question as they read David Brooks’ article “The Commercial Republic,” and quotes that...

Write with the senses! Try using art to inspire writers to consider all of the senses. Here, the class is divided in half. Each group looks at one of two images, imagines the senses that would be engaged, and records answers to five...

High schoolers deconstruct advertising messages by analyzing parody ads and exploring the purpose of satire. Then they create their own parodies based on real ads discussed in class. A creative activity to extend any study of media,...

What are the best foods to eat, and how much is too much? Kids discuss the importance of eating the right amount of each of the four food groups. They discuss the food pyramid and make meals by cutting and pasting foods from a magazine...

After reading about radio transmission, application, and the difference between AM and FM, small teams of engineers use a kit to construct an FM radio and then send and receive broadcasts. This is an ideal activity for middle school STEM...

Combine your pupils' love of music with their growing knowledge of poetry! First, have them bring in their favorite songs for a discussion on word choice and literary devices. Then, use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the...

Middle and high schoolers are walking into a world rife with strong political viewpoints and vocal opinions. Help to prepare them for controversial discussions with a instructional activity in which they choose, research, and learn more...