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...

Help your middle-schoolers expand their writing skills with this activity on episodic writing, which focuses on story details, idea development, and organization. After reading "The Eighth Picture: End of Summer" from Patricia Reilly...

Here is an app version of a powerful tool that allows you and your students to have one place where you can capture, organize, and share items in multiple media formats.  The different uses for this app are as varied as your ideas...

Students read given information and identify the main ideas and specific detail of the story. In groups, they read a historical title and create a "book talk" for each one, summarizing the story. In addition, students create a...

Who is the Donner Party? Find out why this group of pioneers lives in infamy. A lot of information is provided in this resource, but you will have to copy and paste the text to acquire the handouts. Learners will look at primary sources,...

Learners read Arthur's Pet Business and  complete a pre-writing worksheet for expository writing.  In this paragraph writing lesson, students gather and organize material for a paragraph about pets.

Mr. Bergman has been murdered and we need you to solve the crime! The cross-curricular unit covers 11 different types of forensic science and includes 17 activities. Scholars perform blood type analysis, blood spatter analysis,...

Pupils work in cooperative groups to explore communication needs of our world. They are assigned a demographic area and asked to create ways to solve communication problems with innovative ideas. They also explore areas that can help...

Have your middle schoolers participate in numerous activities designed to spark their awareness of literature. They express ideas and concerns clearly and respectfully in conversations and group discussions. Next, they view a music...

Your learners practice writing ideas on paper and logically presenting them in an organized manner. They brainstorm ways to write down ideas while creating a travelogue about a particular U.S. geographic region. When they present...

Mirroring Jerry Spinelli's style in Wringer, chapter 5, pupils use the "counting up/down technique" to recall an important moment in their lives. In the book, the character is being punched, and between blows he remembers details...

Learners restate facts and details in text to inform and organize ideas and have a choice of four activities to enhance learning,

Elementary and middle schoolers research animal facts and use them in a fable. First, they pair-share to find animal traits to use in writing a fable. They then complete a prewriting worksheet. After going through the writing process,...

Have your class create keepsake books about themselves. This activity is a presented as a basic idea with minimal justifications or classroom applications. However, with a little effort, this could become a full lesson. Add a rubric,...

Fourth graders label maps of Arizona and Mexico to show the people, goods, and ideas that have moved between the two places. In this Arizona and Mexico lesson plan, 4th graders summarize the effects of the movement on Arizona life.

Seventh graders access an organizer from an earlier instructional activity and transition sentences to begin a new essay.  In this organization and composing instructional activity, 7th graders work in small groups to create a draft...

Does your class love reading cartoons? Use their talents and interests to examine the process of writing a story they wish to tell through a cartoon. They develop the beginning, middle, and end of a story based on their original...

Fourth graders read a poem or short paragraph and have students picture it in their minds. They relate the topic to something in their experience and illustrate, 4th graders generate questions with a graphic organizer, use Prewriting2...

To recycle or not to recycle, that is the question. Your class can find the answer by taking a teacher created WebQuest, where they assume a role of a community member taking a stand on implementing a community wide recycling plan. The...

Pupils write on a variety of topics, maximize creative and expository writing skills, develop focused writing, organize ideas, incorporate detail in writing, and exhibit varied and precise word choice.

Students explore the main idea and stories behind paintings. In this art lesson plan, students discuss how paintings tell stories and take tests based on details of paintings. The tests are embedded in the plan. Links that students...

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...

One much-needed skill for young learners is direction giving. Have your class plan and draw a safe route for them to travel from home to school. They will also draw places and items that are in between home and school in order to build a...

The brother-sister pair Carlos and Clarita need your class's help in developing their new pet sitting business. Through a variety of scenarios and concerns presented to the siblings, the learners thoroughly explore systems of equations...