Demonstrate gift giving as an act of caring about someone versus gifts for show (or gifts from the purse). Elementary learners practice giving gifts from the heart by creating a poem for someone special to them.

After reading "The Bullet," a particularly intense chapter in Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida, class members listen to the Spanish and the English versions of "Dimelo" by Enrique Iglesias. They then discuss how the...

Bring Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Mad Libs, and cloze activities to your college class with this lesson. They complete a cloze instruction activity in which the students choose words that would fill in the blanks and create their own...

To further their understanding of the basis of the conflicts between the Pocumtucks and the English settlers, class members research the religious beliefs and attitudes of the Puritan farmers that settled in Deerfield, Ma.

What does a philanthropist do? Help your class explore philanthropy using character development and literacy ideas. Learners will define and give examples of philanthropy, listen to The Lion and the Mouse, discuss how the characters help...

Introduce the basics of Thanksgiving with a language arts instructional activity. As pupils practice observation skills, vocabulary, and reading comprehension, they design paper turkeys by outlining their hands and feet and by...

Partners use a Brochure Planning Guide to create brochures giving advice to consumers about products based on the research they finished about working conditions. After planning the brochure, they complete a sketch outline and then...

Invite that hungry caterpillar to teach your class about nutrition! After brief instruction on fruit, the teacher reads The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle to the class. Kids hold up the fruit images at appropriate points in the...

Students investigate how philanthropy began in Michigan. For this philanthropy lesson, students read Michigan History of Philanthropy and read a timeline of several events. Students create a picture with a sentence about a time when they...

Help your class define philanthropy and recognize philanthropic activities. Ask them to identify examples of philanthropy in literature and explore the philanthropic deeds of themselves and others. To wrap up, create a class display with...

Students examine the philanthropic traditions of early Native American communities. They use graphic organizers to record information and share their ideas with classmates. They create three-panel comic strips depicting philanthropic...

Tired of giving the same old multiple-choice tests, and have the urge for a new assessment? Then bring the precision of a Socratic seminar into your classroom. Even if you did not read Cold Sassy Tree the organization and explanation on...

If you're looking to set your class up for writing effective arguments, try out this idea. While originally created with freedom as a guiding idea, the activity could easily be adapted for other themes. As a class, create a chart of...

Community service is a win-win! Scholars discover how to gain valuable career skills through helping others using a lesson about volunteer work. Second in a six-part career and college readiness series, the activities focus on...

Plagiarism, copyright, and fair use are the focus of a three-part instructional activity designed to inform scholars of how to properly cite others' work. First, pupils use a KWL chart to begin thinking and...

Students define the Jewish concept of tzedakah. In this religious lesson plan, students read portions of the Torah and discuss the meaning of tzedakah. Students visit a Jewish Community Center.

Students examine human sacrifice and read about Aztec gods and religious practices. They study Aztec sacrifice while looking at opportunity costs of doing things for the common good.

Students watch a video after which they define philanthropy and site examples of it in daily life. They use this definition as they work through the rest of the unit.

Learners determine the meaning of philanthropy and find examples of it in Mary Francis Shura's, Gentle Annie: The True Story of a Civil War Nurse. They discuss act of philanthropy that they have personally witnessed.

Scholars gain interest in the case of Brown v. Board of Education by watching a video clip and completing a quick write. They then independently read excerpts from Brown v. Board of Education and work through a Steps for Getting the Gist...

Experience anthropomorphism and metamorphosis in action with flipbooks! Instead of giving human characteristics to animals, though, pupils will show a transformation from human to animal or vise versa through their drawings. The...

Practice using feelings as a way to reflect on past experiences. The poem The End and the text Tell Me a Story Mama are used to identify feeling words. As an extension, pupils participate in a service learning project and...

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

Accompany a reading of The Lorax by Dr. Seuss and Tell Me, Tree by Gail Gibbons with an activity packet designed to bring awareness to nature, specifically trees. Scholars take to the outside, draw lines to create trees reminiscent of...