Middle schoolers make connections between music, the other arts, and other curricular areas. They compare characteristics of two or more arts within a particular historical period or style and cite examples from various cultures.

Is it a calendar? A religious symbol? A political statement? One thing for certain is that Aztec sun stone designs remain an important symbol in Mexican cultural art. Young artists craft their own Aztec Sun design incorporating ideas...

Explore the possibilities of buildings, public spaces, and architectural design. Learners examine the work of SANAA architects Sejima & Nishizawa through background information, images, and guided class discussion. This lesson...

Women's voices are becoming more prominent in the world of literature, but for centuries, this wasn't the case. Young historians research a woman whose writings are considered to be lost, out of print, or forgotten. They develop an oral...

"Ode to la Tortilla" and "Ode to Joy"? Sure! Use Gary Soto's poem to introduce learners to the ode format. After examining the descriptive words Soto uses, class members study a poster of Ludwig van Beethoven, suggest words that describe...

Get your little readers moving with a fun instructional activity about Eric Carle's Little Cloud. After reading the book together, they engage in a series of locomotor and manipulative activities to illustrate how different elements...

What's the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing? Show class members how to find the main ideas from informational text and condense it, restate it, or quote it directly with a series of educational activities based...

Historical fiction can be a valuable asset when learning about the past. Integrate several novels written about the Civil War into your social studies unit, with groups of four working collaboratively to comprehend the novel from...

Bingo! Combine the thrill of bingo with Lois Lowry's The Giver in a fun vocabulary lesson. Kids write selected vocabulary words from the novel onto a bingo chart, and then listen for the correct definitions in order to mark off...

After viewing The Last Roundup, a documentary that examines the transitioning of Santa Rosa from a privately owned island to a National Park, class members adopt the point of view of Tim Vail, a member of the family that once owned the...

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" serves as an exemplar for a mini-lesson plan on semicolons. Working alone or in small groups, class members first circle all the semicolons in the letter, and then consider how...

An engaging and ambitious series of four lessons invites high schoolers to view art work, have group and class discussions, construct time lines, compile photos, and conduct research. Learners share their experiences, create...

Upper graders use the potter's wheel to make Japanese style tea cups, which they will use in a Japanese style tea ceremony. They hone their sculpting techniques while exploring Japanese cultural and the history of tea. There are two...

Plan ahead! Integrate science and language arts! Schedule your reading of C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe to coincide with the arrival of spring. As pupils read Chapter 11 of the Lewis classic, they are assigned one of...

Alliterative adjective nicknames generate stories inspired by Rosemary Wells' book Noisy Nora (also a thematic complement to any class with children who make a ruckus to get attention). Class members explore basic story elements --...

Students complete an online study of art websites. In this art and technology lesson, students explore the links and try the activities to learn about art online.

Young scholars apply descriptive language to identify the five elements of art and the basic lines, geometric shapes, and angles in Marie Hull's, Sharecropper. They explain how the elements of a piece of work contribute to the story it...

Students investigate primary and secondary colors. In this art lesson, students mix primary paint colors to develop secondary colors. Students identify each color they created.

Eighth graders read the Diary of Anne Frank. In this novel reading lesson, 8th graders read and analyze the story. Students do online activities and create a newspaper giving a summary of three major events in the story. Students answer...

Incorporate writing into your physical education class. In groups, learners unscramble a list of words related to exercise and use them in their journal writings. Using their name, they write one word related to physical activity that...

First graders take a look at schools of the past and present, and try to conjure an idea of what schools of the future will look like. After taking a walk around their own school and taking note of the buildings and the things that are...

Students make a mural after reading about the art of Diego Rivera. In this mural lesson plan, students read a book about Diego Rivera, discuss him and his artwork, and make their own class mural.

How are music and emotion related? Using lesson plan two of four from the Changing One's Tune: A Music Therapy STEM Integrated Project Series, scholars explore the connection between the two topics. They learn to recognize different...

A four-lesson series on Canadian culture. Learners explore a variety of Canadian communities and study art forms which depict life in those communities. Pupils create works of art depicting their community and present them to the class....